Dining with the Irish

An Analysis of Trauma and Memory as a Result of the lrish Famine Portrayed in First and Second

Generation Narratives, Children's Literature and Music

Saskia Esther MöhlmannS1608746January 2016MA Thesis English Literature and CultureLeiden University

Supervisors:Prof. dr. P.T.M.G. Liebregts. Dr W. Tigges

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Table of Contents

Table of Contents-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------i

Acknowledgement----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------iii

1. Práta - Introduction--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------1

2. Smoladh - Ireland and the Famine---------------------------------------------------------------------4

Before the Irish Famine------------------------------------------------------------------------------4

Ireland's census of 1841-----------------------------------------------------------------------------6

The Irish Famine 1845-1850------------------------------------------------------------------------8

Consequences of the Famine----------------------------------------------------------------------10

After the Famine------------------------------------------------------------------------------------11

3. Sceallán - On Trauma----------------------------------------------------------------------------------14

Personal Trauma-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------14

Collective Trauma and Cultural Memory-------------------------------------------------------18

Collective Trauma and the Irish Famine--------------------------------------------------------20

4. Brúitín - The Famine and the First Generation----------------------------------------------------23

Blind Peter-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------23

An Irishman’s Story--------------------------------------------------------------------------------26

Robert Whyte’s 1847 Famine Ship Diary: The Journey of an Irish Coffin Ship----------30

Realities of Irish Life-------------------------------------------------------------------------------35

Comparison------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------38

5. Sceallóga - The Famine and the Second Generation----------------------------------------------40

The Blight--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------40

Surviving the Hunger-------------------------------------------------------------------------------41

Diseases-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------43

Deaths-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------45

Politics------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------47

Emigration--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------49

Comparison------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------51

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6. Póirín - The Famine and Children’s Literature-----------------------------------------------------52

Under the Hawthorn Tree--------------------------------------------------------------------------53

Mary-Anne’s Famine-------------------------------------------------------------------------------59

Comparison------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------68

7. Scealbóir - The Famine and Music------------------------------------------------------------------69

Irish Music-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------69

Songs about the Great Irish Famine--------------------------------------------------------------72

Comparison------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------87

8. Caldar - Conclusions-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------90

Appendixes------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------95

Works Cited-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------97

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Acknowledgement

This thesis would not have been possible without the help and support of a great many people,

but two persons in particular. That is why I would like to dedicate this thesis to my parents. Mom

and Dad thank you for listening, reading, discussing, cooking, cleaning, everything basically!

Secondly, I would like to thank my supervisor prof. dr. P.T.M.G. Liebregts. Peter, I am very

appreciative of the fact that our meetings were not merely educational. You also invested time in

getting to know me a bit. I loved our talks about Utrecht, Ireland and other travel destinations!

Thank you for making my thesis an educational, inspirational, and fun experience!

Thirdly, I owe dr. Marguérite Corporaal a huge thank you. She helped me find many of my

sources, offered aid in any possible way, but most of all inspired me to research this topic to the

best of my abilities. Dear Marguérite, I have kept our conversation in the back of my mind

throughout my writing process, and I sincerely hope to meet with you again.

Fourthly, dr. Lillis Ó Laoire from National University Ireland in Galway and prof. Cormac

Ó Gráda from University College Dublin. They were kind enough to listen to my ideas, answer

every one of my questions and give me their insights on my research.

Fifthly, I would also like to thank Alicia Dekker, who is not only one of my best friends but

is also the designer of this thesis's front page.

Finally, I would like to express my gratitude to my friends and family who listened to me

complain and offered me the much needed distraction. A special thank you to my uncle Rob and

aunt Diana, thank you for the ongoing interest in my work and your support!

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1. Práta - Introduction

In social studies, predominantly in psychoanalysis, trauma in itself is a popular subject for

research. Naturally, the causes of trauma provide a broad research basis, but the main focus is on

the recovery process for a trauma victim. This process offers the opportunity to give a voice to

the experiences that “are too terrible to utter aloud” (Herman 1). Psychiatrist Judith Herman

discovered three steps to recovery that every trauma victim takes, namely, safety, remembrance

and mourning, and reconnection. These steps are not invented to make the victims forget their

trauma because that is not possible, but it creates a way for them to deal with their pains in a

better way. By giving their trauma a voice, the survivors also establish a base for the collective

memory and collective trauma regarding the traumatic event. The transition from personal

trauma to a collective memory and trauma in literature is something that is not yet widely

researched. In this thesis, I will focus on these issues in relation to the Irish Famine, 1845 – 1850,

and its aftermath. The aim of this thesis is to provide an analysis of the transmittal of personal

and collective trauma, and cultural memory through first and second generation texts, children’s

literature and music as a result of the Irish Famine.

In analysing this process, I will make use of the most recent theories of trauma, memory

and narrative. Due to the folkloric tradition in Ireland and the high illiteracy rates among the

Irish-speaking population, there is not sufficient evidence of the trauma caused by the Famine

within the first and second generations. However, I think that their stories will have been

translated in songs and children's books from the twentieth century onwards. Therefore, I feel

that the cultural memory might play a more important role in the lives of the Irish than collective

trauma.

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I have named the introduction ‘Práta’ after the main Irish word for potato. Every

introduction has a similar structure; it introduces the topic, sets out the research question or thesis

statement, and continues with the thesis’s set-up. Due to the plain nature of this chapter, I thought

it was fitting to name it after the plain and ordinary Irish term for potato.

In chapter two, ‘Smoladh’, I will provide a general overview of the social and political

situation in Ireland before, during and after the Great Irish Famine, from 1841 to 1851. I have

given this chapter the Irish name for the potato blight since I will discuss the development of the

blight and its aftermath. In this chapter, I have included social-geographical data to portray the

living conditions, the classes, and the density of the population in the counties during this period.

This will contribute to the analysis of the impact of the Famine on the Irish population.

Chapter three, ‘Sceallán’, will describe theories on trauma, memory and narrative.

Sceallán means seed potato in Irish. These potatoes are the basis for your next crop, and

therefore, I have linked it to my general chapter. Without the information given in this chapter, I

would not be able to analyse the literature in the following chapters. The first theory I will

discuss is on personal trauma and, in particular, processing trauma as Judith Herman describes it

in her book Trauma and Recovery. Her theory will give an insight into the paths taken by the

first and second generation survivors of the Irish Famine. I will also discuss collective trauma in

this chapter.

Chapter four, ‘Brúitín’, will provide an analysis of autobiographical narratives of

first-generation survivors of the Irish Famine. Brúitín is Irish for mashed potatoes; ‘brú’ literally

means “to force or to put pressure on” (Mulraney). Due to the difficult circumstances of the Irish

Famine, the first generation was put under much pressure to survive. In addition to this, mashed

potato is a classic dish, and thus fits the first generation perfectly. Judith Herman’s theory will

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give me the tools to analyse the texts to indicate whether or not the victims had completed all

Herman’s recovery steps. I will do the same in chapter five, ‘Sceallóga’, with the second

generation survivors of the Irish Famine. French fries, or in Irish sceallóga, seem to be

appropriate for the second generation. They are a newer type of potato dish and are the product

of the classic potato dishes. This generation is significant because they are the transitional

generation between personal trauma and collective trauma.

I will analyse children’s books in chapter six, ‘Póirín’, followed by several songs about

the Irish Famine in chapter seven, ‘Scealbóir’. A poírín is a tiny potato, and thus applicable to

children’s literature, since it is addressed to and designed for the smallest of our society. The

scealbhóir are the potatoes that are left over “once a part have been taken away to be used as a

seed” (Mulraney). Music was and still is a vital aspect of the Irish identity; and after the

difficulties of the Irish Famine, the Irish still found the strength to eventually incorporate music

again in their lives. These chapters will provide insight into the message the Irish have spread

and are still spreading about the Irish Famine to keep the memory of the Irish Famine part of

their present. Chapters four through seven will contribute to the analysis of personal trauma,

collective memory, and collective trauma and their portrayal in books and songs, which will be

discussed in the final chapter the conclusion, ‘Caldar’. Caldar is Irish for a great potato; I have

chosen this title as a way to say that this chapter is the big ending of my thesis.

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2. Smoladh - Ireland and the Famine

The Great Irish Famine struck Ireland in the period 1845 to 1850 due to several failed potato

harvests. The Famine hit the whole of Irish society, but in particular the poorest classes were

devastatingly affected. In this chapter, I will give an overview of Irish society before, during and

after the Great Irish Famine.

Before the Irish Famine

Early Modern Ireland had been under continuous English influence since 1536 when King Henry

VIII conquered the island and stationed Protestant settlers. Despite the colonisation of England,

Ireland kept its government and Catholic religion. However, since the Act of Union established

in 1800, Ireland's parliament was dissolved and became "subject to the parliament of the United

Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland" (Kissane 1). During 1841 to 1846 the Conservatives ruled

the parliament, under the leadership of Prime Minister Sir Robert Peel. Ireland was governed by

Ministers and administrators from London, "who, for the most part, had no real understanding of,

or sympathy with, the Irish and Irish problems" (ibid). They enforced the English landlord

system "over centuries [...] of conquest, confiscation and plantation" (ibid), to govern smaller

parts of Ireland.

The English landlord system was executed by "the Irish landlords" who "were a

hereditary ruling elite" who were mainly "descended from families which had lived in Ireland for

generations" (ibid). Nevertheless they "most considered themselves as essentially British" (ibid).

Some of these landlords even lived in Britain and managed their estates as an absentee landlord.

All of their properties were rented out at the highest possible rates; consequently, not every part

of their land was occupied and thus "the land was not exploited to its full potential" (ibid). The

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lands were of great importance to the farmers who rented the land, and their farm labourers.

Even though the farmers were able to rent a piece of land, they found themselves "in a precarious

situation; while a small proportion made a modest living on farms of twenty acres and upwards,

the majority had holdings of less than ten acres" (ibid). This latter group of farmers had to have a

good year in order "to grow enough food for the family, remit the rent to the landlord and pay

cess or tax for the upkeep of the County and Poor Law rates to maintain the local workhouse"

(ibid). Another group depending on the land were the farm labourers, who "had the use of a plot

of ground on which to grow potatoes” which “was usually rented from a farmer and paid for by

so many days' labour" (ibid). These people were also known as 'the potato people'. It can be

concluded that a large part of society was dependent on the potato harvest each year because it

would not only provide food for agricultural workers but also determine the living conditions of

those in workhouses.

The potato was brought to Ireland during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I. Originally, the

Irish agriculture consisted mainly of cattle breeding, but during the Eighteenth Century it

“shifted to tillage, making it easier for the expanding population to obtain land on which to raise

their potatoes” (Edwards 90). In some parts of Ireland, the potato would yield a crop twice a

year. For example in Waterford “when the plants were above the ground, between four and eight

tons of lime to the statute acre were spread, and the potatoes earthed up a second time” (102).

Due to this shift, and because of “the mild and damp Irish climate" the easiness of the crop to

grow, and the nutrient value, it became the "staple diet of the poor" (Kissane 13). It was not

uncommon that "many families [...] very rarely tasted flesh or fish, and whose only luxury was 'a

grain of salt' with their daily meals" (16). The Irish would eat approximately fourteen lbs of

potatoes each day (Crowley 42). This was accompanied by a pint or two of milk, and the

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occasional egg and butter. In winter, or when milk was scarce, it would be replaced by herring in

water as a kind of relish (Kissane 17). This new diet enabled the Irish population to grow to its

zenith of eight million, consequently, the growth of the population between 1780 and 1841 is

approximately 2,500,000 (Edwards 4). Subsequently, with the growing population, the need for

more land grew as well, "which resulted in a gradual move onto the more marginal areas, such as

reclaimed bog and the slopes of hills and mountains" (Kissane 13). However, the poor were not

able to rent enough fertile land to live without need, and thus "they needed varieties of potatoes

that gave good yield [so] they gradually abandoned the red varieties in favour of white,

especially the Lumper [...] which was coarse and of inferior quality but high-yielding" (ibid).

These potatoes were less resistant to any possible disease.

Ireland's census of 1841

According to the population census of 1841, about 8.175 million people were living in Ireland

(Crowley 14). Most of those people were living in the northeast province Ulster, especially in the

counties Down, Armagh and Monaghan. The least populated areas could be found on the West

coast in the counties Donegal, Mayo, Kerry, and the coastal area of County Galway and the East

Coast counties Antrim and Wicklow (ibid). Especially in the least populated counties, most

people lived in fourth-class houses. According to Noel Kissane in his book The Irish Famine: A

Documentary History, one could classify four classes of housing; the fourth and lowest class

were "all mud cabins [with] only one room" (Kissane 8); third class houses were similar to a

cottage "still built of mud, but varying from two to four rooms and windows" (ibid); the second

class had "five to nine rooms and windows; and in the first, all houses of a better description than

the preceding classes" (ibid).

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The census of 1841 shows that “out of a [p]opulation of a little over 8,000,000 in Ireland,

5,500,000 or 66 percent were dependent on agriculture” (Edwards 89). Cormac Ó Gráda in his

article "Famine, Trauma and Memory" specifies that in 1841 3,511,860 people were working and

of those people 1,834,154 were working in a rural occupation (Ó Gráda 125). Of that number

only 471,398 were actual farmers; the rest were farm labourers, herds, ploughmen or gardeners

(ibid). Appendix one portrays the influence of English Protestants in Ireland in 16501; it is safe to

assume that this presence had not lessened over the two centuries preceding the Irish Famine. On

this map, the province of Connacht has been left out because it was of little interest to the

English Protestant conquerors. The rest of Ireland, but especially the province of Ulster, was

under the influence of the English. In addition to the previous appendix, appendix two shows the

illiterates rates across Ireland2. Especially on the West Coast, and, in particular, the province of

Connacht, 85% of the population could not read or write. It is also in this area that the highest

percentage of Irish speaking people lived (Crowley 582). These figures combined lead to the

conclusion that on the West coast were the least populated areas, and of these people over 80%

were employed in the agriculture. Over 65% of the people on the West coast lived in fourth-class

houses, while on the East coast only 35% of the people had to live in these housing conditions.

There are particularly fewer Protestants on the West coast than on the East. Lastly, the highest

illiteracy percentages can be found on the less populated West Coast, with a peak in the

Connacht. It is in these areas that the majority of the 'potato people' lived.

