Ireland, which is very attached to its history, is today celebrating National Famine Commemoration Day, a day of tribute dedicated to the terrible episode of the Great Famine, which decimated almost 25% of Ireland’s population. This annual celebration is an opportunity for the Irish to commemorate one of the most tragic events in Irish history… and make sure no detail is forgotten…
Every year, Ireland dedicates a special day to commemorate the Great Irish Famine and account for its dramatic loss of life. It’s a day when schools hold a minute’s silence, television broadcasts historical documentaries, and Ireland is the scene of various celebrations at monuments dedicated to the tragedy.
On this day, the whole of Ireland is striving, in its duty of remembrance, not to forget the facts. Facts that had a direct impact on their own ancestors, condemned to hunger, death or exodus following the terrible late blight epidemic that wilted all the country’s potato fields between 1845 and 1848.
It is estimated that between 500,000 and 1 million people died in Ireland during this period. Two million emigrated to the United States, Australia and Great Britain…
Terrifying figures that have forever marked the face of Ireland.
On this day, Ireland is also still bitter about the facts of history. Indeed, the impact of the Great Irish Famine on the population of the time could have been limited, had England shown more concern for what was happening on the Emerald Isle.
Ireland was under English rule at the time… London used Ireland as a veritable “shopping basket”, exploiting the Emerald Isle’s resources (meat, crops, wool, spirits….etc), exporting them directly to England…
While the Irish were deprived of sustenance, the British continued to exploit these resources, without redistributing them to the Irish (the British organized soup kitchens, but without comparing them with their real capacity to assist the Irish country).
Events that regularly create controversy, and awaken the ghosts of a past that still looms large.
More news
