Legacy of the Great Irish Famine facts for kids
The legacy of the Great Famine in Ireland (Irish: An Gorta Mór or An Drochshaol, litt: The Bad Life) followed a catastrophic period of Irish history between 1845 and 1852 during which time the population of Ireland was reduced by 50 percent.
The Great Famine (1845–1849) was a watershed in the history of Ireland. Its effects permanently changed the island's demographic, political and cultural landscape. For both the native Irish and those in the resulting diaspora, the famine entered folk memory and became a rallying point for various nationalist movements. Modern historians regard it as a dividing line in the Irish historical narrative, referring to the preceding period of Irish history as "pre-Famine".
Commemorations
Ireland commemorated the 150th anniversary of the Great Famine in the 1990s. It was a contrast, in many ways, with the 100th anniversary in the 1940s. Then, only a few commemorations were held – the most significant of which was a commissioned volume of Famine history edited by R. Dudley Edwards and T. Desmond Williams (though not published until 1956), and the important 'Famine Survey' undertaken by the Irish Folklore Commission in 1945. Beyond these important cultural aspects, emigration was a continuing and embarrassing fact of Irish political life in the 1940s, and there was no natural constituency for the famine victims, who had died or emigrated. Some commentators were embarrassed that their ancestors had somehow fed themselves by inevitably not sharing food with the victims, a form of "Survivor guilt".
The 1990s marked a significant shift in attitudes towards commemorating the Famine, as hundreds of events took place in Ireland and throughout the Irish diaspora, some of which received sponsorship from the National Famine Commemoration Committee based in the Department of the Taoiseach, led by TD Avril Doyle. At the Great Famine Event held in Millstreet, a statement from British Prime Minister Tony Blair was read aloud, apologising for the failure of past British governments to adequately address the crisis. A large number of new famine studies were produced, many detailing for the first time local experiences. Historians re-examined all aspects of the Famine experience; from practical issues like the number of deaths and emigrants, to the long-term impact it had on society, land holdings, property rights and the entire Irish identity, personified in the conservatism of Cardinal Cullen, that persisted into the 1900s.
In 2010 Britain failed to send a diplomatic representative to the opening of the National Famine Commemoration, while 14 other nations did. The Taoiseach and President also did not attend in person, but sent staff members.
The Famine in song
The Famine is also commemorated in song, both from the period and from modern times. Irish novelist and songwriter, Brendan Graham has written a number of novels and songs on An Gorta Mór – the Great Irish Famine. His book publishing deal with HarperCollins originated from a number of songs he had written about An Gorta Mór, resulting in the publication of his best selling 'documentary novel' of the Famine – The Whitest Flower (HarperCollins, London, Sydney, Toronto, 1998). The Sunday Times, Canberra called The Whitest Flower – 'An important addition to the Irish national story'. The Whitest Flower, with its song 'soundtrack', was a required text for Boston's MIT Women's Studies Course. Along with its sequel The Element of Fire (HarperCollins, 2001), The Whitest Flower was also listed as 'support fiction' for Ireland's Leaving Certificate, History syllabus.
"The Voice" written by Brendan Graham and performed by Eimear Quinn won the 1996 Eurovision Song Contest for Ireland. The lyrics refer to Ireland's troubled history and point clearly to Famine times in Ireland, I am The Voice of your hunger and pain.
As well as entering the British Pop Charts, The Voice was one of the songs studied for the UK GCSE Music Syllabus, 1998. Eimear Quinn's version featured in the Pierce Brosnan movie – The Nephew, while the song found a new life in America with the recording and widespread PBS broadcasting of it as part of the group Celtic Woman's rise to prominence there. Author and sociologist E. Moore Quinn in her book 'Irish American Folklore in New England', published in 2009, quotes the full lyric of The Voice.