1 Appendix 1: The distribution of forfeited/Protestant Land by c. 1650 (Crowley 66)

2 Appendix 2: The percentage distribution of illiterate in 1841 (Crowley 192)

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The Irish Famine 1845-1850

As stated above, the arrival of the potato in Ireland slowly changed the diet to an all-potato diet,

especially for the poorest of society. The potato crops were easy to grow on different kinds of

soil, had good yielding, and were able to feed most of the population. However, this crop, like

any other, was not immune to diseases. In the mid-eighteenth century, some of the crops failed

due to "an early and severe frost" (Kissane 19). Another disadvantage of the potato was that the

"old crop becomes unfit for use in July, and the new crop [...] does not come into consumption

until September; hence, July and August are called the 'meal months'" (ibid). Ireland had not seen

such a severe loss of the potato crop until 1845. The potato blight was a new disease, and "was

introduced to Europe from the American continent" (13). The blight, caused by the fungus

Phytophthora infestans, "affected the stalks and the tubers” which are “the actual potatoes” and it

thrived "in humid conditions and is disseminated by spores transported in the air" (ibid). This

fungus "caused a loss of one-third of the crop [...] in 1845" (ibid). Unlike corn, "the potato

cannot be stored so that the scarcity of one year” cannot “be alleviated by bringing forward the

reserves of former years" (18). Thus, the shortage of 1845 caused a disruption in the potato

harvest the following years, so that "only a quarter of the usual crop was harvested in 1846 or

1847, and one-third in 1848" (13). The crop “losses were by no means uniform, even within the

same country, and this patchwork character of the failure made the task of forming a just

estimate of the position most difficult” (Edwards 133). However, due to the quantities needed for

a proper harvest, it turned out to be difficult to distribute the potatoes to areas where they were

needed (Kissane 18). The failure of the potato crop “was regarded in Ireland as but another

demonstration of the painful weakness of the national economy" (Edwards 133). However, in

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Britain "this failure was seen [...] as a problem which brought into question the whole future of

agricultural protection” (ibid).

Much of the imminent misery of the potato failure in 1845 was compensated by the

Conservative (Tory) Prime Minister Sir Robert Peel, who had purchased "100,000 tons of Indian

corn (maize) to meet the food needs of the starving poor" (Crowley 48). He chose for the

"previously untraded Indian corn so as not to interfere with the existing trade in cereal" (ibid).

Peel's help avoided many deaths in 1846. Under his administration "seventy-six food depots for

the poor along the west coast" of Ireland were opened (ibid). Nevertheless, Peel declined the

“suggestion that the export of potatoes should be prohibited and insisted that it would be most

improper to advance state funds for relief works while resisting the duty free importation of

badly needed food” (Edwards 134). Due to the aid subjected by Peel, his government fell in the

summer of 1846 and was replaced by the Liberals (Whig Party) with Sir John Russell as Prime

Minister. A man in Russell's administration who would determine most of the fate of the Irish

during the Famine was the Assistant Treasury Charles Trevelyan. He would be informed and get

recommendations about the Irish Famine, and as such "he became virtual director of famine

relief efforts" (Crowley 48). Russell's administration consisted of strong supporters of free trade,

who “were opposed to interfering with normal commerce, either by importing cheap foodstuffs

or, as was done in previous crises, by preventing the export of food" (Kissane 45). This liberal

attitude is more commonly known as ‘laissez-faire’. In normal circumstances this approach

would work, but "the situation in the late summer of 1846 required pragmatic action" (ibid).

Russell planned relief measures in August, but he was not willing to have a dramatic

intervention. He continued with the exports of food and was not prepared to import cheaper food

such as corn; however, he would "provide employment on a large scale through a new round of

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public works schemes" which “would ultimately have to be paid for entirely from Irish

resources" (ibid). Consequently, Ireland had to solve the problems itself.

Consequences of the Famine

The biggest cause of death was fever with 29.2%, followed by diarrhoea, dysentery, and

gastroenteritis with 24.9%. 10% of the deaths were caused by starvation (Crowley 173). These

diseases are highly contagious, but “[t]wo non-infectious conditions arising from food

deficiencies were rife among the hunger-stricken – scurvy and famine dropsy. Scurvy is caused

by lack of vitamin C, [...] an eloquent testimony to the anti-scorbutic properties of the potato”

(Edwards 269). To keep as many people alive as possible, charitable organisations opened soup

kitchens. The organisations sold the soup to those who could afford it, but "[t]he destitute got the

soup free" (Kissane 75). In November of 1846 "the Irish Quakers became involved in relief

efforts"; "[t]hey adopted a systematic approach to the provision of relief and set up some soup

kitchens along” the West Coast (ibid). During the spring of 1847, the Liberal English government

decided to "establish free soup kitchens” which “was to be funded by the Poor Law rates and by

local subscriptions which would be matched with government grants" (ibid). By August that year

approximately three million people used the soup kitchens; this aid "made a very significant

contribution to relief and saved the lives of many thousands" (ibid). Despite the success of this

programme, the government stopped the support by September 1847 since "the potato crop was

relatively unaffected by blight" (ibid). Another government measure was the workhouses. They

could only give shelter to 100,000 people, which was not a problem at the beginning of the

Famine, due to their unpopularity: only 38,000 people looked for a place to stay (89). However,

"by January 1847 [...] over 100,000" people looked for shelter (ibid). Despite these amounts of

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people, "the government was determined to keep the numbers on outdoor relief to a minimum, as

otherwise [...] the government would again be forced to finance special relief measures" (ibid).

Another phenomenon that caused the death of many people was emigration. Ireland was

not unfamiliar with the idea of emigration, and before the Famine people would go to Britain, the

United States, Canada and Australia. The majority of the population was not able to move

because most people "did not have the resources in terms of skills, education or finance"

(Kissane 153). In addition to this, most "communities were close-knit, there were strong ties of

family and kinship, and people were prepared to endure privation at home rather than face the

uncertainty of life in a foreign land" (ibid). However, when the Famine hit Ireland, emigration

increased due to the "fear of a depression rather than a ruinous and life-threatening famine"

(ibid). In the autumn of 1846 “thousands risked their lives upon a winter crossing, ready [...] to

undergo any misery ‘save that of remaining in Ireland’” (Edwards 319). A total of 1.2 million

people emigrated during 1845-1851, which mainly consisted of "young men and women between

the ages of twenty and thirty-five”, and “the majority were unskilled and Catholic" (Kissane

153). They moved mostly to the United States of America, Canada, and Australia. The majority

of the emigrants were dependent on charity to pay for their journey, and their settlement in the

new countries, but "in most cases, they found a better life" (ibid).

After the Famine

As previously mentioned, the total of the Irish population in 1841 was 8.175 million people. This

was divided over the four provinces as follows: approximately 1,973,700 lived in Leinster,

2,396,200 in Munster, 1,418,900 in Connacht and 1,720,200 in Ulster. The total population in

1851 was only 6.552 million people. The province of Leinster had 84.7% of the population left,

which results in 1,672,738 people. 1,857,736 people were living in Munster, which is 77.5% of

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the people that had lived there in 1841. The biggest loss was in the province of Connacht with

71.2% left, 1,010,031 people. Ulster decreased to 2,011,880 people, which was 84.3% of the

original population (Crowley 582, Ireland). Counties Mayo and Sligo were struck the hardest

with both over 60,000 deaths each year. Overall it can be seen that the highest death rates were

on the West coast. In three counties on the East coast, namely Dublin, Wexford and Carlow, were

the lowest death rates with each year under 10,000 deaths (Crowley 108). The total amount of

people that died during the Famine has been estimated around a million, with the greatest losses

"among the very young and the very old" (Kissane 171). After the Irish Famine, Ireland “saw

many changes: the movement away from the Irish to the English language, mass emigration,

consolidation of holdings, Home Rule agitation, war” (Fegan 239). The loss of a great number of

Irish-speaking Irish is why "the Famine is often euphemistically called 'The Great Silence'"

(Crowley 580). Despite the horror of the Famine, the potato remained a popular food. The potato

blight was solved due to "a solution containing copper sulphate” which is “sprayed onto the

stalks” and it “prevents invasion by the fungal spores" (Kissane 13).

The direct cause of the Famine was the fungus, Phytophthora infestans, but “a great

many of the old people believed and some still believe that the famine was a punishment for

waste, a scourge sent from God because of the abuse of plenty” (Edwards 395). Some, especially

the British ministers, would “blame the Irish landlords for their inactivity during the famine”

(xiii). Others would point towards the British government because of their ‘laissez-faire’ policy.

However, when one takes into consideration that this was the period of Malthus one can find an

explanation for this attitude.

Malthus established a theory about a connection between population growth and food. He

states that “[p]opulation, when unchecked, increases in a geometrical ratio” while “[s]ubsistence

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increases only in an arithmetical ratio” (Morash 19). Due to the different types of growths, “there

is a ‘strong and constantly operating check on population from the difficulty of subsistence’” to

keep the population in balance (ibid). Malthus distinguishes two types of checks, “‘preventive’

and ‘positive’ checks” which “place a limitation on the otherwise explosive growth of

population”. These checks are enforced by “‘vicious customs with respect to women, great cities,

unwholesome manufactures, luxury, pestilence, and war’” (ibid). He concludes that “[f]amine

seems to be the last, the most dreadful resource of nature” (ibid).

Despite this explanation, the British claimed that the Irish Famine "was caused by divine

providence", and the general opinion in England was "that the government did all that was

humanly possible to reduce its impact" (Kissane 178). This statement was echoed by Queen

Victoria "in a speech delivered during her visit to Ireland in August 1849" (ibid). Even

nowadays, scholars are discussing who is to blame. For example, Patrick O’Donovan, Limerick’s

local historian and spokesperson for the Knockfierna Heritage Society, explains that “[t]here was

enough animals, there was enough corn to feed the population, but it suited the large landlords of

that time to make their money” (Ozanne). When asked whom to blame for the Famine, he

answered: “I suppose the English really at the end of the day, and nobody else but the English

and the landlords which they had planted in previous generations into this country to take over

the land from the original Irish settlers” (Ozanne). All these different arguments on the cause of

the Famine can be combined to form one conclusion. The Irish Famine was caused by the blight,

but the consequences of starvation of the Irish people were worsened due to the failure of the

landlord system and the neglect of the government.

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3. Sceallán - On Trauma

To establish an analysis of the transition from personal to collective trauma, and to have the tools

to be able to analyse the autobiographical texts of the first and second generation, the songs, and

the children’s book about the Irish Famine, I will use trauma theoretical concepts. First, I will

discuss Judith Herman’s theory on personal trauma and recovery steps taken by all trauma

victims. Secondly, I will provide an account of collective trauma. Finally, I will discuss Cormac

Ó Gráda’s view on how the notion of collective trauma can be applied to the Irish Famine

victims.

Personal Trauma

Psychiatrist Judith Herman introduced the idea that trauma should not be regarded as a rarity, but

that it “must be considered a common part of human experience", despite the fact that "traumatic

events are extraordinary [...] because they overwhelm the ordinary human adaptations to life”

(Herman 33). She distinguishes two types of trauma, namely, disasters, “when the force is that of

nature", and atrocities, "when the force is that of other human beings” (ibid). In addition to this,

Herman states that one should focus on the effects trauma has on humans and how their feeling

of destruction should be relieved. She also argues that "traumatic events generally involve threats

to life or bodily integrity, or a close personal encounter with violence and death" (ibid). In her

book Trauma and Recovery, she explains that victims of trauma are overpowered by a feeling of

helplessness forced upon them by a greater force. In the case of the Irish Famine, scholars debate

whether the trauma is merely caused by a natural phenomenon, the fungus Phytophthora

infestans, or that it could also be an atrocity due to the neglect of the English government.

According to Claudia Card, in her book The Atrocity Paradigm: A Theory of Evil, “a

significant part of the shock produced by an atrocity is due to the perception that human agents

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either engineered it or failed to intervene to prevent it when they could and should have” (5). Her

argument concerns an epidemic of a fatal disease, but it can be applied to the Irish Famine as

well because she states that it “becomes an evil when human beings wrongly fail to prevent or

alleviate it” (ibid). It can, therefore, be said that “human failure to respond can turn a natural

catastrophe into an atrocity” (ibid). An atrocity is not merely an act of violence, but one needs

“to be able to make judgments of right and wrong to apply the atrocity theory of evil, as harm is

not evil unless aggravated, supported, or produced by culpable wrongdoing” (ibid). Thus, taking

this theory and the information provided in chapter two in consideration, it can be concluded that

the Irish Famine is a consequence of a natural disaster and an atrocity due to conscious neglect.

Herman also offers an insight into the possible path of recovery trauma victims may take

to be able to live with pain. In the process of healing, she recognises three stages, namely, safety

first, followed by remembrance and mourning, and the last step is reconnecting with ordinary

life. The first step is establishing personal safety, a step that primarily focuses on regaining

power and control over one’s life; taking control over one’s bodily functions, e.g. eating and

sleeping, and one’s daily routines (155-160). The aim of this step is decreasing the victims'

vulnerability, regaining confidence, and the ability to control some negative symptoms, such as

numbness.

During the second step, remembrance and mourning, the victims find themselves able to

retell the traumatic event in detail. In case studies of trauma victims it is often shown that their

description starts before the event “in order to re-create the flow of the patient’s life and restore a

sense of continuity with the past” (Herman 176), but also to create a contextual understanding of

the trauma. This step is necessary, because it “transforms the traumatic memory, so that it can be

integrated into the survivor’s life story” (175). The depiction of the ‘before’ is often given in

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colourful imagery, which creates a vividness within the memory. This displays a victim’s feeling

of nostalgia “through sights, sounds, smells, tastes" which influences "them to recall the homes

and environments they had unwillingly left behind” (Hirsch 258). Additionally, the idea of

nostalgia within literature reflects "a bitter-sweet affectionate, positive relationship to what has

been lost" (ibid) which shows "affectionate longings for earlier stages and scenes in their own

lives” (259). Nostalgia is then followed by the summary of the traumatic event that is, according

to Herman, “repetitious, stereo[typical], and emotionless” (Herman 175). The trauma depiction

does hardly ever include the feelings of the narrator, and in contrast to the vividness of the

‘before’, the ‘during’ summary is rather lifeless. This way of describing the traumatic events

creates, therefore, a sense of distance between the victim’s emotions and the actual traumatic

event. The retelling of traumatic events enables survivors to enter a state of mourning. Through

the act of retelling, victims become actively aware of the losses they have suffered and, as a

result, of their traumatic experiences. However, the act of mourning might be difficult; the

victims' survivors’ guilt might occur, for they are still alive while family and friends are not

(188).

The final step is reconnection, or coming “to terms with the traumatic past [and] creating

a future [in which] the survivor reclaims her world” (196). It is not unusual that parts of step one

are repeated here, for the survivors need to create a new safety. The main goal here is for the

traumatized person to recognize that she has been a victim but "no longer feels possessed by her

traumatic past” (202). So the survivors will have to recognise the past, and reconnect with

themselves, but also, in stage three of recovery, the survivors will reconnect with their

community. Unfortunately, “recovery is never complete” for trauma symptoms might reoccur

due to triggers, such as the death of a family member (211). During the description of step three,

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a trauma victim might use imagery once again. This shows that the victim is again able to

connect emotions to events within her life. Due to Herman's notion of recovery steps, it is

possible to establish an analysis of personal trauma within autobiographies of survivors.

