Making a Documentary on The Famine

brosy

I'm currently doing my college dissertation as a radio documentary about An Gorta Mór, The Great Hunger.

I've got a couple of angles already planned out regarding interesting people to interview, particular personal accounts and unusual stories etc.

I'm wondering if any of you fine people with an interest in this period of Irish history would have any information on perhaps less well known stories or personalities from the period, or even characters around Cork or Ireland with a deep knowledge who might be open to an interview.

Any help or discussion is greatly appreciated.

Go raibh maith agat

El Guapo!

Potato.

B.A._Baracus

If you are making a documentary make sure to get footage of those statues by Custom House Quay in dublin.

They are freaky :eek:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/93/Famine_memorial_dublin.jpg

kneemos

Let them catch fish.

Beatles

An t-Ocras Mór

billybudd

At the time the Queen of England gave 10 times more in relief money than the catholic church.

4zn76tysfajdxp

An Gorta Mór, surely?

brosy

Paityn Handsome Whole-wheat wrote: »

An Gorta Mór, surely?

Christ I'm an eejit today.

4zn76tysfajdxp

brosy wrote: »

Christ I'm an eejit today.

Must be hungry.

mikemac1

The Sutlan of the Ottman Empire, something like that sent a ship or three with food and aid to the wee county, Drogheda to be exact

And so Drogheda has a town crest with a star and a crescent on it

Mary McAleese told this story a few years back

But then some others said it was incorrect

I don't mind, I like this story

Chucken

brosy wrote: »

, particular personal accounts .

Go raibh maith agat

They'd all be fairly old at this stage.......or dead. Probably.

brosy

Chucken wrote: »

They'd all be fairly old at this stage.......or dead. Probably.

Perhaps my wording was not perfect here. I meant any particular poignant stories or accounts of various people who lived through it that has been documented. Anyone still alive from the Famine would be very old indeed.

mikemac1

It's a BBC production up on youtube

Michael Kitchen is the main actor and is very good

Well worth watching if you've a few hours to spare

brosy

^^^^^Will definitely check that out. Always good to get a 'foreign' perspective

GRMA

Make sure you talk about the people sentenced to transportation for stealing food. One couple got twenty years for stealing turnips, I cant remember their names off of the top of my head though.

steddyeddy

billybudd wrote: »

At the time the Queen of England gave 10 times more in relief money than the catholic church.

She still gave feck all. They were both useless to us really.

Agricola

brosy wrote: »

Go raibh maith agat

agaibh

oh and other than being a twát, I can't help, sorry

Seaneh

OP.

You misspelled "Genocide".

keano_afc

I havent checked, but make sure you post in the History and Heritage forum, for some serious answers.

GRMA

keano_afc wrote: »

I havent checked, but make sure you post in the History and Heritage forum, for some serious answers.

I wouldnt bother, theres no historians on there now. try this reddit: http://www.reddit.com/r/IrishHistory It's far superior.

kowloon

Didn't some Americans (Native) send over aid even though they were pretty badly off themselves. Can't remember the details, but liked the idea.

Death and Taxes

mikemac1 wrote: »

The Sutlan of the Ottman Empire, something like that sent a ship or three with food and aid to the wee county, Drogheda to be exact

And so Drogheda has a town crest with a star and a crescent on it

Mary McAleese told this story a few years back

But then some others said it was incorrect

I don't mind, I like this story

That has been completley disproven, in fact there is no evidence that the Turks sent any help at all.

kylith

kowloon wrote: »

Didn't some Americans (Native) send over aid even though they were pretty badly off themselves. Can't remember the details, but liked the idea.

I think maize was sent from the States alright. It was called Indian Corn and made into Stirabout, IIRC.

LETHAL LADY

Pot-tae-toe the thing is Ireland had plenty of food at that time we just exported spuds.

ArtyM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U3gfjpcgZmw

phoenix999

WileyCoyote wrote: »

That has been completley disproven, in fact there is no evidence that the Turks sent any help at all.

