Famine
Much has been written about the great Irish Potato Famine. Scholars in recent years have shown that it was caused not only by English neglect, but by a blind and inappropriate following of economic dogma on the part of the very politicians whom the Irish had previously thought of as their allies. Combining a balanced assessment of modern scholarship with a reading of the day-by-day account compiled by Ciaran O Murchadha for the local history group in Ennis, County Clare, Edward Rutherfurd's 'Famine' chapter in the second book of his Irish saga is informative and moving.