Second-generation survivors have a yearning to “a lost 'world of yesterday' that they

themselves had inherited from parents and grandparents” (Hirsch 256). Marianne Hirsch names

this a ‘postmemory’. Her parents had survived the Holocaust, and they had shared “layered

memories of “home” made up of nostalgic longing as well as negative and critical recollections”

(ibid). In her article "We would not have come without you”: Generations of Nostalgia" she

states that “the streets, buildings, and natural surroundings of Czernowitz [...] figured more

strongly in her childhood memories and imagination than the sites and scenes [...] in Romania,

where she was born” (262). These memories are part of the “postmemory, a secondary, belated

memory mediated by stories, images, and behaviors among which she grew up, but which never

added up to a complete picture or linear tale” (ibid). It can, therefore, be said that unlike her

parents' nostalgia, “her nostalgia was rootless” (263). The second generation, or “the

postmemorial generation, ‘returning to the place’ could not serve as a means of reparation or

recovery", but it is "a process of searching [...] enabling an encounter between nostalgic and

negative memory” (ibid).

Another group of people affected by the stories of traumatic events is the community.

They have “the role of witness to [the] disaster or atrocity" and can be "emotionally

overwhelmed” (Herman 140). They might also experience “the same terror, rage, and despair as

the patient" (ibid). This phenomenon is known as traumatic countertransference. The “[r]epeated

exposure to stories of human rapacity and cruelty inevitably challenges the therapist's basic

faith” (141). The stories told by first generation trauma victims to the second generation

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survivors and the community contribute to the collective memory of traumatic events. Herman's

theory is applied to a patient-therapist relationship, but it can also be implemented on a broader

scale.

Collective Trauma and Cultural Memory

According to Jeffrey C. Alexander, a collective trauma “occurs when members of a collectivity

feel they have been subjected to a horrendous event that leaves indelible marks upon their group

consciousness, marking their memories forever and changing their future identity in fundamental

and irrevocable ways” (Alexander 1). He also explains that collective or cultural trauma is an

“empirical, scientific concept” to understand the relationship between new events that

traumatised whole social groups. These events cause the need for “social responsibility and

political action” (ibid). It is important that social groups share their sufferings with others,

because if they refuse to participate, “social groups restrict solidarity, leaving others to suffer

alone” (ibid).

Traumas, or the idea of traumas, are constructed by society and are an abrupt change that

shatters common experiences and places the victims out of society. It can be said that horrible

events cause trauma and its “immediate and unreflexive response” is the feeling of being

traumatised (2-3). During the traumatic event, the victims perceive it “clearly, and their

responses are lucid" and are "problem solving and progressive” (3). A collective trauma is also

something created by society, for it is due to “an extraordinary event [with] an explosive quality"

that triggers "emotional response and public attention [...] of all major subgroups of the

population” (ibid).

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The collectivity of a trauma is not the only mode to make a traumatic event cultural. To

become a part of the collective memory, the event appears “in public life through the creation of

literature” (6), in which “literary interpretation, with its hermeneutic approach to symbolic

patterns", offers "a kind of academic counterpart to the psychoanalytic intervention” (ibid).

Geoffrey Cubitt explains that through “the media of communication" it is "possible for mental

data to pass from one such context to another” (Cubitt 182). As well as “through the processes of

externalization, data acquire the potential to outlive the practical and experiential settings that

have produced them” (ibid). For memories to continue to exist, they “depend at least as much on

the practical robustness of the media of communication themselves as on any general continuity

in social habits and social relationships” (ibid). Allison Landberg discusses the idea of ‘prosthetic

memory’. This is a “new form of memory” which “emerges at the interface between a person and

a historical narrative about the past”, and “in this moment of contact, an experience occurs

through which the person sutures himself or herself into a larger history” (Landberg 2). By

adopting a historical happening as one’s own, “the person does not simply apprehend [it,] but

takes on a more personal, deeply felt memory of a past event through which he or she did not

live” (ibid). This can result in “the ability to shape that person’s subjectivity and politics” (ibid).

Landberg adds that “through the technologies of mass culture, it becomes possible for these

memories to be acquired by anyone, regardless of skin color, ethnic background, or biology”

(ibid). This allows memories to become "available to be combined with materials of different

origin in fresh packages of knowledge appropriate to different situations” (Cubitt 182).

The process of adopting a prosthetic memory by a society forms collective memory; this

creates a sense of community and unity. Jeffrey C. Alexander recognises a structure in the course

of a memory becoming a cultural memory. He states that first there is a “gap between [the] event

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and representation” which “can be conceived as the ‘trauma process’” (Alexander 11). The case

is made public through the decision of so-called ‘agents’. They “compose collectivities [,]

broadcast symbolic representations – characterizations – of ongoing social events, past, present,

and future” (ibid). He calls these group representations the ‘claims’ which describe “the shape of

social reality, its causes, and the responsibilities for action such causes imply” (ibid). Without a

claim, it is not possible to have a cultural trauma. These claims are made public by what

Alexander calls ‘carrier groups’, they “are the collective agents of the trauma process”. They

“have both ideal and material interests, [and] are situated in particular places in the social

structure” (ibid). These carriers “can be generational, representing the perspectives and interests

of a younger generation against an older one", or they "can be national, pitting one’s own nation

against a putative enemy", or they "can be institutional, representing one particular social sector”

(ibid). However, the carriers would not be successful without an audience. The audience “must

be members of the carrier group itself” for them to connect to the trauma, and eventually they

“become convinced that they have been traumatized by a singular event” (12). So, to create a

cultural trauma, one needs a case that is represented by a trustworthy carrier upon an audience.

Collective Trauma and the Irish Famine

In addition to the theories mentioned above about collective trauma, Cormac Ó Gráda discusses

how the Irish Famine fits into these theories in his article "Famine, Trauma, and Memory". Most

of the first generation stories about the Famine were collected in the 1930s and 1940s; this means

that there is an enormous “gap between the event and the collection of the evidence” (Ó Gráda

130). The Irish oral tradition, and for that matter any oral transferral, allows a rustle between the

actual events and the retelling of them. Ó Gráda states that trauma details are sensitive to

“confusion, forgetting, and obfuscation" but they are "also virtually guaranteed contamination by

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extraneous data” (ibid). Another problem is that the famine itself might have caused a memory

loss because victims do not want to remember. They are often “reluctant to talk”, but also

stimulated to keep silent “by the reluctance of non-victims to listen” (130-131). The information

about the Famine does not convey “a sense of ‘having been there’ [...] it is always about

somebody outside the narrator’s family” (135). The stories are distanced, fractious and

individual, which might be due to a sense of shame associated with the hardships during the

Famine. However, it can be concluded that mostly “the memories of those who suffered most are

simply not represented in [the] folklore accounts” (ibid).

Nevertheless, in the “famine commemoration of the 1990s [...] collective memory" due to

"repressed memory and communal trauma [was] a key feature” (Ó Grada 136). In her speech A

Voice for Somalia President Robinson states that the “Irish famine more than any other event

‘shaped us as a people. It defined our will to survive [and] our sense of human vulnerability. It

remains one of the strongest, most poignant links of memory and feeling that connect us to our

diaspora” (Robinson). This speech made Robinson a carrier for the case of the Irish Famine. Ó

Gráda discusses that the use of words like ‘our’, ‘we’, and ‘Irish people’ gives “the flavour of the

discourse on collective memory”, but “such inclusive, collective language occludes the uneven

and divisive character of the famine” (Ó Grada 138). This leads to the generalising memory that

“all those living in Ireland during the famine were forced to die or emigrate, with knock-on effect

on their traumatised descendants” (140). It occludes the original range of experiences, and it

causes a misconception of the real injury in contrast to the intensity of the collective memory. It

is present day society that tries to understand its past through shared memories, which enables

the society to process a “repressed memory from a micro to a macro context” (141). It takes such

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a collective trauma as the Irish Famine to bond “people together and impairs the prevailing sense

of community” (ibid), and this has led to the Irish collective memory.

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4. Brúitín - The Famine and the First Generation

As mentioned in chapter two, the period following the Irish Famine is sometimes referred to as

the Great Silence. This is due to a decline in the number of Irish-speaking Irish, but also because

people were not willing to discuss the Famine. The stories seem to come mostly from the upper

classes, as “little or none of it comes from the perspective of the ordinary people” (Póirtéir 3).

Cathal Póirtéir explains that “the communities who suffered worst during the Famine, were, by

and large, not those which had the opportunity of leaving a written testament of what had

happened to their district and their people” (ibid). It seems that we have to settle, “in the absence

of a large body of first-hand accounts of the Famine by its victims”, for “the histories,

travel-narratives, journalism, poetry, and novels of those who witnessed it” (Fegan 237).

Nevertheless, I have found several narrations which I will discuss in this chapter. I will analyse

Peter Halleran’s Blind Peter (1874), Justin McCarthy’s An Irishman’s Story (1906), William

Steuart Trench’s Realities of Irish Life (1868), and Robert Whyte’s Robert Whyte’s 1847 Famine

Ship Diary: The Journey of an Irish Coffin Ship (1848).

Blind Peter

The narrative Blind Peter was written by Washington Frothingham, as told to him by Peter

Halleran, and was published in 1874. He was unable to write his own story, due to the eye

abnormality ‘amaurosis’. Peter Halleran came from a family who “were in respectable positions

in life” (Halleran 5). His father “was a small farmer” (ibid) in County Galway. The family “like

the rest of the community were Roman Catholics” and even though he had “heard of Protestants

[…] there were none” in his neighbourhood (ibid). The general idea about the Protestants was

“that they all went to hell” (6), and he “was taught to hate them” (ibid). He was brought up with

the knowledge about “Jesus and the saints, and also of the Holy Mother, as Mary, the wife of

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Joseph is termed” (ibid) but he did not learn about sin and the need of salvation. The family’s

“cottage was built of stone, and was thatched with straw” (ibid). Halleran was able to “read,

write, and cipher” (ibid), and he “was taught to read the prayer-book” (ibid). The family had to

work very hard in the field, but still had difficulty getting “enough to support the family” (ibid).

He points out that in Galway “the soil is held by a few aristocratic landlords, who let it

out through agents, and the poor are sorely oppressed” (5). People would be punished if the rent

was late; “[f]irst the cow will be taken, then the crops, and then the furniture” (ibid). It was a

custom that “the butter and eggs went to pay rent, and the people lived on vegetables and

oatmeal, and but seldom tasted meat” (ibid). Nevertheless, “all who had money were given to

drink” (ibid). Halleran states that the people in his vicinity “were very ignorant and quarrelsome”

(7). During the weekly fair, the villagers would buy “a measure full of whisky and then drinking,

in which both men and women engaged”, which generally “ended in a fight” (ibid). The priest in

the village had to look after the morality in the village, which he did through laying “on penance,

or bodily pain for the commission of sin, but he seldom excommunicates a member unless for

turning Protestant” (ibid). Within the village there were “no physicians to attend the sick, but

there were female nurses who were paid for this service” (9). These women “gave no medicine,

and generally used cold spring water and oatmeal gruel”, but “[i]f the person was very ill the

priest was sent for” (ibid).

Another aspect of the Irish community that Halleran describes, are the funeral services. It

is a custom that “[w]hen a person dies nothing is said or done for one hour” (10). This has to do

with the idea “that the soul is then making its way to the spirit world, and if any noise is heard it

may attract the attention of the devil, who will annoy the departed one” (ibid). Then “the body is

laid out, and then they make a solemn wail of sorrow” (ibid). During the wake there generally is

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a lot of drinking. Halleran describes that as a child he thought the grave was terrifying and

everything what he “loved was hidden forever in its dark bosom” (11). In his later life he learned

that “Jesus has abolished death, and has brought life and immortality to light through the gospel,

and now death had lost its sting, and the grave its victory” (ibid).

The only mention of the blight is in chapter V. He states that “[i]n 1847 the crops failed,

and what is called The Famine in Ireland set in with great severity” (13). Halleran “had a

half-brother in America” and decided to move to America, which “was then a common subject of

conversation, and seemed [...] like the promised land” (ibid). Together with a couple of

neighbours, he went to Dublin by foot, to take a steamboat to Liverpool, and from there a large

ship to America. He boarded “on the 20th of December, 1847”, with a total of 250 passengers,

who were of “very decent class, but chiefly Roman Catholics” (14). He describes that “[t]he

voyage was rough” (ibid), with frequent storms. Onboard the ship his “allowance was two quarts

of water and a pound of pork, or potatoes, or rice and bread”; in addition he “had some provision

laid in at Liverpool” (14-15). After his arrival in America, Halleran went to live with his brother

in Fonda in the state of New York. He made a living for himself with several jobs, and eventually

found true spiritual salvation not as a Roman Catholic, but as a Protestant.

Interestingly, this novel does not refer to the Famine and its horrors in any significant

manner, even though, one can be sure, that he must have at least seen the hardship in his county

and maybe even in his village. As explained in chapter two, County Galway was hit very hard

during the Famine, thus it cannot be possible that Halleran did not witness anything gruesome

during his life in Ireland. In addition, he walked from Galway to Dublin; therefore, he must have

seen victims of the Famine on the road as well. The fact that he does not discuss his situation

during the Famine, nor during his time aboard the ship to America, can be interpreted as an

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unprocessed trauma. According to Judith Herman’s recovery process, Peter Halleran has

completed the first step, recreating safety. He found a new home and work, and rediscovered

himself spiritually, thus retaking control over his body and actions. However, step two is not yet

completed. Through writing this book he has started remembering and mourning, as can be seen

in his detailed description of his life before the Famine. Yet, he does not include the memories of

the Famine, his voyage to America or even family members that have deceased, like his mother.

He does fully focus on his spiritual journey, and it is quite obvious from the start that this novel

mainly concerns his religious development as he critiques the Catholic Irish ways every time.

Nevertheless, if this book is considered as an autobiography, then it can be concluded that due to

the lack of information about his time during the Famine he has not, at that point, been able to

process his Famine trauma.

An Irishman’s Story

An Irishman’s Story was written by Justin McCarthy who “was a journalist who was elected as

Home Rule MP for Co. Longford in 1879” (Jackson). In addition to this he was also “a popular

historian and novelist, producing in 1877 a successful History of Our Own Times” (Jackson). In

his autobiography, McCarthy gives very detailed descriptions about his pre-Famine life. He starts

by describing his surroundings, the “river and sea and low-lying hills, with meadows and gardens

and distant views of bolder height crowned with some ancient run” (McCarthy 1). He grew up

“in the near neighbourhood of the city of Cork in the south of Ireland, and the whole surrounding

region was rich in delightful scenery, whether the gazer looked upon land or water or took in

both together with the same glance” (ibid). Due to the aquatic milieu, he “cared for little in the

way of sport [,] which was not associated with the river and the sea, with boating and

swimming” (2).

