Tag Archives: An Gorta Mor

The New York Times’ earliest coverage of Ireland

Leave a reply

The New York Times is celebrating the 175th anniversary of its first issue on Sept. 18, 1851. Here’s a quick look at the paper’s earliest coverage of Ireland from that first month. Note how the New York daily reported news already published in Irish and London papers.

Sept. 19, 1851: “Irish papers contain statements that English capital and industry are seeking investment in the western counties of Ireland,” the Times reported under “Items of Foreign News.” In particular was the stocking of “newly purchased farms in the mountains of the west” with some 3,000 head of sheep shipped from England, and the construction of sheep sheds “to protect them against the severity of the coming winter.”

The second item in the roundup declared: “The potato disease has made its appearance generally in Ireland, but in such a form that it is believed its ravages will not be serious. Although the stalks have been affected by it, the tubers are untouched.”[1]”Items of Foreign News,” New York Daily Times, Sept. 19, 1851, 3. Italics of stalks in the original.

These later statements, as seen below, refer only to the latest troubles with the potato crop, not what occurred in the previous years. Other news about the potato blight, what we know today as the Great Famine, appeared in the Times through September 1851. Some examples:

Sept. 24, 1851: The New York Times quoted a passage from the The Times of London about a 20 percent population decline in Ireland since 1841, from 8.1 million to 6.5 million. The loss is described as “a catastrophe, so humbling to our national pride … What a mass of complicating and afflicting causes have combined so to produce this simple and appaling result!”[2]”Four Days Later From Europe,” New York Daily Times, Sept. 24, 1851; 1.

Sept. 25, 1851: “The Belfast papers bring accounts of the rapid spread of the potato blight in several districts of the northern province. … In and about Belfast everything indicates an increasing decay of the crop. … These statement are supplied by a journal (left unnamed) which can be relied upon as not belonging to the alarmist class of agriculturists.”[3]”Three Days Later From Europe,” New York Daily Times, Sept. 25, 1851, 4.

Sept. 29, 1851: (The story from Dublin–seen above–is dated Sept. 12, 1851, a week before the Times‘ first issue.) “Still the human tide rolls outward, and the mania for emigration seems to pervade the entire rural population. The large remittances from Irish settlers in America, accompanied by glowing accounts of the prospects of the farmer, the artisan, and the laborer in that ‘land of promise,’ have spread among all classes all eager desire to make their way across the Atlantic. All even household servants, are hoarding their small savings to enable them to emigrate. …

“The accounts and yields of the grain crops are of the most encouraging nature. There are still complaints of potato disease, but the blight is partial, and the market prices is advancing in some places, owing to the subsidance of alarm.”[4]”Ireland,” New York Daily Times, Sept. 29, 1851, 1.

References

References
↑1 ”Items of Foreign News,” New York Daily Times, Sept. 19, 1851, 3. Italics of stalks in the original.
↑2 ”Four Days Later From Europe,” New York Daily Times, Sept. 24, 1851; 1.
↑3 ”Three Days Later From Europe,” New York Daily Times, Sept. 25, 1851, 4.
↑4 ”Ireland,” New York Daily Times, Sept. 29, 1851, 1.

Famine remembrance exhibit returning to Dublin in April

The Irish Famine Exhibition is returning to the Stephens Green Shopping Centre in Dublin. It was initially curated in 2017 by historian Gerard McCarthy, a native of West Cork.

McCarthy says the Famine is a neglected subject in Ireland. “There are no dedicated exhibitions on the subject in our National State Funded Museums and there is rarely a mention of it in Ireland’s National Media,” he wrote in an email.

McCarthy hopes that his exhibition will contribute to keeping the story alive in the minds of Irish people and also educate tourists who have little or no knowledge of the subject. This year marks the 175th anniversary of the start of the Famine in 1845.

The exhibition is open from April 6 to September 25. It includes original artifacts from the period, such as the cast-iron pot below used to make soup, “perhaps the ultimate famine memorial,” according to the exhibit.

I’ve contributed two of my previously published Famine-related stories to the blog section of the exhibition website: www.theirishpotatofamine.com. One story, published in the U.S. National Archives’ Prologue magazine, is about famine-era children born at sea on their way to America; the other, for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, is about period correspondence with a Pennsylvania priest.

Ireland’s Great Hunger Museum to remain open

A flurry of news coverage this time last year, some that I linked to from this blog, reported the potential 2020 closure of Ireland’s Great Hunger Museum in Hamden, Connecticut. A new administration at Quinnipiac University  supposedly was going to withdraw funding for the museum, the labor of love of president emeritus Dr. John Lahey.

There is no information about this posted on the museum website. In a recent call to the museum, I was told there are no plans or deadlines to close the museum, which continues to receive funding from the university. The museum is striving to become more self-sufficient. The 2019 media coverage was “blown out of proportion,” the museum representative said.

The media does hype matters, and gets things flat wrong, but I’m also skeptical of those who want to dismiss or blame press. Keep an eye on this.

The museum, and the related Lender Family Special Collection Room at the Arnold Bernhard Library on the university campus, are both great resources and worth the visit to central Connecticut, about a two-hour drive from Boston or New York City.

Ireland’s Great Hunger Museum at Quinnipiac University.

An Gorta Mor exhibit going to Ireland in 2018

A large portion of the art and artifacts from the Ireland’s Great Hunger Museum at Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Conn., will travel to Ireland in 2018. The “Coming Home: Art and the Great Hunger,” exhibition will be on view at Dublin Castle from March to June, and at the West Cork Arts Centre in Skibbereen from July to October.

In addition to displaying paintings, sculpture and other items from this one-of-a-kind collection, the touring exhibition also will include a program of poetry and literature readings, concerts, theater and lectures.

The Ragpickers,, 1900, by Henry Allan, is part of the Ireland’s Great Hunger Museum collection.

The estimated cost of the exhibition is $800,000, according to the official website. Of this amount, Quinnipiac has committed $200,000, with the balance to come from corporate, foundation and individual donations, including one $250,000 “presenting sponsor” and three $100,000 “lead sponsors.”

It will be interesting to see who or what organizations pony up.

In March 2013, I spent a day at the museum and related collection of printed materials at the Lender Family Special Collection Room at the University’s Arnold Bernhard Library. The combination of narrative and visual materials made for a moving and engrossing experience.

I am sure these images and materials will have an even more profound impact back “home” in Ireland.