The Great Hunger and This Great Calamity are both excellent books exploring the Irish famine. My mother, from Co. Wicklow, has many stories passed down to her of the hardship and suffering that was experienced during this time. One of the stories passed down to me was about how eerily quiet the countryside became because people were catching and eating all the birds in order to survive. Birdsong disappeared. Of course, this was one, of many horrific events endured by the Irish for centuries during the occupation by the English.

I will revisit his when I have time. I'm Irish, so I have a point of view. The Irish were treated as slaves by the British. There was plenty of other crops being grown when the potato crops failed. The Brits blamed the Irish people for being so lazy that they only wanted to put up "lazybeds". Small very productive plots of potatoes. While people were starving, grain was being exported. There were over 8 million people alive when the first crop failures hit. There are 4.5 million today, and that's after 100 years. Ireland produces enough food to feed 35 million people with plans to reach 50 in twenty years. I will post some additional links later on.