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His “family household consisted of six members” (3), namely, his father, mother, sister,

brother and his aunt. He states that his family’s “condition at that time might well have been

described by the somewhat familiar phrase of ‘genteel poverty’” (ibid). His father “held the

office of clerk to the city magistrates and had studied law a good deal, although, owing to lack of

means, he was never called to either of the legal professions” (ibid). Besides this, “he was a man

of much reading, with a thorough love for books and [...] a distinct literary gift which might

under other conditions have enabled him to win some position as a writer” (3-4). McCarthy

describes his mother and sister “as the ideals of womanhood” (6). He could “recall nothing in the

character of either woman which suggests aught but purity, sweetness, utter unselfishness, and

loving devotion to every duty” (ibid). His three year younger brother “had a great ambition to

become a painter, but at a very early stage of his career he had to work hard for a living, and was

only able to use the pencil at odd times and without any chance of regular study” (6-7). His

brother “emigrated to America while still very young, and settled down in New York as an office

clerk [...] and he soon got married to a gifted and charming American girl” (7).

Everyone in his livelihood “either belonged to the class who had to make a living by law

or medicine or journalism or painting and sculpture, or were the sons of men thus engaged” (11).

Nearly everyone was poor, but nevertheless, they all “belonged to families in which education

counted for much and where scholarly studies always found encouragement” (ibid). However,

“[t]here was little chance then of university education for the Catholic youths who made up the

rising generation of Irishmen” (ibid). If the family could not afford a university, their children’s

“schooling was chiefly conducted by the monks of the various orders” (ibid). The children were

taught English, Latin, Greek, French, while some also learned Italian and German. McCarthy

describes one schoolmaster in particular when it comes to influential teachers. This man “was a

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Cork man named John Goulding, who had been educated for the priesthood, and had [...] spent

some years in Rome, but owing to ill health had been compelled to give up all hope of becoming

a priest” (19). McCarthy explicitly mentions the elderly man’s details, such as that his “general

expression of the face when he was not speaking was thoughtful and even melancholy, but when

he spoke with animation his eyes lighted up with an inspiriting brightness” (ibid). The teacher

was able to inspire his pupils to spend their evenings “studying and re-studying the text and

following the author into passages which had not” (22) yet been discussed. The final line of this

chapter reads: “[t]here are few men with whom I have ever been brought into companionship to

whom I owe a higher debt of gratitude than that which I acknowledge to my one schoolmaster,

and can only thus repay” (31-32).

Justin McCarthy provides his readers with a very detailed description of many aspects of

his life, but similar to Peter Halleran he does not wish to discuss his Famine experiences. During

the Famine he worked as a journalist for the Cork Examiner, and he and others “were sent into

different parts of the country as ‘special correspondents’ to describe the devastating effects of the

failure of the potato crop” (63). He states that:

It is hardly necessary to say that in those days the great majority of the working

population of Ireland were living almost exclusively on the potato, and the sudden failure

of the crop paralyzed all the efforts of the Irish government and the local authorities to

resist the encroachments of the famine. It is no part of my intention to attempt a history of

those famine months, which have found ample and abiding record in many carefully

compiled volumes. I saw enough for myself to cast a gloom over my memory, which

even at the present moment cannot be recalled without a thrill of pain. It was a common

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sight to see men and women, during that ghastly winter, lie down in the streets of the

country towns, and die of actual starvation (63-64).

Nevertheless, he does include information about the burial situation during the Famine. In

some burial-grounds people were unable “to find space for the coffins of the newly dead”, but

“[i]n some parts of the south and west of Ireland, the coffins had to do double and treble duty”

(64). These coffins were “made with one of its sides so adjusted as to be capable of easy

removal” (ibid). People would lower the coffin with the dead body in the grave, and then it was

lifted up again “so that the corpse fell from its wooden shroud into the cold, soft bosom of

Mother Earth, and the coffin was removed altogether and made to do duty for successive

inanimate occupants” (ibid). McCarthy also explains that Ireland received food aid from other

countries: “an American war frigate had come into the harbour heavily laden with food supplies”

(65), and a “Turk at the far Dardanelles was touched, and he sent us [the Irish] in pity the alms of

a beggar” (66). Additionally, McCarthy provides an insight into the political system of that time,

which did not help prevent the intensity of the Famine. He states that “[o]wing to an

extraordinary idea of political economy prevailing at the time among the governing authorities in

Ireland, great supplies of wheat and flour were kept stored in some public buildings used as

temporary granaries” (ibid). However, “[i]n more than one instance it happened [...] that food

thus stored was badly packed, so that it actually rotted and had to be poured into the sea" (ibid).

While numbers of starving people stood "on the near shores who might have been kept alive if

the grain and flour had been devoted in good time to their relief” (ibid).

The Famine caused “a feeling of intense hostility to British rule” (67). During these

hardships “English political and economical parties were contending against each other about

theories and doctrines of political economy”, while “an immense number of Irish men, women,

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and children were starving to death in their own miserable homes” (ibid). This cruelty was the

reason that “most of the young men [...] had become members of the Young Ireland party” (68).

McCarthy explains that “[t]he great majority, indeed, of the younger men all through the south

and west and midlands of Ireland were in thorough sympathy with the purposes and the

principles of that party” (68-69).

The further dealings of McCarthy’s An Irishman’s Story discuss his career path, his

experiences after the Famine, and his personal affairs. Similar to Peter Halleran, Justin McCarthy

does not wish to go into detail about his personal Famine experiences. However, he does explain

why he cannot discuss this subject. Judith Herman explains that traumatic events are often too

terrible to utter aloud, and this certainly seems to be the case for Justin McCarthy. It seems that

due to the nature of the story he has completed the first step of recreating safety. He was able to

build a life for himself with an amazing career. Through writing his book, McCarthy has started

step two, remembering and mourning, yet, his memories concerning the Famine are too painful

to discuss. He does follow the pattern of first describing the ‘before’ in a very detailed and

colourful manner, then continues with a short factual description of his views about the ‘during’,

followed by the ‘after’ in which McCarthy again portrays his life in detail. Taking in

consideration Judith Herman’s recovery steps, it can be concluded that Justin McCarthy was also

not able to fully process his trauma and find a way to deal with it in his life.

Robert Whyte’s 1847 Famine Ship Diary: The Journey of an Irish Coffin Ship

Robert Whyte wrote an eyewitness account of an Irish coffin ship voyage in his book Robert

Whyte’s 1847 Famine Ship Diary: The Journey of an Irish Coffin Ship. As is suggested, Robert

Whyte is a bystander of the horrors of such a journey, and does not necessarily personally

experience these events. His diary starts on the 30th of May 1847. His opening sentence reads:

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Many and deep are the wounds that the sensitive heart inflicts upon its possessor, as he

journeys through life’s pilgrimage but on few occasions are they so acutely felt as when

one is about to part from those who formed a portion of his existence; deeper still pierces

the pang as the idea presents itself that the separation may be for ever, but when one feels

father’s nervous grasp, a dear sister’s tender, sobbing embrace and the eye wanders

around the apartment, drinking in each familiar object, until it rests upon the vacant chair

which she who nursed his helpless infancy was wont to occupy, then the agony he wishes

to conceal becomes insupportable (Whyte 10).

After this emotional, but distant, description of his farewell, Whyte’s voyage to Canada

begins. He describes the day he left Ireland as “a charming morning”, a “balmy newborn day in

all the freshness of early summer” and “the beams of the sun which rose above the towers of the

city, sunk in undisturbed repose” (10-11). He states that “[i]t was a morning calculated to inspire

the drooping soul with hope auguring future happiness” (11).

During his voyage, Whyte kept a diary in which he described every day’s business of the

passengers and crew. He did not necessarily incorporate his personal evaluations of the

circumstances aboard this ship. He even provides detailed descriptions of the crewmembers, such

Simon the cabin boy, who had a face which “was coated with smoke and soot, streaked by the

perspiration that trickled from his brow which was surmounted by a thicket of short, wiry black

hair standing on end”, and his brown eyes “were ‘like two glass balls lighted by weak rush

lights” (11). Apprentice Jack “was about 15 years of age”, and was “remarkably small and

active” (12). He had squirrel-like climbing abilities, “and in the accomplishment of chewing and

smoking he might compete with the oldest man aboard” (ibid). Whyte’s description of his

features is as follows: “[h]is fair skin was set off by rosy cheeks and his sparkling blue eyes

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beamed with devilment” (ibid). Most of the members of the crew were described in a similar

elaborate manner.

The passengers looked “quite unfit to undergo the hardship of a long voyage, but they

were inspected and passed by a doctor, although the captain protested against taking some of

them” (14). Whyte states that there was one elderly man who seemed “to be in the last stage of

consumption” (ibid). Nevertheless, there were one hundred and ten passengers aboard the ship.

These passengers all received an allowance of provisions. He states that “each family was

entitled, one pound of meal or of bread being allowed for each adult, half a pound for each

individual under fourteen years of age, and onethird of a pound for each child under seven year”

per day (14-15). A week’s worth of provisions were distributed upon arrival aboard, “but as they

wasted them most improvidently, they had to be served again” on day three (15). In order to

prevent this from happening again “[t]he mate [...] determined to give out the day’s rations every

morning” (ibid). The passengers would bake cakes from the meal; “[t]hese cakes were generally

about two inches thick, and when baked were encased in a burnt crust coated with smoke, being

actually raw in the centre” (16). Most of the people were completely dependent on these

provisions, but there were a few who “had herrings or bacon” (ibid).

The passengers on these coffin ships escaped Famine Ireland, from starvation but also

from diseases. However, it is not unlikely that these diseases were brought along the voyage by

these passengers. Thus, on Tuesday the eighth of June the first report of two sick women arrived.

Over the next couple of days more sick people were reported, and to make matters worse there

was a problem with the water supply; “it was quite foul, muddy and bitter from having been in a

wine cask” (24). On Monday the fourteenth of June there were “eight cases of serious illness –

six of them being fever and two dysentery” (ibid). Whyte states about these diseases that “[t]he

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former appeared to be of a peculiar character and very alarming, the latter disease did not seem

to be so violent in degree” (ibid). The cases of fever were very contagious and caused panic

amongst the captain and his wife. The wife looked after the sick in the best way which she could,

yet even “under the most advantageous circumstances and under the watchful eyes of the most

skilful physicians, [...] should terrify one having the charge of so many human beings likely to

fall a prey to the unchecked progress of the dreadful disease” (25). Even the staff was affected by

the fever. On Wednesday the twenty-third of June the first person to die of fever was reported.

Whyte describes the symptoms of the fever: “the first symptom was generally a reeling in the

head, followed by swelling pain, as if the head were going to burst” (29). Then “came

excruciating pains in the bones and then swelling of the limbs commencing with the feet, in

some cases ascending the body and again descending before it reaches the head, stopping at the

throat” (ibid). In some cases the patients “were covered with yellow, watery pimples and others

with red and purple spots that turned into putrid sores” (ibid). At its height there were “fifty sick,

being nearly one half the whole number of passengers” (34-35).

Upon its arrival in Canada, the ship was put into quarantine. All the passengers made sure

that they looked their Sunday’s best, because the duration of the detention “would greatly depend

on the cleanliness of their persons and of the hold” (52). On Wednesday the twenty-eighth of

July the head physician came to inspect the ship. The whole of the inspection lasted five minutes;

he solely inquired after the sickness, and left “some papers to be filled up by the captain and to

have ready ‘tomorrow or the next day’” (55). Every day more vessels lay anchor under the same

circumstances as Whyte’s ship; the men were told that they had “escaped much better than so

many others” (59). Whyte describes his surroundings as follows:

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We lay at some distance from the island, the distant view of which was exceedingly

beautiful. At the far end were rows of white tents and marquees, resembling the

encampment of an army. Somewhat nearer was the little fort and residence of the

superintendent physician and nearer still the chapel, seaman’s hospital and little village

with its wharf and a few sail boats, the most adjacent extremity being rugged rocks,

among which grew beautiful fir trees. At high water this portion was detached from the

main island and formed a most picturesque islet.

However, this scene of natural beauty was sadly deformed by the dismal of human

suffering that it presented – helpless creatures being carried by sailors over the rocks on

their way to the hospital, boats arriving with patients some of whom died in their

transmission from their ships. Another, and still more awful sight, was a continuous line

of boats, each carrying its freight of dead to the burial ground and forming an endless

funeral procession (59).

Whyte describes everything along his journey, from the features of the crew to the

symptoms of the fever. However, there are some instances where he does not include detail. The

first one was about his departure; he sketches the scene but does not include his personal

feelings. It is as though he describes a completely different family, and someone else having to

say goodbye just to make sure that his personal feelings are not intertwined with his eyewitness

account. The other case was when he “landed upon the Isle of Pestilence and, climbing over the

rocks, passed through the little town and by the hospitals” (62). Beyond that village “at the edge

of a beautiful sandy beach, were several tents, into one of which I [Whyte] looked but had no

desire to see the interior of any others” (ibid). This passage stands out from the other extremely

informative descriptions, for the reader does not learn about the inside of that tent whatsoever.

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The reader is left with the freedom of filling in the blanks for him or herself, which is completely

the opposite of the rest of the diary. These two examples portray that even though Robert Whyte

was for the most part a mere bystander of the Famine, some events did affect him emotionally

and belong to the category of unspeakable trauma. Nevertheless, there are not any other signs of

trauma processing or of trauma for that matter in the diary. This could mean that he was able to

fully process whatever trauma he had, or due to the lack of description the only traumatic events

are still unprocessed. It seems that he did not suffer to extreme ends during the Famine, and thus,

it can be concluded that he came out of that period rather unscarred if one would compare it to

the two authors mentioned above.

Realities of Irish Life

Similar to Robert Whyte’s book, Realities of Irish Life written by William Steuart Trench is also

an eye-witness account of the Irish Famine. William Steuart Trench was a land agent and author.

He does not solely include his personal life, but also discusses general aspects of Ireland during

that time. In his preface, Trench explains his motives for publishing such a narrative:

First. My tales are of real life. Many of the incidents described therein have been told in

various forms, often very incorrectly, in the newspapers and journals of the day. My

desire has been to give a clear and truthful account of occurrences which virulent party

spirit or local prejudices have placed before the public, distorted through a false medium.

[...] My second reason for publishing these tales is to give the English public some idea

of the difficulties which occasionally beset the path of an Irish landlord or agent who is

desirous to improve the district in which he is interested. [...] Thirdly, I would wish to add

my testimony to the fact that Ireland – notwithstanding the many difficulties which may

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beset the path of those who earnestly desire to improve her condition – is nevertheless not

altogether unmanageable (Trench vi-vii).

Within his narrative he does not include his personal views, because “Englishmen

frequently complain that they cannot obtain facts concerning Ireland” (viii). Thus, he provides

some facts which he had personally observed, and “[w]hether they are worthy of being recorded

or not, the public must decide” (viii).