"The Fairhaired Boy" – This song written by Brendan Graham was recorded by Cathy Jordan and Dervish on their 2003 album, 'Spirit'. Carmel Conway also recorded the song on her 2009 album 'This Beautiful Day'. It is also performed in the 'Cois Tine – Stories of Liam O' Flaherty' – by singer and violinist Fionnuala Howard. A song of emigration from Ireland during Famine times, The Fairhaired Boy tells of the sorrow of parting – 'Soon you'll in California be or Colorado bound'. In The Whitest Flower, Graham's heroine Ellen sings the song to Roberteen, a young neighbour from Ireland whom she finds dying in the lazaretto (fever shed) at Canada's Quarantine Island of Grosse Ile. The song is written in a traditional narrative style song form where there are no choruses, the hook of the song being contained in the last line of each stanza with the pull of the story being used to keep the listener's interest alive.
"Crucán na bPáiste" – 'the burial place of (unbaptised) children' – lies on a hilltop in Maamtrasna, Co. Mayo, overlooking Lough Nafooey, and Lough Mask in Ireland. It is a lament by a mother for a child she buries there during Aimsir an Drochshaoil ('The Time of the Bad Life' – the Famine). The song was written by Graham for Ellen Rua, one of the characters in his second novel, The Brightest Day, The Darkest Night, also published by HarperCollins. It has been recorded and performed by a number of artistes most notably Karen Matheson (as part of the Transatlantic Sessions), Cathy Jordan of Dervish and Eimear Quinn. Graham reveals the story of how the song came to be written in his Sunday Miscellany radio piece for RTÉ, called Effin' Songs, recorded live in Ireland's National Concert Hall, with Eimear Quinn and the RTÉ Concert Orchestra and piper Neil Martin, following with the song itself.
"Crucán na bPáiste had become a claw in my gut – and my pilgrimage. Over many months it inched out in me its cry...focal by focal...line by line...until I was set free and it had found its epiphany. I had learned to keep out of the way...let the song write itself. This, I suppose is the real answer to the question with which we started. The truly special songs write us...we don't write them; we don't find them...they find us".
Another of Graham's Famine songs, "Ochón an Ghorta Mhóir / Lament of the Great Hunger", was commissioned by the Irish Government, as part of the Ceól Reoite (Frozen Music – after Goethe's 'Architecture is frozen music') Millennial Project. Fourteen Irish composers were asked to pick a monument of national significance and to write a piece of music/song which would release from it the music frozen within. Graham chose the Curvilinear Glasshouses at Dublin's National Botanic Gardens, constructed at the time of An Gorta Mór, by monies diverted from research to find a cure for the potato blight afflicting Ireland. The glasshouses looked down over the Gardens' 'vegetable patch', where the blight was first discovered in Ireland in August 1845. Graham has described the 'frozen music' locked within the architecture of the Curvilinear Glasshouses as 'a lament for a famished people'. A song for unaccompanied voice it has been recorded by Róisín Elsafty, on the Ceól Reoite album and as a 'hidden track' by Cathy Jordan on the Dervish album, Spirit. The song was also performed by Nuala Ní Chanainn in the 2002 production of Aistir/Voyage by the Swiss-based, Cathy Sharp Dance Ensemble.
"You Raise Me Up" – It was in fact reading Graham's novel The Whitest Flower, that led Norwegian composer, Rolf Lovland to contact Graham with a melody. This melody in turn inspired Graham to write the lyric – You Raise Me Up, which has been recorded by some 400 artists (including Westlife, Josh Groban, Brian Kennedy and Secret Garden, Daniel O'Donnell, Helene Fischer, Il Divo, Russell Watson and Paul Potts) and has become one of the most successful songs in popular music history.
Brendan Graham has also recently written a number of integrated song and narrative pieces including Writing the Famine in Fiction and Song, for The National Famine Commemoration Week in Ireland, 2010. This was narrated by the author with songs performed by Cathy Jordan accompanied on piano by Feargal Murray.