Christine Kinealy a well known expert on the Irish Famine seems to disagree. Constantinople gave over £600 and the Sultan £1000. Worth in the hundreds of thousands at today's values:

http://multitext.ucc.ie/d/Overseas_Aid

http://multitext.ucc.ie/d/Private_Responses_to_the_Famine3344361812

Rhys Essien

OP,I dont know how much research you have done but this was Genocide of the Irish by the British.It suited the Brits to just call it 'The Famine'.There was a lot of food exported at the time.

http://www.globalresearch.ca/the-great-irish-famine-was-genocide/18156

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:An_gorta_Mor.jpg


There is also a great book here.

http://corkuniversitypress.com/Atlas_of_the_Great_Irish_Famine_/357/

phoenix999

steddyeddy wrote: »

She still gave feck all. They were both useless to us really.

She did a lot more than you think:

http://multitext.ucc.ie/d/Letter_of_Queen_Victoria

brosy

@Rhys, I am also of the opinion that it was a systematic genocide operating under the term of the Free Market or Laisse Faire economics. Thanks for links

phoenix999

As has been pointed out by some historians, one simply has to ask if the famine was occurring in Lancashire, England, would the Government have adopted the same policy? And the answer is always a big NO. But Ireland was out of sight and out of mind to the elite in London. Robert Peel tried his best to feed the starving and paid the price by being thrown out of office. Trevelyan was the real culprit and said it was 'God's judgement' on the lazy Irish. His policies led to huge loss of life.

Fr_Dougal

Do your own homework.

GRMA

brosy wrote: »

@Rhys, I am also of the opinion that it was a systematic genocide operating under the term of the Free Market or Laisse Faire economics. Thanks for links

A report was published a few years previously which called for collectivization of farms, as there were so many small ones things werent as profitable as they could be for the landlords, especially with the increased competition from places like America. Conveniently just a few years later there was a famine coupled with a whole raft of new laws which made it easier to evict people. Most notoriously the poor law which forced anyone who wanted aid from the govt to give up their land.

UCDVet

Rhys Essien wrote: »

OP,I dont know how much research you have done but this was Genocide of the Irish by the British.It suited the Brits to just call it 'The Famine'.There was a lot of food exported at the time.

http://www.globalresearch.ca/the-great-irish-famine-was-genocide/18156

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:An_gorta_Mor.jpg


There is also a great book here.

http://corkuniversitypress.com/Atlas_of_the_Great_Irish_Famine_/357/

Can you elaborate - I followed the first link but it didn't make any sense to me. It didn't say what the British did, just that it was 'a policy of mass starvation in Ireland'.

Did they come over and burn Irish fields or something?

phoenix999

The British exchequer spent a total of £9.5million on famine relief from 1845-49. It is estimated that over £30 million was needed to prevent large scale death.

By contrast Britain spent over £69 million on the futile Crimean War (1853-56)

Precious flower

This angle might be interesting: http://www.amazon.com/Long-March-Choctaws-Famine-Relief/dp/1582460655/ref=sr_1_10?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1352049625&sr=1-10&keywords=the+irish+famine
It's about how the Native American's gave us money during the Famine.
Btw, I wish people would not come out with sentences like 'The British didn't do anything' blah blah. Don't you make accusations you can't support. If you read up on it, you'd know different.

Seaneh

UCDVet wrote: »

Can you elaborate - I followed the first link but it didn't make any sense to me. It didn't say what the British did, just that it was 'a policy of mass starvation in Ireland'.

Did they come over and burn Irish fields or something?

Educate yourself.

Chinasea

brosy wrote: »

^^^^^Will definitely check that out. Always good to get a 'foreign' perspective

Why so?

phoenix999

Precious flower wrote: »

This angle might be interesting: http://www.amazon.com/Long-March-Choctaws-Famine-Relief/dp/1582460655/ref=sr_1_9?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1352049152&sr=1-9&keywords=The+Irish
It's about how the Native American's gave us money during the Famine.
Btw, I wish people would not come out with sentences like 'The British didn't do anything' blah blah. Don't you make accusations you can't support. If you read up on it, you'd know different.

Choctaw Nation donation is mentioned here, scroll down the page:

http://multitext.ucc.ie/d/American_Donations

My name is URL

WileyCoyote wrote: »

That has been completley disproven, in fact there is no evidence that the Turks sent any help at all.