Similar to Justin McCarthy and Peter Halleran, William Steuart Trench describes his

youth and his education. However, his writings are to educate the English about the Irish way of

life. In chapter seven, he discusses the Famine. Trench introduces this topic by stating that

“[n]one of those who witnessed the scenes which took place in Ireland during the ‘potato-rot’ and

the ‘famine years’ are likely ever to forget them” (97). Trench owned some land in Queen’s

County on a mountain tract, and like so many others he grew potatoes, since that was “the only

green crop which grows luxuriantly in rough ground with previously imperfect tilth” (ibid). He

used Guano which had been “at that time (1845) recently brought into use as a manure, was

found to be particularly suited to the production of the potato” (ibid). In 1846 he planted “about

one hundred Irish acres of mountain land under potatoes, counting as surely as any famer can

count on reaping any crop, upon a produce worth at least 30l per acre" (99). However, “[o]n

August 1st of that calamitous year, 1846” he heard “a sudden and strange rumour that all the

potato fields in the district were blighted; and that a stench had arisen emanating from their

decaying stalks” (100). His fields looked “luxuriant as ever, in full blossom, the stalks matted

across each other with richness, and promising a splendid produce, without any unpleasant smell

whatever” (ibid). Unfortunately, on the sixth of August he “smelt the fearful stench, now so well

known and recognised as the death-sign of each field of potatoes” (101). Yet, “no perceptible

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change, except the smell, had as yet come upon the apparent prosperity of the deceitfully

luxuriant stalks, but the experience of the past few days taught” him “that all was gone, and the

crop was utterly worthless” (102).

Despite his losses he saw that “the general desolation, misery, and starvation” (103) were

much worse. He states “that in the more cultivated districts of the Queen’s County and the

midland counties generally, not many deaths occurred from actual starvation” (ibid). With that he

meant “that people were not found dead on the roads or in the fields from sudden deprivation of

food; but they sank gradually from impure and insufficient diet; and fever, dysentery, the

crowing in the workhouse or hardship on the relief works, carried thousands to a premature

grave” (ibid). The contemporary English government sought to public relief works. For example,

“[s]oup kitchens and ‘stirabout houses’ were resorted”, “[f]ree trade was partially adopted”, and

“Indian meal poured into Ireland” (ibid). Nevertheless, the people still died due to a lack of food.

Trench helped develop “a practicable plan to meet this public demand, and to organise a system

of reproductive works, such as draining, subsoiling liming, &c, and thus, as it were, draw the

people from the roads into the fields” (104).

In addition to the accounts of Queen’s County, Trench also includes “some features of the

potato-rot as it appeared in other districts” (106). Due to the fact that in the West and South of

Ireland “little corn was grown, and [...] the people lived almost exclusively upon the potato, the

most dire distress arose” (ibid). He describes that “[d]ark whispers and rumours of famine in its

most appalling form began to reach us, but still we could scarcely believe that men, women, and

children were actually dying of starvation in thousands” (ibid). Unfortunately, they did. People

“died in the mountain glens, they died along the sea-coast, they died on the roads, and they died

in the fields; they wandered into the towns, and died in the streets, they closed their cabin doors,

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and lay down upon their beds, and died of actual starvation in their houses” (106). This situation

seemed unreal until “a cry [...] arose from the west, and especially from the district of Skibbereen

and Schull in the county of Cork, which left no further doubt as to the real position of affairs –

hundreds, nay thousands, of people had died and were dying in those districts of absolute direct

starvation” (ibid). Trench does not have the “intention here to enter into any description of the

arrangements which were made by Government to meet this dire calamity” (106-107); he simply

wishes to describe the scenes he had witnessed.

William Steuart Trench’s narrative continues to discuss several subjects not fully related

to the Famine. As he explained in his preface, he provides information about Ireland. Based on

his narration and on the personal comments about his writings, it is not possible to conclude

whether or not he had a Famine trauma. However, it can be proven that he was affected by the

things he had witnessed, for he wrote that it is impossible to forget the sights of the Famine.

Since he was able to survive the Famine, without any real hardship, Judith Herman’s theory

cannot be applied to him.

Comparison

Due to the nature of the discussed texts in this chapter the following conclusions can be made.

William Steuart Trench and Robert Whyte have written witness accounts, whereas Justin

McCarthy and Peter Halleran’s works are autobiographical narratives. In all four texts, the

authors include elaborate details about everything except for their personal experiences during

the Famine. Trench explains that it is not his motive to discuss his Famine life, but solely wants

to provide information about the Famine. The same can, to an extent, be said about Robert

Whyte, who described the life aboard a coffin ship. However, in this he actually experienced

everything up close; because he was on the vessel and had share it with the victims of the

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Famine. Justin McCarthy solely mentions some general details about that time, but not what he

experienced. And Peter Halleran in some way completely skips the Famine. For three of these

men, McCarthy, Whyte and Halleran, it is possible to use Herman’s trauma processing theory in

order to discover in what stage of recovery the men were when they wrote it. All of them seem to

be in the second stage, trying to remember and write down their life, but were not yet able to

refer to the traumas the Famine inflicted upon them. Due to the informative nature of Trench's

account, it is not possible to identify a trauma.

Since these narratives do not include a lot of personal details about the Famine, they seem

to solely provide information for the collective memory. The succeeding generations will base

their Famine stories on the information given by the first generation. Due to the fact that the

authors of the above discussed narratives do not include their personal experiences and

sentiments about the Famine, they not contribute to the Irish cultural trauma. They do, however,

form the basis of a trauma claim. These authors cannot be considered the carrier group of the

Famine trauma claim. The information about the horrors they have seen will become the claim of

the following generations, and they in turn will become the carrier group of the Famine trauma

claim.

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5. Sceallóga - The Famine and the Second Generation

Second-generation survivors provided us with factual information about the traumatic events

their parents had survived. In some cases, these were the only accounts that were passed on, for

most first-generation survivors did not wish to retell and thus relive the events too often. As such

the second-generation’s stories have contributed to the cultural memory, but it should be kept in

mind that these stories were not their own, nor were these people able to transfer the emotional

burden their parents must have suffered. This is a major reason their telling is of a more factual

nature. To provide second-generation texts, I will base this chapter on Cathal Póirtéir’s book

Famine Echoes, which consists solely of second and third generation accounts recorded by him.

As it is beyond the scope of this thesis to examine all the texts, I have estimated that the average

generation lasts twenty to twenty-five years before the next one occurs. I have based this on

Mark McCrindle’s statement that the “biological definition has placed a generation for millennia

at around 20-25 years in span” (McCrindle 1). Therefore, I will look at the accounts of people

born between 1865 and 1876. The topics that will be included are the arrival of the blight,

surviving the hunger, diseases, deaths, politics and the landlord system, and emigration.

The Blight

As mentioned in Chapter two, the potato crops were infected by a fungus called Phytophthora

infestans. This fungus destroyed “a third or more of the crop […] in 1845; three-quarter in 1846

and 1847 and one-third in 1848” (Póirtéir 34). Eamonn Mac Dhuírnín from County Donegal

states that “in the latter days of June a dense fog came in from the sea and lasted three or four

days. When the fog cleared away [,] the potato stalks withered away in a couple of nights” (35).

According to Brigid Brennan, County Laois, the people who dug “the potatoes out when the

blight first appeared” were the ones “able to save some of them” (47). She “was told by an old

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woman that she heard her mother say no one could afford to sow potatoes that year, except

people who had money in the bank, and could afford to pay high prices for the seed” (ibid).

These seed potatoes had to be guarded because people would steal them for food. William

Powell from County Cork states that “old people said it was God’s will to have the Famine come,

for people abused fine food when they had it plenty” as the “spuds were so plentiful that they

were put on the fields for manure” (40).

The accounts dealing with the arrival of the blight give a factual insight into that event,

but do not necessarily provide an observation of the people’s emotions about the blight. The

discovery of blight is part of the transition phase, from the ‘before’ to the ‘during’. People’s

behaviour to save their crops shows a practical mindset that makes sentiments superfluous.

Jeffrey C. Alexander’s statement discussing that people often respond in a problem solving or

progressive manner when a trauma occurs, explains this emotionless behaviour. In this section,

William Powell’s account stands out from the other two because he presents a common

explanation of that time. During the Famine, the majority of Ireland was extremely religious, and

thus, the people would rely on their cultural background to find an explanation for the blight.

Surviving the Hunger

It is not uncommon that people who are starving steal food in order to survive. William

Doudigan from County Leitrim states people would “bring the potatoes into the house in the

spring, as is still the custom in these parts”, but that one family found that “they had been all

stolen” (69). In County Wicklow Mrs. Kavenagh mentions an occasion in which “her own

grandfather went into a house of a well-to-do farmer [...] and saw a leg of mutton boiling in a

pot” (72). Considering his starving family, the man decided to take ‘the meat out of the pot and

brought it home” (ibid). Due to people stealing from one another special methods of saving food

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would be invented. Here we have the example Jim Lawlor from Wicklow, which describes “one

family [which] got an ounce of turnips [...] and they brought in clay and sowed the turnips on the

kitchen floor to make sure that they would not be stolen” (70).

In some places there were still some potatoes left, but as reported by William Powell, that

also led to the problem that these could not be kept “outside in a pit nor in an outhouse, for the

starving people would face the soldiers to try and get them if they thought they were there” (75).

That is why some would keep them “inside at home in sacks or in their rooms they had to keep

them” (ibid). These potatoes enabled people to keep a job, because “as soon as the stalks

appeared above the ground there was a danger of [them] being rooted to find the sets or to dig

out the new potatoes before they were half mature” (ibid). In other parts of Ireland such as in

Martin Manning’s Mayo, “the land was suitable for wheat and barley” (78). These products were

used to pay rent, but anything that was left over would be used as food. However, “the people

who attended the mill should be sure to take it home with them at midday or it would be taken

from them, and even then they should travel in considerable strength” (ibid).

These fragments show to what extent people were willing to survive, and show a

pragmatic solution-seeking community. The idea of having to guard new crops might sound silly,

but in times of great hunger, people will eat whatever they can get their hands on. It also portrays

the fact that when people are in such horrible circumstances, they do not consider their fellow

humans. It was probably not uncommon that neighbours would turn on each other to have some

food to survive yet another day. On the one hand people resorted to stealing; on the other hand,

people would guard or store their provisions as much as possible. Both sides were trying to

collect food. Unfortunately, the two methods did not work well together, and if people would

have collaborated it might have been possible to save more people from starvation. Only in the

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narrative of William Doudigan the reader learns that “they of the household cried in despair

when they discovered the cruel wrong” (69). No other accounts are given of people’s emotions

when food was stolen or when they had stolen some food. Thus, due to the factual reports, it does

not contribute to the Irish collective trauma, but it does, however, contribute to the Irish

collective memory.

Diseases

One of the most common diseases coming alongside with the Famine was the fever. Due to the

contagious nature of this disease, people would avoid the sick. As reported by Richard Delaney

from Westford Town, this was a reason “when a person in any house had got fever the people of

the house would hide it from the neighbours” (102). Mrs. Gilmore from Westmeath reports that

“people were afraid to go near each other’s houses”, and that “when the people would die, they

would be thrown into the ditches and often there would be hundreds upon hundreds on top of

each other, dead” (ibid). A system was introduced to warn people of the contaminated houses:

“nobody entered the affected house [and] when death occurred in a house a tar pot was set

outside the door” (103).

Mrs Lennox from County Down concludes that this way the dead would be taken out of

their homes and be buried. John Mc Carthy from County Cork states that his mother explained

that the fever was caused “from the people eating bad things”, which she justifies because “of

course starving people would eat anything, even though it was decaying, and that was what

brought the sickness” (107). Due to the duration of the famine “people in general were then

[1847] weaker from the effects of the two previous years of scarcity, and were less able to resist

the attack of any epidemic” (111). Michael Gildea, Donegal, continues to explain that “insanitary

conditions had much to do with the spread of the fever” (ibid).

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However, the highest death rate could be found in the workhouses. In the account of

Tipperary’s Anthony Dwyer he recounts that his father “saw people dead, dying and staggering

about at a rest house at Knockroe, a short distance on the Cashel side of Golden [...,] where there

was then a workhouse” (121). Quite often people died along the road and due to the vast

numbers of people, “they were thrown inside the ditches near where they lay, and buried there

without the sacred rites of scripture” (ibid).

Yet, not everyone wanted to go to the workhouses. Tomás Ó Cearbhall from Cork notes

that “the victims preferred to die at home, and the Poor Law Unions were also hated, even the

destitute refusing to avail of their open doors” (123). Most workhouses were not built for the

amount of people that needed them during the Famine. Terence Clarke, County Cavan, explains

that “in the years before the Famine there were between 200 and 300 inmates in Bailieboro

Workhouse. In the year 1852 [,] there were 1,350 treated in the workhouse, the hospital and the

auxiliaries” (125). Some would even blame the workhouses for the Famine. Patrick Redmond

from County Wexford believes that “when the Poor Houses were built they put the poor people

from the doors and the curse of God came to the country as a result. The Poor Houses were

constructed in 1841. That was the reason for the Famine” (124). Nevertheless, the workhouses

provided free food and a place to stay for the ones in need. According to Hugh Clarke, County

Cavan, some people “went twice a day to the workhouse to get food” (126).

In this chapter, the stories intensify simultaneously with the horrors of the Famine. The

descriptions of the sick and dead people alongside the roads of Ireland do not only contribute to

the cultural memory, but they also provide material for the cultural trauma. Terence Clarke's use

of the word 'inmate' shows this. Inmate is a denigrating term for the people in workhouses. This

attitude is probably mimicking the thoughts of his parents and others in his surroundings.

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Clarke’s copying indicates a prosthetic memory concerning his opinion of workhouses because

he did not experience the workhouses during Famine times personally; he adopts the sentiment

from others and makes it personal. The same can be concluded about Patrick Redmond’s

statement that there is a correlation between the arrival of the workhouses and the Famine. These

ideas show that the Famine represents an extraordinary event that interrupted daily life and

affected numerous people emotionally, thus fitting Jeffrey C. Alexander’s description of cultural

trauma as depicted in chapter three.

Deaths

Throughout the Famine approximately a million people died. Peter Clarke of County Cavan

retells a story of a young doctor who explained to him that “it was most terrifying to drive along

the road and see a corpse lying here and a corpse lying there [...] both sides of the road were

strewn with them” (89). The doctor had pointed out that “when the Indian meal came out, some

of them were so desperate from starvation that they didn’t wait for it to be cooked properly they

ate it almost raw and that brought on intestine troubles that killed a lot of them that otherwise

might have survived” (ibid). Due to the search for food some left their homes behind. Such is the

case in the account of Séamus Reardon from County Cork. He defines that “what made matters

very trying and hard in these districts was the number of starving creatures that having left their

homes in the Skibbereen and Bantry districts travelled around these parts looking for a bite to

eat” (96). According to Patrick O’Donnell, “the auld people always said that it wasn’t want of

food made the people hungry, but that hunger was in the air and everyone suffered [...,] it come

from the will of God” (86).