In Quebec, 2011, his shorter narrative and song piece – From Famine to Freedom – Ireland to Grosse Ile – was performed by the Quebec Symphony Orchestra and soloist Méav Ní Mhaolchatha, with Graham's narration translated into French. It included a first performance with orchestra of The Whitest Flower, Graham's title song for the soundtrack to his book. In response to the view handed down at the time of Ireland's Famine that "The judgement of God…sent the calamity to teach the Irish a lesson, that calamity must not be too much mitigated" (Charles E. Trevelyan – Permanent Assistant Secretary at the British Treasury with prime responsibility for Famine relief in Ireland), Graham's song calls to task a vengeful God:
In August 2012 Brendan Graham composed and presented From Famine to Freedom – Ireland to Australia, a commemoration in word and song of those who suffered during An Gorta Mór – The Great Irish Famine – and of those who fled the Famine to establish a new life Australia. Graham wrote a new song called, "Orphan Girl", dedicated to the memory of the 4,112, mainly teenage Irish orphan girls, who were given a free passage to Australia from Workhouses in every county of Ireland between 1848 and 1850. Brendan Graham was joined by Australian singer-songwriter, Sarah Calderwood who unites classic with contemporary folk. She is the charismatic front woman of Australia's premier Celtic group, Sunas, who released the ABC best-selling debut album ‘As Night Falls’. Graham and Calderwood were also joined on the day by the inspirational Australian Girls Choir, who have previously performed for Nelson Mandela, Oprah Winfrey, Queen Elizabeth II and President Obama. The commemoration in words and song was a community day of celebration and remembering, especially for those who are descendants of these Irish Workhouse young women. For more information see www.irishfaminememorial.org
More recently in March 2013 The Possible Dreams Choir toured Victoria in Australia, singing "Orphan Girl" (sung by Fortunate and Nomcebo) and "You Raise Me Up" as part of their Voices for the Voiceless tour. Possible Dreams International, Inc is a non-profit organisation which partners with rural and remote communities in Swaziland, Southern Africa to empower families and individuals living with extreme poverty, malnutrition and endemic disease. So in Graham's "Famine in Song" lyrics, there resonates a global reach.
A famous modern song on the famine is "The Fields of Athenry", by Pete St. John. Written in three verses, it deals with a fictitious but realistic story of "Michael" being deported to Botany Bay for stealing corn to feed his starving family. Performed in folk, traditional and even reggae versions, it is often sung by supporters of Glasgow's Celtic F.C., many of whom are of Irish descent. The song itself sums up the sense of despair, anger and bitterness of famine victims. The song was also covered by Boston punk rock band, the Dropkick Murphys on their 2003 Blackout album.
Luka Bloom's song 'Forgiveness' from his album Salty Heaven is sung from the point of view of an Irish Famine refugee who has relocated to Canada and who despite his suffering has chosen forgiveness over bitterness.
Luka Bloom's brother Christy Moore also has a song, written by Bloom but recorded by Moore, called 'The City of Chicago,' that chronicles the effects of the Famine and the subsequent mass emigration.
Pagan metal band Primordial also have a song about the Famine named "The Coffin Ships" on their 2005 album The Gathering Wilderness.
Another related song is "Famine" by Sinéad O'Connor, released on the Universal Mother album. The lyrics emphasise the political aspect of the famine.
Ireland and modern famine relief
Ireland has been at the forefront of international famine relief. In 1985 Bob Geldof, Irish rock star and founder of Live Aid, revealed that the people of Ireland had given more to his fundraising efforts per head of population than any other nation in the world. Irish NGOs Goal, Concern, Trócaire and Gorta play a central role in helping famine victims throughout Africa. In 2000, Bono, lead singer with Irish band U2, played a central role in campaigning for debt relief for African nations in the Jubilee 2000 campaign. The Irish famine experience continues to influence many Irish people in their attitudes towards the developing world and famine victims everywhere.
