While many Irish-Americans identify the Great Famine of the mid-nineteenth century as the pivotal event in their ethnic history, most people in Ireland knew little about it as its 150th-anniversary approached. The Great Famine continued from 1845 at least until 1852, with lesser, locally devastating, famines occurring at intervals: most notable was the so-called -Little Famine- of the late 1870s, which led to the formation of the Land League, and then to the Land War of the 1880s.
Famine commemorations began in 1995 and ended in 1997, however, suggesting that the effects of...
While many Irish-Americans identify the Great Famine of the mid-nineteenth century as the pivotal event in their ethnic history, most people in Irelan...