Due to people’s fear of catching a disease, people did not want to enter a house in which

a sick person lay. There was a woman in Lettermaghera, as reported by Mayo’s Michael Gorman,

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that had to dig “a grave by the bedside and rolled her husband’s dead body out of the bed into the

grave” (183), because nobody wanted to help her. A more common of burying the massive

amounts of dead people was through the use of the detachable bottom. Mrs James Clarke, Cavan,

discloses that “there was a big trench dug in the graveyard, the corpses were carried in a coffin

with a detachable bottom, they opened it in the same way you’d open the bottom of bawrthogs

[barrdóg, a pannier with collapsible bottom] when putting out dung” (125). The amount of deaths

was too high for the people to keep up with, and in addition, there were not enough coffins for all

the deceased, so “the same coffin was used again and again” (ibid). It happened quite often that

funerals were barely attended, because “there were so many funerals at the time”, and when

someone died of fever “they were afraid they might take it” (185). A barely attended funeral

“was the saddest sight”, Charles Clarke’s father “had ever seen” (ibid).

The burying of people was also an opportunity for people to earn some money. Mrs

Gilmore explains that during the famine “there was a man for buying the dead. He would have

maybe 16 or 20 corpses thrown on a cart [and] this man would get a pound for each corpse”

(186). She concludes that “no one round was rich at that time, except the man from burying the

bodies” (ibid). Another story about these kinds of men comes from Seán Ó Domhnaill from

Tipperary. He reports about a man with “the nick-name of ‘Paddy the Puncher’ [who] earned this

title from the manner in which he used to dispatch to eternity those poor people who were on

death’s doors” (ibid). Paddy “received a shilling or so per body, and consequently [,] his whole

interest lay in the number of his burials” (ibid). One man’s meat is another man’s poison.

Descriptions of dead compatriots as a result of such circumstances have left indelible

marks on the Irish. The acknowledgment of trauma due to the Famine has created a social group

that needs a social responsibility and political action. The trauma of losing so many people has

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created a unity. Due to these circumstances, the Irish were forced to take measures going against

their religious values. The people could not give their deceased a proper funeral, which includes

a priest and a coffin. The collectivity of the Irish causes a cultural trauma, which is fed by the

cultural memory. The facts and figures of the Famine determine what one remembers, but the

trauma is caused due to stories of the first and second generation.

Politics

In light of the Famine, the landlords often did not help their tenants. Most of the landlords were

Protestant. William Torrens from County Donegal depicts that “Protestants in general [...] were

in better circumstances in the ‘hungry forties’ than their Catholic neighbours” (220). During

difficult times people will try and take advantage of each other. Torrens explains that numerous

Protestants “were not slow to take advantage of the difficulties [...] and were out to buy anything

of value for a trifling sum, ranging from land to personal effects” (ibid). The religious issue also

influenced the landlords’ behaviour towards their tenants as Séamus Reardon states: “anyone

who had anything to give, gave it with a good heart”, but the landlords “gave only on condition

that those who received would turn away from their faith and join the Protestant Church” (200).

They would use the people’s hunger to convert them; however, it often happened that the people

would rather die than to convert. Fortunately, there were some landlords that urged their tenants

to feed their family before paying rent. Consequently, “when times improved there was two years

rent due on the majority of the small farms and very little hope of paying it later” (207). Séamus

Reardon concludes that “this was a serious matter for the poor landlords. The rich landlords

could afford to lose a little” (ibid). Another party involved with collection rent was the agents;

according to William Doudigan, “the landlords were not counted a bad lot in these parts [...] but

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the agents were the mischief makers and always out to make the most of every situation to

feather their own nests” (218).

In addition to the landlord problem, the starvation was amplified because there still “was

plenty of food in the country” (210). Richard Delaney explains that “the corn at Coolmaine was

for Power’s Distillery, and the corn was drawn out to Dublin”. Martin Manning emphasises this

with the example that “in the year 1847 fourteen schooners of about 200 tons each left Westport

Quay laden with wheat and oats for the feed the English people while the Irish were starving”

(ibid). Additionally, Reardon states that the landlords knew “that if the harvest was not exported

they could not get their rents, so they saw to it that with the exception of seed for the following

year the wheat was sent away” (211). William Powell answers the guilt question by explaining

that “the Famine was man-made.” It were the rulers “that saw to it that [their] food was shipped

away to England from [them], and left the people here starving” (ibid). He also clarifies that

“there was no one to ‘talk’. The men in power were all Protestants, men that could get enough

for themselves and their families no matter what came” (ibid). Peter Clarke affirms this with the

information he had received from his father, namely “that the government didn’t allow the Indian

meal to come in until it was too late”, and that the “relief [Queen Victoria] allowed would come

to about quarter of what was needed by the starving people” (212).

Consequently, due to the Famine and the poverty, numerous people were evicted from

their houses. Mrs Peter Reynolds from County Roscommon describes how “Kilglass parish, that

is this parish here, and Skibbereen were the two places in Ireland that were the worst hit during

the Famine”. She continues that “there were 800 families in the parish of Kilglass before the

Famine. There is not half that number now” (230). In some places, it was even so bad that there

were “only three houses in it [...] and about a dozen people” (ibid). Michael Gildea explains that

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“the usual procedure after an eviction was to burn the thatched roof to prevent the tenant from

entering the house again after the bailiff and his assistants had left the scene” (231).

In these fragments, the stories leave the reader with a bitter taste. Cathal Póirtéir’s

chapters concerning the political situation in Ireland during the Irish Famine display whom the

Irish think are responsible for their starvation. There is much resentment against the Protestant

landlords, who tried to convert their tenants for food and money, but denied those fundamental

human needs when they did not convert. The narrators portray their anger and disbelief about

the cruelty of the political system, the treatment of the Catholics, and the shipments of

much-needed food. Due to their disbelief, the narrators become carriers for the wronged Irish and

present the way the Famine and the political system changed the future identity of the Irish in an

irrevocable way. These chapters also portray the choices made by the government concerning

food and housing situations. More importantly, throughout these chapters, the reader can sense

the resentment towards the higher classes. The narrators express a feeling of unaccountability

towards the reluctance of the ruling party in helping their fellow countrymen during desperate

times. These chapters confirm Jeffrey C. Alexander’s statement concerning a need for social

responsibility and political action.

Emigration

As mentioned in chapter two, about one million people emigrated during the Famine years. They

would mainly sail to England and America on ships nicknamed ‘coffin ships’. These ships

received their names due to the high death rates during the journey. According to Anthony

Dwyer, “there were enough Irish bodies gone down in the Atlantic to make a road from Ireland

to America” (250). It often happened that whole families would leave their homes. Charles

Clarkes states that “there were 52 Heereys living in the townland of Wilton before the Famine,

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and after the Famine there wasn’t one of them in it. They went to Britain” (249). The landlords

were in trouble due to the amount of people leaving, and some would threaten those left behind

to take “the vacant farm [or] he would lose his own” (ibid). However, Maighréad Ní Dhonabháin

claims the opposite that “as a result of the Famine many families were broken up” in order to

find work over there, but “if a family was suspected of receiving money from America the rent

was sure to be raised” (250-251).

In Póirtéir's emigration chapter, there are also some accounts of very severe situations.

For example Mrs Gilmore describes a case where “some of the poor people" would "leave their

children at some rich person’s house, unknown to them. Others would have them locked in the

houses and go off to America and leave the children to die” (245). In another case told by Patrick

Redmond, a boy from Dunmaine ran away from home and “was picked up by the English crowd

who were shipping to America all the young people who were being sent to the workhouse”

(246). However, these kids were sold “into slavery in America” and so the boy “was found, a

slave in America” (ibid). This chapter also discusses the coffin ships. Aboard these vessels the

circumstances were not always better than in Ireland. Bean Uí Sheoighe from County Galway

describes such a journey. During the journey “to America they often got short of food and many

of them were killed as food for the other people” (253).

Despite the fact that most people who left Ireland planned to rebuild their lives, numerous

did not survive their journey. These tellings contribute to the collective trauma because they

discuss an extraordinary event exposing members of the Irish collectivity to desperate

circumstances which have interrupted their daily routines. For the survivors of the Famine, who

had decided to emigrate, another trauma can be allotted. The arrival of the blight and the

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starvation was the first one, but leaving Ireland and surviving the horrifying events upon those

ships is the second one.

Comparison

Cathal Póirtéir’s collection of accounts on the Irish Famine by second and third

generation narrators contributes to the Irish cultural memory and cultural trauma. The main voice

of these narrations is informative; the reporters describe the stories their parents have told them

or they have heard from others in their surroundings. It is not possible for a second generation

narrator to transfer the sentiments of the people who have lived through the traumas.

Nevertheless, they are able, through the prosthetic memory, to adopt the emotions of the first

generation and apply them to their stories. In Famine Echoes, this is especially portrayed in the

chapters concerning the political situation and the deaths. The second generation represents the

carrier group as defined by Jeffrey C. Alexander. This is the group that decided in what kind of

way the information about the Famine is made public. The information given by them forms the

transition from personal trauma to the collective trauma and collective memory. This generation

constructed the information packages about the Famine accessible for the following generations.

These narrations sketch the socio-historical situation as detailed as possible, without referring to

personal circumstances too much. Cormac Ó Gráda stated that most stories about the Famine do

not include the family’s history, but it does refer to events people in their town have experienced.

This is due to the shame of their encounters during the Famine; nevertheless, it was important for

the first generation to discuss the traumatic event. The narrations in Cathal Póirtéir’s book

contribute the information needed to form a cultural memory and even allow the readers to adopt

the horrors of that time and apply them to their lives and make them personal as a prosthetic

memory. Thus, it creates a platform to develop cultural trauma as well.

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6. Póirín - The Famine and Children’s Literature

Children’s fiction based on real events plays an important part in the transmission of cultural

heritage from one generation to another. Authors of these books have the responsibility to sketch

a realistic image of their society’s culture. However, due to the artistic freedom they are allowed

to feed their stories with their views on the events. According to Irish writer Siobhán Parkinson,

“what we can – and ought to – expect of historical novels [...] is that they should present history,

no necessarily in a balanced way, but in a way that is truthful to the experience of their

characters” (Parkinson 680). Additionally, she states that children’s literature is not meant “to

challenge a culture’s myths”, but “when the topic is one that is as difficult, emotionally as well as

historically and politically, as the Irish Famine, the task of telling the truth in fiction is

formidable” (ibid). This is especially the case “if the writers have internalized their own agendas

so thoroughly that they are unaware of them” (ibid). Their opinions are important for the

transmission of cultural memory and cultural trauma.

In this chapter, I will provide an analysis based on a close reading of the books Under the

Hawthorn Tree (1990) by Marita Conlon-McKenna and Mary-Anne’s Famine (1998) by Colette

McCormack. I have chosen these two books because they portray the two ways the Irish Famine

victims can survive the Famine. In Under the Hawthorn Tree, the three main characters stay in

Ireland and have to travel to relatives in another part of Ireland, while struggling to find food,

while in Mary-Anne’s Famine, the main character leaves Ireland to start over in America. In both

stories the journeys and the emotions are described in detail. I will explore the difference

between the information provided through the characters' points of view and the information

given through the author’s description of the events, to display the contributions to the Irish

collective memory and cultural trauma.

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Under the Hawthorn Tree

Under the Hawthorn Tree discusses the life of the O’Driscoll children during the Famine. The

book follows their journey through Famine Ireland, during which they encounter every disaster

related to the Famine. Their story begins at home in Duneen, County Cork. The family consists

of their father John, who is working elsewhere and never actually appears in the book, their

mother Margaret, and the children Eily, Michael, Peggy and baby Bridget. Their little sister

Bridget dies and their mother wants to find their father. The children are left behind and are

forced to leave their home. They decide to look for family in Castletaggart, a fictive town, and

cross Ireland by foot. Along their journey, they encounter all the horrors associated with the

Famine. The entire book is written from a third person omniscient point of view; it discusses the

journey and gives a limited insight into the inner workings of the children and even some other

characters. Despite this voice, the narration seems to follow the eldest daughter Eily the most.

Due to the third person omniscient voice, the reader is brought along a journey narrated by a

bystander, and thus, it copies the narration style of the second generation. This indicates that the

novel will contribute to the Irish cultural memory and not the Irish cultural trauma. Throughout

the narration, the reader receives information about the Famine through the journey of the

O’Driscoll children, but he does not necessarily get knowledge about the way these characters

experience their journey.

The first chapter title is ‘Hunger’, which immediately drags the reader into the horrifying

time of the Famine. Baby Bridget is ill, “her skin white and either too hot or too cold to the

touch” (Conlon-McKenna 11). Their “[m]other held her all day and all night as if trying to will

some of her strength into the little one so loved” (ibid). Eily remembers “that it was only a little

over a year ago [...] when Tim O’Kelly had run in to get his brother John and told them all to

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‘Make a run home quick to help with lifting the spuds as a pestilence had fallen on the place’”

(ibid). Upon her arrival home, her “father was sitting on the stone wall, his head in his hands.

Mother was kneeling in the field, her hands and apron covered in mud as she pulled the potatoes

from the ground, and all around the air heavy with a smell” (11-12). It was “the smell of badness

and disease” (12). Everyone knew what this meant, and “the men cursed and the women prayed

to God to save them [...,] [a]ll the children stared – eyes large and frightened” (ibid). The

family’s food supply during chapter one was not much, “there were three greyish leftover spuds”

which they ate with “a drink of skimmed milk” (ibid). Over time the children had learned not to

ask for any more food, because their pleas would only be met with sadness from their parents

and it seemed that “[t]hings were better left unsaid” (ibid).

One of the main focuses during the first chapters is family life, in particular regarding

baby Bridget. She was too ill to survive the hardships of the Famine, and as her mother states,

“she was just too weak to stay in this hard world any longer” (ibid). Throughout the novel, the

characters strive to be strong for one another, and despite their own grief they keep pushing their

boundaries to survive. This is one of their main modes to keep continuing. In chapter two,

Margaret, after the loss of her baby, prepares for a proper funeral, despite the fact that “Father

Doyle is gone down with the sickness himself and will not be able to bury the wee lassie” (19).

In addition to Father Doyle, others in the village “have died of the sickness – Seamus Fadden,

the coffin maker, being one – so there are no proper funerals” (ibid). The family decides to use a

wooden chest from their grandmother as a coffin, and family friends “Dan and Kitty led them in

the prayers” (ibid).

