Learning this was an intentional genocide changed me.
I know most of those following me know this, but just to make it super clear. An Gorta MĆ³r (The Great Hunger/the Great Famine) was a deliberate genocide of the Irish people. There was enough food grown in Ireland to make sure everyone was alive and healthy and survived. Instead it was exported, sent to England and elsewhere for profit while men, women, and children starved in the streets. While the English landlords fucked off and evicted starving families who couldnāt afford rent. While babies were too weak to cry and died at the side of the road.
They tried to kill us, but they did not succeed. And we owe so much thanks to the other oppressed peoples, in particular the Choctaw Nation and the Masai, who sent money and grain to us.
Let me repeat that. The Choctaw Nation who had just gone through the Trail of Tears sent us money to try save Irish lives. Itās led to an understanding between Irish people and Native American tribes, most recently when we donated to the Navajo and Hopi fundraisers for COVID-19 relief, because while it may be a different tribe, Irish people will never forget those who helped us and weāll help back.
The entire population of the island is less than seven million people. Weāre still a million less on this island than pre famine. And itās not that long ago. My grandmotherās grandparents lived through it. Weāve told the stories, it literally changed the DNA of the country. We have a national fear of renting, because so many people were evicted. People joke about Irish people always offering loads of food, but itās because thereās that cultural memory of not being able to.
They tried to kill us, but they did not succeed. We will not let them take our lives, we will not let them take our language. We lost so much, but we will not lose it all.
This is why I get so angry when people say āit was the potato famine, it was because of monoculture/microbes.ā
Nope. The potatoes were the only thing Irish people were allowed to fucking eat, because as pointed out, the rest of the crops they were growing were for their landlords to ship to England. So when the one āworthlessā crop they were allowed to eat rotted in the field, the English crown, empire, landlords, all shrugged and carried on. People starved to death lying next to productive fields.
If you want to know why there are stereotypes about gingers having no souls, why āred headed stepchildā is a joke that exists, and why redheads are so rare to begin with, you know who to blame.
FUCK THE BRITISH
Itās also because there was a lot of hatred for the Irish in America too never forget āIrish need not applyāļæ¼
