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Figures in a Famine Landscape is a ground-breaking study that
follows a number of individuals involved in different public
capacities in a particularly afflicted district of Ireland during
the Great Famine. The thinking and actions of each had a major
effect on the existences - and the survival - of scores of
thousands of the destitute poor in Ireland at a crucial point in
the country's history. Among these figures are an outspoken
newspaper editor; two clergymen (one Catholic, one Protestant); two
highly qualified and busy physicians; two landlords and an
exterminating agent; a Board of Works official and a Poor Law
inspector. Taking an exhaustive approach to source material that
includes private diaries, letters, official reports and
correspondence, police files, parliamentary papers and a wealth of
newspapers, in this enthralling study the author builds up an
in-depth, almost microscopic picture of each individual, providing
a unique and very human lens through which to view the Great
Famine.
The Great Famine: Ireland's Agony examines this enormous human
calamity anew. Beginning with the coming of the potato blight in
1845 and the resulting harvest failures that left the country's
impoverished population numb with shock as well as foodless, it
explores government relief measures that so often failed to meet
the needs of the poor, leading in fact to many more deaths.The book
charts the horrific realities of Ireland's pauper-crammed
workhouses, the mass clearances of the later Famine period and the
great waves of panic-driven emigration that in a few short years
combined to empty the country of its once teeming population.
Drawing on eyewitness accounts, official reports, newspapers and
private diaries, the focus of the book rests on the experiences of
those who suffered and died during the Famine, and on those who
suffered and survived. This is an important book for anyone who
wants to understand Europe's greatest nineteenth century population
disaster and its long term consequences.
Figures in a Famine Landscape is a ground-breaking study that
follows a number of individuals involved in different public
capacities in a particularly afflicted district of Ireland during
the Great Famine. The thinking and actions of each had a major
effect on the existences - and the survival - of scores of
thousands of the destitute poor in Ireland at a crucial point in
the country's history. Among these figures are an outspoken
newspaper editor; two clergymen (one Catholic, one Protestant); two
highly qualified and busy physicians; two landlords and an
exterminating agent; a Board of Works official and a Poor Law
inspector. Taking an exhaustive approach to source material that
includes private diaries, letters, official reports and
correspondence, police files, parliamentary papers and a wealth of
newspapers, in this enthralling study the author builds up an
in-depth, almost microscopic picture of each individual, providing
a unique and very human lens through which to view the Great
Famine.
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