Another element that continuously reappears throughout this book is the importance of

religion. In this fragment, the family wants to bury Bridget in what they call a proper way, with a

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coffin and a priest. Unfortunately, due to the Famine, the circumstances did not always allow

people to bury their family members properly. The children try to honour the idea of a proper

funeral when they come across a corpse; Michael fashions a cross out of twigs and grass, and the

children say a prayer for the deceased man. Nevertheless, the hopelessness of the situation also

makes them doubt the existence of God. Eily does this the first time when she notices that

“people are starving, children hungry. Men and woman [,] like ghosts [,] walking the road and all

afraid of catching the fever” (28). She wonders if God has forgotten them, but her mother

reassures her that “God acts in such strange ways and there is no sense to why life is so hard”

(ibid). This answer settles that matter for a while, but the children doubt the existence of God

again when they have hit rock bottom. Michael decides to look for a workhouse near them, but

upon his arrival, he hears that they “have no space for man, woman or child, nor is there spare

food” (79). The situation surrounding the workhouse was untenable: “crowds of people were

waiting, sleeping on the cobblestones”, and “from within the building came a constant moaning

and crying, and a smell of disease and sickness” (ibid). Due to these images, Michael concludes

that “[t]here was no God, and if there was he was a monster” (ibid).

The character's main occupations in this novel are finding food and staying alive, this

corresponds with the Famine survivor's stories. Margaret sells “her beautiful hand [ ] worked

lace shawl and grey knitted wedding gown with its matching lace collar” and two combs for “a

bag of oatmeal [...,] a bag with a few pounds of greyish-looking spuds, then a tub of lard, a few

screws of salt, [...] a small hard piece of dried beef”, and “a large sack of yellow meal” (24).

This amount of food would not last very long in a household of three children and a grown-up,

so the family would soon again be desperately looking for other goods to trade for food.

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However, quickly after this episode, Margaret leaves the children behind to find her husband,

and the three children are forced to leave their home.

During the journey of Eily, Michael and Peggy, the author shows different ways of

finding food during the Famine. The O'Driscoll children meet another child named Joseph who

informs them that “he had heard that some strange religious folk had set up a soup kitchen for the

poor” (51). The soup kitchen had a crowd of “hundreds of ragged starving people” all “queued

desperate for food” (ibid). All the people were physically affected by the famine, for “the cheeks

were sunken, the eyes wide and staring with deep circles underneath, the lips narrow and tight,

and in some the skin had a yellow tinge” (51-52). The soup they would receive was filled with

“’carrots and turnips and onions [...] along with scoops of barley and buckets of water”, even

some “roughly chopped pieces of meat and offal” were thrown in (52). Not everyone supported

these soup kitchens, “an old man shook them and told them to be on their way, as the heathens

would try to convert them in the morning and if they took another mug of soup they may as well

take the Queen’s shilling” (ibid). This message did not mean much to the children and the next

morning they “received their portion of the thick mutton stew” (ibid). Their new friend Joseph

did not come with them on their further journey, because he wanted to “make his way to one of

the harbour ports and try to get passage on one of the ships sailing for Liverpool” (53). Joseph

there represents the emigrating crowd during the Irish Famine.

Another moment the children stumble across food is on the land of a deceased farmer.

Other men were already digging for turnips while assuring them “that there was no harm in the

poor trying to save themselves” (58). Some of those “poor creatures were eating them as soon as

they lifted them, barely knocking the earth off”. Fortunately the children waited until they could

cook them (59). Similar to eating raw potatoes, raw turnips can make one sick which would

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probably lead to the death of some due to their low immune system. During their journey the

children hunt for rabbits, catch fish, collect all sorts of fruits and vegetables growing in Irish

nature, and even bleed a cow. Michael had found an unguarded cow standing in a paddock and

decided to use a technique his dad had taught him. He made a cut in the cow’s neck and Eily held

the cup for the blood. She “poured enough from it to cover the base of the pot” and added “a few

bits of grain and husks [...] a bit of the wild garlic” in order to make “a dark brown, nearly black

cake” (84).

Marita Conlon-McKenna has included two examples of political unrest. The first is

mentioned above, namely, the older man warning the children not to stay in the soup kitchen.

This man represents the Catholic community refusing the help of the Protestants. As explained in

chapter five, some of those Protestants would try to convert the Catholics to their religion

through food aid. The more extreme method would include refusing to help unless the Catholics

would convert. The old man in Under the Hawthorn Tree actively tries to go against the power of

the Protestants. He fights for the Irish Catholic identity.

The second time a political situation arises is during the episode set in the harbour of

Ballycarbery in County Kerry. In this town “there did not seem to be much sign of shortage”, for

“[l]adies and young girls made their way into the draper’s store, the window festooned with bales

of cotton and ribbon and two or three hatstands with gaily trimmed bonnets” (65). The children

saw five carts approaching the harbour; the carts “creaked with the heavy weight of their load”,

which were “sacks of grain” (ibid). These carts were guarded, because soon they were

surrounded by “starving people, tired and brokenhearted” (ibid). These bags were destined to go

to England. The crowd protested stating that they are “starving, the hunger is on” them (66). Due

to the lack of soldiers, “two or three skeleton-like young men had jumped on to the carts and

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slashed open the sacks” (ibid). This might not necessarily seem like a political message, but it

displays the attitude of the English regarding food during the Famine. The Irish population is

starving, and still, there are shipments of food going towards England. Marita Conlon-McKenna

portrays the resistance as part of the Irish cultural memory, for the scene is merely informative.

Due to the third person omniscient voice of Under the Hawthorn Tree, the reader receives

a detailed description of everything in the book but does not necessarily experience the

emotional journey of the O’Driscoll children. Conlon-McKenna includes most of the Famine

circumstances in her novel. All the aspects mentioned in this novel, are based on information

from the first and second generation, and the collective memory. The stories of the second

generation provide information about the wish of having proper funerals, the amount of sickness

in villages, and questions about God and his ways. Also, several accounts on finding food can be

found in my chapter about the second generation. The account of John Mc Carthy shows that

people would eat whatever they could find, even if it was decaying. In this novel

Conlon-McKenna depicts this during the fragment where starving men were eating raw turnips.

This would probably lead to stomach problems and maybe even death due to their low immunity

system.

Conlon-McKenna merges all the different elements about the Famine but does not

include emotional statements from the characters in her narrative. Of course, when baby Bridget

dies the children are sad, and during the journey they are hungry, tired and scared, but it seems

that Conlon-McKenna wants to emphasise the facts of the Famine more. Thus she has created a

rather informative story disguised in an adventurous journey which would appeal to children.

She uses her creative freedom to portray the horrible truths of the Famine and is able to display

all the facts without making it too straightforward and too horrific. The author puts emphasis on

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religion, the children’s perseverance, and the continuation of the story in order to disguise the

elements that might be too horrifying for children, such as the corpse in the bushes.

Conlon-McKenna mentions almost every aspect associated with the Famine but does not linger

on any subject too long. The only themes that return regularly are hunger and perseverance.

These two elements are the only two of which one can say with certainty that all the Famine

victims experienced them. No one had any food, but everyone did what he or she could to

continue living. All the other subjects mentioned by Conlon-McKenna are, thus, merely elements

that only parts of the population had to deal with. This does not make them less significant, but

these circumstances were not the standard throughout the Famine. Due to the informative nature

of this novel, it can be concluded that it solely contributes to the Irish cultural memory.

Mary-Anne’s Famine

Mary-Anne’s Famine consists for the greater part of a correspondence between the teenager

Mary-Anne Joyce and her former schoolteacher Seán Thornton. The book starts with fragments

from Mary-Anne’s diary, which she is encouraged to keep by her teacher. These fragments begin

in August 1845 and end in April 1847, after which the book continues, for the most part, through

an exchange of letters between Marry-Anne and Seán. Some fragments describe the life of the

characters at the moment they are happening. The voice of this book shifts between Mary-Anne

and Seán, without any additional thoughts from other characters. Mary-Anne is the main focus,

but due to the correspondence, the reader gets an extra insight from Seán's situation. It can,

therefore, be said that the book is partly written in a first person narrative. On the other hand, the

reader is told by the author what both characters are going through. This makes the story also

partially third person limited. As a result of the third person voice narration, the text reads, at

some points as a first generation text. It starts with a description before the traumatic events, and

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then a transition period where the persons notice that their life is about to turn bad. This is

followed by a description of the traumatic event and then their current situation where they have

been able to settle down and find a new safety. The characters’ narratives will provide the

material to pass on the Irish cultural trauma, portrayed in their use of language to describe their

life’s paths. However, the events that happen simultaneously in correspondence to characters’

lives are choices made by Colette McCormack. Her edits will provide the material needed to

analyse her message and contribution to the Irish cultural memory. Thus, this book transmits

material for both the Irish cultural memory and the Irish cultural trauma.

When the novel starts, Mary-Anne Joyce is a fourteen-year-old girl who lives in the town

of Moneen, in County Galway. Her diary entries are from August 1845 until April 1847; through

these entries, it is possible to observe the progression of the Famine. In her diary fragments and

later in her letters she is very elaborate in her descriptions of her life. Mary-Anne lives in a

‘bothán’, which is the Irish word for a “mud-walled, with a thatch roof [...] cabin” with “a

kitchen, then one small room and a loft” (McCormack 3). This cabin has “one window in the

kitchen and one in the small room” (4). It can, therefore, be concluded that Mary-Anne and her

family live in a third class house3. Her “mam and dad sleep in the small room, and Mamo Cait

and [she] sleep in the settle bed in the kitchen, which is always warm and smoky from the turf

fire” (ibid). Due to her detailed description, Mary-Anne lets the reader enter her livelihood. This

allows the reader to visualise the way “the stirabout pot and the kettle hang from the crane over

the fire” (ibid), or how the rosaries hang on a stone arch “after the prayers are said at night”

(ibid).

3 See chapter 2

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The last bit of Mary-Anne’s August 1845 fragment and her September 1845 entry are

about their daily life routines. Her father has “made many pieces of furniture for the cabin” and

“he sows the praties, cabbage and turnips in the outside field” (5). The family is very

self-sufficient; they work “hard in the fields”, they keep “a donkey, a cow, a few sheep and the

hens”, and they can produce their clothing (ibid). These elaborate descriptions indicate that

Mary-Anne enjoys these parts of her life, and wants to hold on to these cherished memories in

the most specific way she can. Her fondest memory must be that of her mom milking their cow,

for every aspect of this chore is very explicitly mentioned, from her mother sitting “on the

three-legged stool [with] her head against the cow’s warm belly”, to their cow which “chews the

cud and flicks her tail at the flies” (7). Nothing seems to have been left out of this memory.

Mary-Anne can take the reader along with her while the family carries out the chores. The same

level of detail is used to describe her experiences at school.

Within her diary fragments, there are mentions of the potato situation, and a noticeable

change throughout her writings occurs. In September 1845, she mentions that she “could smell

the badness” around the potatoes patches (6). This bad omen brings back her grandmother’s

memories “of the other times when the praties went bad [...] and people died from hunger” (ibid),

but Mary-Anne does not include any specific details about the horrors of those times. This could

indicate that her grandmother did not tell her, due to the traumatic experience of those times, or

that Mary-Anne’s fear that “the gorta4 [which] has been seen about Moneen” will return (ibid).

In March 1846, the families in Moneen are warned by their priest “that if things do not get better

[they] should be thinking of taking the boat to America” (10). Mary-Anne steers clear from

giving any descriptions about the actual circumstances in her town. She mentions hunger for the

4 “A ghostly figure symbolising hunger” (McCormack 141)

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first time in her June 1846 entry, where she states that “now that it is warm the hunger is not so

bad” (15). However, her next fragment in the June 1846 entry states that “the blackness is on

[their] new praties” (ibid). This situation causes a chaos, about which she writes that everyone in

the village was “shouting and crying and swearing” and they had “fear in the faces” (ibid). The

tension surrounding the potato crops has been slowly building up through her diary fragments,

and in this part, it has reached its climax: the blight has spread to their potatoes.

Mary-Anne writes about the hunger increasing rapidly in August 1846. She states that

“some people turn from being Catholics so they will get more soup and other help” (17). The

people in Moneen at this point are helped by “people called the Friends” whereas “many of

[their] neighbours in the other villages are out of their houses because there was no money for

the landlords” (ibid). At this stage, it becomes clear that the Famine is taking its toll for “some of

the poor people went to the Workhouse in Galway, and some of them made shelters in the hedges

and ditches” (ibid). However, Mary-Anne does not describe the actual horrors that are the results

of starvation. In the last four short diary fragments, she writes that they had to bury her

grandmother, even though “there are no coffins left” (18), because “she got the famine fever and

the black leg” (ibid). Due to the lack of food, the family is forced to go to America and live with

family there. She states that “there is no place for us now in America” and that “many people

have died in Moneen” (ibid), with “no sign of life” left (19).

Her subsequent writings are part of the correspondence with her teacher Seán Thornton.

In her first letter, she reflects on leaving Ireland and saying goodbye to Seán. She states that “it

must be like dying” (29). It is clear that having to leave Ireland was an emotional experience for

them all and Mary-Anne is sure that she “will never be able to stay away forever” for "this

‘great’ new world [...] will never be home” (ibid). The situation on board is tough with “no place

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private” and the people are only allowed “to walk up on the top deck for ten minutes in the

morning and in the evening if the weather is good” (30). On the one hand, she feels homesick.

On the other hand, Mary-Anne finds strength in her memories of Moneen, because when she is

sick “and the waves are high, near to the top sail”, and she thinks that she “will die and leave this

awful place”, she remembers her home and can carry on (31). Despite the death of a baby, a

couple of fights, a fever and the horrendous hygienic circumstances, Mary-Anne and her family

are able to survive the forty-day journey to America. Similar to her descriptions of her time in

Ireland concurrently with the Famine, Mary-Anne does not include any details about horrifying

events which she has witnessed. She shortly mentions fights during dinner or after a drink, and

she barely comments on the death of the baby. According to Judith Herman, it is very normal for

trauma victims to point out what has happened, without actually describing everything

elaborately. Due to the style and first person voice of this book, it is possible to analyse

Mary-Anne’s letters as a first generation trauma victim. Thus, her part of the book contributes to

the transmittal of the Irish cultural trauma.

Mary-Anne has described parts of her life before the trauma, welcoming the reader into

her life, her thoughts and her comfort. Secondly, she writes about her time during the trauma.

The reader is kept up to date about what happened, but the personal details are left aside. Due to

the severity of a trauma, it is impossible for a person to attach emotions to those events. The next

step Mary-Anne has to take is creating a new safety. In the case of the Joyce family, this means

establishing a new home in an entirely new country. Despite Mary-Anne’s homesickness, she

finds a way to cope with her new situation. It does not take long before her “dad and [uncle]

Arthur shoe the horses at the forge”, and “mam and [aunt] Bina sew curtains and bedcovers for

the stores” (45). Within her letters, the details of her circumstances return. The family lives in a

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part of New York which “is crowded with many people from many countries”, where their room

“is on the second floor of a high house and it is all Irish people who live in this building” (ibid).