Disputed but not disproved afaik.

They're making a film about it so it must be true =p

http://www.nationalturk.com/en/ottoman-aid-to-ireland-in-19th-century-to-be-pictured-at-screen-with-famine-21672

Zebra3

phoenix999 wrote: »

As has been pointed out by some historians, one simply has to ask if the famine was occurring in Lancashire, England, would the Government have adopted the same policy? And the answer is always a big NO. But Ireland was out of sight and out of mind to the elite in London. Robert Peel tried his best to feed the starving and paid the price by being thrown out of office. Trevelyan was the real culprit and said it was 'God's judgement' on the lazy Irish. His policies led to huge loss of life.

It was policy in London at the time to drive down the populations in Ireland and Scotland and to boost the population of England so they would always dominate the Union.

The Ressurection of Hungary documents it fairly well.

phoenix999

My name is URL wrote: »

Disputed but not disproved afaik.

They're making a film about it so it must be true =p

http://www.nationalturk.com/en/ottoman-aid-to-ireland-in-19th-century-to-be-pictured-at-screen-with-famine-21672

Looks interesting, but the Amount sent by the Sultan was not £10,000 as incorrectly stated in the article, but £1,000. The reason being that no single individual was allowed to give more than the donation given by Queen Victoria (I.e. £2,000). Coz you would be showing up the monarch.

Rhys Essien

UCDVet wrote: »

Can you elaborate - I followed the first link but it didn't make any sense to me. It didn't say what the British did, just that it was 'a policy of mass starvation in Ireland'.

Did they come over and burn Irish fields or something?

The British are fully aware of their actions at the time.Otherwise Tony Blair would not have made this half hearted apology(link below).Potato blight was only part of the problem.The boats were queueing up to export food out of the country.

Food was being exported through ports in the worst hit areas of the country and was being brought to the ships under armed guard.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/blair-issues-apology-for-irish-potato-famine-1253790.html

phoenix999

Zebra3 wrote: »

It was policy in London at the time to drive down the populations in Ireland and Scotland and to boost the population of England so they would always dominate the Union.

The Ressurection of Hungary documents it fairly well.

Ironically, Ireland was one of the most heavily populated small countries in Europe at that time. Had bigger population than the Benelux countries combined. Alas no longer.

baalthor

Just saw a great book, Atlas of the Irish Famine.
€59 but it's enormous !
Should give you plenty of inspiration OP, Christine Kenealy is one of the contributors.

UCDVet

Seaneh wrote: »

Educate yourself.

If someone is going to make a controversial claim on the internet; it's not at all unreasonable to ask them to justify it.

Telling me to educate myself implies that this is not a controversial claim and that any research I did would substantiate it. That's not the case here.

Historians who dedicate their life to studying such things don't agree that it was genocide. In fact, from my 'self education', it would seem that the MAJORITY do not consider it genocide.

I'm always happy enough to listen to someone else's opinion, it's quite possible I would agree that it was genocide.

MadsL

Seaneh wrote: »

Educate yourself.

Should he also look up "overpopulation"?

Witcher

Chinasea wrote: »

Why so?

To escape bias, an Irish person looking at it will usually say not enough was done and their British counterpart will say plenty was done.

Pompey Magnus

phoenix999 wrote: »

She did a lot more than you think:

http://multitext.ucc.ie/d/Letter_of_Queen_Victoria

Yes she donated £2,000. To put that in perspective a single dinner held for her in Dublin Castle in 1849 cost £5,000.

phoenix999

Pompey Magnus wrote: »

Yes she donated £2,000. To put that in perspective a single dinner held for her in Dublin Castle in 1849 cost £5,000.

And her public appeal raised over £170,000. A second appeal raised over £60000. Tens of millions at current valuations. I suppose she deserves no credit for that?

Rasheed

MadsL wrote: »

Should he also look up "overpopulation"?

Why? Serious question, by the way.

steddyeddy

phoenix999 wrote: »

And her public appeal raised over £170,000. A second appeal raised over £60000. I suppose she deserves no credit for that?

In fairness it was England's job to provide help to one of its colonies.