Helen Thorpe: "The Irish Americans Surrounding Trump Need To Remember Their People's History"
Helen Thorpe has penned a new op-ed for BuzzFeed.
❝ There are almost no first-person accounts of the famine from the point of view of someone who went hungry. Survivors were often reluctant to discuss what had happened, if they were so lucky as to make it through alive. When the catastrophe hit, Ireland had been under British rule for seven centuries, during which time Catholics had seen their lands confiscated and laws passed that discriminated against them sharply. Millions of Irish were eking out a living as tenant farmers. The diet of the average tenant farmer consisted of 12 pounds of potatoes per day, plus buttermilk. In rural areas, people spoke primarily Gaelic, and few knew how to read or write — many had never been to school … [BuzzFeed]
| HELEN THORPE is a noted journalist & bestselling author. Watch her discuss her previous book Soldier Girls below, and learn more about booking Helen for your next event today. |