The reader further learns that “the ceilings in the rooms are high and the windows wide” (ibid). It

seems that slowly Mary-Anne is capable of letting emotions re-enter her writings, as well as

allowing the reader to re-enter her world. In the end, she can find total comfort and feels

“warmth and peace steal through her” (138) in her new society.

The other first person narrator in this book is Seán Thornton. His first letter in the book to

Mary-Anne is written in September 1847 when Seán has arrived at his new job in Clonavoe in

County Offaly. He travelled by train and he “was met at the station by one of the men employed

at the estate with a pony and trap to convey" him "the remainder of the journey to Cromane

House” (37). His “quarters [...] are on the third floor: two rooms and a convenience, plain and

comfortable” (ibid). He will now be “in charge of a school with thirty-two pupils, eighteen boys

and fourteen girls”, and he will work together with “Miss Phoebe Chapman, a timid girl, but a

good teacher of the infants” (36). The descriptions of his new circumstances may lead the reader

to think that he has been able to create a new safety for himself, which is the first step of

recovery from a trauma according to Judith Herman. However, as will be discussed in the next

section, Seán does not include a detailed description of his journey from Moneen to Dublin, so

he either spares Mary-Anne the horrors of the Famine or is not able to discuss them yet.

He does include details about the political situation in Ireland; he explains that “there is a

lot of unrest throughout Ireland because of the way the Government is dealing with the Famine”

(38). He predicts that “the poor and oppressed will rise against this treatment” (ibid). In

November 1847 he continues his letter by stating that “times are not improving”, and that his

“children are getting pinched-looking, their eyes larger and their faces pale” (40). Seán can

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describe other people’s sorrows and his concerns for those people, but Mary-Anne and the reader

do not get any information about his personal well-being. As mentioned in chapter in three,

Cormac O’Grada states that most people were ashamed to talk about their circumstances during

the Famine, so Seán’s abstinence from personal details might be due to shame. He might be

ashamed that he is still doing rather well, whereas most of the poor have “no spirit left” (41).

Seán continues to write about the political situation in Ireland and even includes his wish

to be involved when he writes that “there is an organisation here called the ‘Young Irelanders’,

and" he is "considering becoming a member of it” (48). He explains to Mary-Anne that “there is

food going out of the country at a great rate to feed the people across the water, and no for the

starving Irish” (ibid). The situation in Ireland is leading to “fighting words from a schoolmaster,

but that is what is happening to” him “and many more like” him (49). Seán spreads a clear

anti-English government message to Mary-Anne for he states that the Irish could govern

themselves, “and not be dependent on the Sasanach” (ibid). In addition to this, he quotes John

Mitchel, a Protestant activist for Irish nationalism, who said “that ‘The Almighty, indeed, sent the

potato blight, but the English created the Famine’” (ibid). Even though Seán is very elaborate in

his descriptions and opinions of political Ireland, the reader does not get to know him very well.

The government suppressed the rebellion, and Seán was left “sad and disillusioned” (62).

The leaders were exiled from Ireland, and during attempts to gather as many people for the cause

as possible, a few people were killed. Seán witnessed the shootings up close and states that “it is

heartbreaking to see two men, who had been full of life one minute, cold and dead the next”

(65-66). This situation caused Seán to come to the conclusion that he “will travel to the United

States as soon as" he "can acquire a passage” (ibid). Finally, in March 1849 Seán mentions his

condition for the first time when he writes that he has “had life easy since leaving Moneen, living

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in comfort in a house which knew no shortages” (83). However, while writing this letter, “there

is half a turnip and a can of spring water to feed” him “for the few days remaining here in Clare”

(ibid). Nevertheless, the main message is still that “the poor have hunger, hovels and disease; the

rich have great houses, idleness and stupid pride” (84). Seán’s incapability to complain about his

circumstances must derive from his shame. He did not struggle as much as most people during

the Famine. Something that becomes obvious throughout his letters is that the failing of the Irish

rebellion traumatised Seán. His descriptions become less detailed, and he seems more worried

about not bringing too much upsetting news from the home front.

In contrast to Mary-Anne, Seán Thornton seems to be more of a bystander of the Famine.

Before the Joyce family leaves for America, Mary-Anne gives her diary letters to Seán. He stays

in Ireland and seems to be doing rather well; he understands the decision of leaving Ireland for

“death was the only certainty facing them in Moneen” (21). By stating that death would be the

outcome for ‘them’, he indicates that he would be able to survive the Famine in Moneen.

Nevertheless, “he could not stay much longer in this hellhole which was Connacht” (ibid) and

thus he left for Dublin. Along his two-month journey, “he had seen workhouses whose windows

were filled with wild-eyed starving men, women and children, their hands held out in

supplication”, and bodies which "lay along the rough roads for weeks without burial” (22). The

only things that Seán is described to be suffering from are “footsore, heartsore and wear[iness]”

(ibid). Upon his arrival in Dublin, he depicts a scene in which “well-dressed ladies and

fashionable men strolled the elegant thoroughfares, and horse-drawn carriages with stately

coachmen in splendid uniforms” (ibid). It was clear to him “that in Dublin at least there was no

obvious sign of need for ‘saving’or ‘rescuing’”, which left him feeling “bitter and angry,

remembering the desperation and agony of the poor of the West and those on the roads to

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Dublin” (22-23). This sight left him with a “growing resentment” (23). This part is made up of

information given by the author about Seán’s situation. It describes his feelings and whereabouts;

yet, there is a tangible difference between the author’s description of his situation and what Seán

will write in his letters to Mary-Anne. The horrifying sights he must have witnessed along his

journey must at this point still be too painful to be described by him in a letter.

Colette McCormack chooses to include the rebellion in Seán’s life, and by doing so, she

informs her readers about such actions. The enmity towards the English Government is not

subtly intertwined within the story. Both characters, either actively or not, are involved in

anti-British scenes. In Seán’s case it is quite obvious, but in Mary-Anne’s case, there are subtle

hints such as people passing by singing the revengeful song Skibbereen. Another aspect of

pro-Irishness within this book is the use of Irish words. The words most frequently used are

hypocorisms, such as ‘a stoir’, my dear, or ‘mavourneen’, my darling. Other words used refer to

common Irish objects or sentiments such as the potato (porín) or musical instruments (feadóg),

but also, the ‘gorta’ as a representation of the Famine, and ‘táim go brónach’, meaning ‘I am

heartbroken’. Through the use of these Irish words and phrases McCormack emphasises the

importance of being Irish.

Colette McCormack’s book provides material for the Irish cultural memory, because of

her portrayal of several politically engaged events in this book. Additionally, the speech by John

Mitchel quoted in Seán’s letter will emphasise the resistance of the Irish and the role the English

government played during the Famine. The information portrayed in the narrations of

Mary-Anne and Seán will serve as the material for the Irish cultural trauma, whereas the events

described by the author will provide information to form the Irish cultural memory. The children,

who will read this book, will become agents to pass the Irish cultural memory and trauma on.

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Comparison

These two children’s books represent the Irish Famine in two unique ways. Under the Hawthorn

Tree discusses mainly the life of people who stayed in Ireland, whereas Mary-Anne’s Famine

portrays the path of those who emigrated. In addition to this, the voices of the two books differ

from each other as well. Conlon-McKenna presents the Famine narrative in a third person

omniscient voice, in order to discuss many aspects of the Famine as possible. McCormack,

however, merges two first person narrations and a third person limited point of view.

These voices of both these novels mimic existing narrations. The third person voices,

limited and omniscient, show the reader a resemblance to the second generation stories and

historical facts. They represent the authors’ contribution to the cultural memory of the Irish

Famine. However, the first person narrations in Mary-Anne’s Famine are the only ones able to

contribute to the cultural trauma. Because these characters can be compared to first generation

narrators, they are able to transfer their feelings regarding the Famine and their personal

circumstances. By using first person point of view McCormack adopts a prosthetic memory to

her story as well. She portrays the emotions first generation survivors have concerning the

Famine on her characters. Of course, these novels are always the products of their authors, but

the different points of view play an important part in the contribution to either cultural trauma or

cultural memory. Nevertheless, in both cases, the authors are the carriers of the Irish Famine

claim, who want to inform their young audience about their history.

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7. Scealbóir - The Famine and Music

Ireland is known to be the land of music, in particular, folk music. Gearóid Ó hAllmhuráin

introduces traditional Irish music as the topic of his book O’Brien Pocket History of Irish

Traditional Music, with a quotation from music collector George Petrie. He states that “the music

of Ireland has hitherto been the exclusive property of the peasantry” (Ó hAllmhuráin 7). He

considers the upper classes, the landlords, “a different race – a race who possess no national

music; or, if any, one essentially different from that of Ireland” (ibid), because “[t]hey are

insensitive to its beauty, for it breathed not their feelings; and they resigned it to those from

whom they took everything else” (ibid). Irish music underwent a big change because of the Great

Irish Famine. In this chapter, I will first discuss the development within Irish music from the

period before the Famine to the aftermath. Then I will focus on several lyrics concerning the

Irish Famine. However, this chapter will divert from the previous ones, for I find that the songs

overlap in themes. Through an analysis of these lyrics, I will try to establish whether music

contributes to the Irish cultural trauma, collective memory or both.

Irish Music

As stated in chapter two, the Great Irish Famine had a big impact on Irish daily life and

population. Another Irish element that was affected by the Famine was Irish music. One of the

main changes was that “the diaspora carried Irish music and song well beyond the rural cabins”

(7), and “[s]ince then, it has put down roots in the towns and cities of Ireland, and in Irish

communities in North America, Europe and Australia” (8). This created an opportunity to

disperse Irish music “from the kitchens and crossroads of the West of Ireland to the concert halls

and recording studios of the New World” (ibid), which was further stimulated “by the revolution

in mass media, popular culture and international travel” (ibid). However, this also caused a

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change in traditional music. Irish traditional music can best be seen “as a broadbased system

which accommodates a complex process of musical convergence, coalescence and innovation

over time” (ibid). It is originally “oral in character, and is transmitted from one generation to the

next through a process of performance” (ibid). The experienced musicians were “capable of

memorising up to five hundred pieces of music” (ibid). Most of these songs were “developed

largely beyond the literate process” (9), but over the years, the majority has been recorded. The

uniqueness found in Irish music is due to “the oral base” which “allows it to be more fluid than

written music” (ibid).

The agricultural society of West Ireland caused the music to follow “the work cycle of the

agricultural year”, but “[t]raditional music today has moved beyond this older milieu and may be

heard at social gatherings, pub sessions, dances, concerts and festivals in various urban settings”

(10). An important aspect of Irish music is the fact that it is divided into regional styles. The

styles are not only distinguished by county, but the descriptions have a “more precise topography

of musical dialects” (11). This system is based on an older ‘clachán’ type of society, which

consisted of “rural clusters of extended kin and neighbours” (ibid). Furthermore, Irish traditional

music can be sung in two languages; namely, Irish, also called ‘sean nós’, old style, with

different regional dialects. Sean nós “can be traced back to a bardic substrate and the medieval

chanson courtoise” (Falc’her-Poyroux 158). It is a very difficult and “discrete a capella” (159)

type of music for the singer, because he or she “is expected to vary each verse using

improvisation, an implicit musical skill which requires subtle changes in rhythm, ornamentation

and timbre” (Ó hAllmhuráin 14). Secondly, the “most popular type of folk singing today in

Ireland, however, is a genre called ‘ballad singing’” which “is generally sung in English”

(Falc’her-Poyroux 159); this type can be divided in two categories; namely, “English and

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Scottish songs [...] introduced to Ireland by English and Scottish settlers in the seventeenth

century” (Ó hAllmhuráin 14) and Anglo-Irish songs which “were composed by Irish people

whose mother tongue was English” (15).

Gearóid Ó hAllmhuráin titled his sixth chapter Silence in the Land of Song: Post-Famine

Ireland. He does not refer to the silence caused by the decline in Irish-speaking Ireland or the

unwillingness of the Irish population to discuss the Famine, but Ó hAllmhuráin focuses on the

musical silence due to the Famine. Musicians were part of the population, who were “affected by

the Famine and its diaspora” (128). Thousands of them “died with the onslaught of starvation

and disease, while others followed their audiences into exile in the New World” (ibid). George

Petrie saw the “urgency to collect what remained of the music of Gaelic Ireland” (ibid); he stated

that ‘[t]he land of song was no longer tuneful; or, if a human sound met the traveller’s ear, it was

only that of the feeble and despairing wail for the dead” (ibid). The devastating Famine “exacted

a cruel toll from a once thriving tradition of work songs” (ibid), which “declined and eventually

disappeared from the oral tradition” (129). New themes for Irish-language songs were “the harsh

realities of mortality, destitution and emigration, and seem closer to the immediate suffering of

the victims” (ibid). Other themes were “the hopelessness of the countryside [...,] disease and

deprivation” (130). Yet, hardly any song discussed politics, the only “ire which these Irish songs

contain is directed mainly towards local landlords” (ibid). The songs were more focused on local

communities and their losses, expressed through the use of specific place names; but they “also

lament the lack of the gaiety and courtship, music and matchmaking, which characterised their

communities before the tragedy struck” (ibid). In contrast to the Irish songs, “[s]ongs in English

offer a different perspective on the Famine tragedy”, “[s]ome were nationalist ballads [...,] others

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were songs of emigration” (132). The songs in English seem to contain the painful truths which

the Irish did not want to discuss in their own language.

Songs about the Great Irish Famine

The Praties They Grow Small

Oh, the praties they grow small,Over here, over here.Oh, the praties they grow smallAnd we dig them in the fall.And we eat them skins and all,Over here, over here.Oh, I wish that we were geese,Night and morn, night and morn.Oh, I wish that we were geese,For they fly and take their ease.And they live and die in peace,Eating corn, eating corn.Oh, we’re trampled in the dust,Over here, over here.Yes, we’re trampled in the dust,But the Lord in whom we trustWill give us crumb for crust,Over here, over here.

The song The Praties They Grow Small, probably written in 1845, is one of the first

songs concerning the Famine. It is more likely that the song was written in 1845 than during the

later years of the Famine because that was the first year of the blight and “there was worse to

come in the following years” ("The Praties Grow Small"). In the years following 1845, “people

were less likely to be talking about potatoes being small; they were more likely to be lamenting

the fact that they were hardly growing at all” (ibid). Something that stands out immediately is the

fact that the song is written in the present tense; this suggests that “the writer is describing events

that are happening around him at the time rather than looking back” (ibid).

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The first two stanzas are laments, whereas the final stanza has a positive twist at the end.

The difference lies in the use of the conjunction. In the first two stanzas, the writer uses ‘and’,

the conjunction that signals an addition, while the last stanza uses ‘but’ to indicate a contrast to

the previous part. In this case, it discusses a spark of hope during bad times. The song can be

interpreted in two different ways. Considering the information we have about the Famine, it can

be analysed in a literal manner. ‘Praties’ is the Irish name for potatoes, and the harvest in 1845

was very small. Therefore, this song can be seen as a lament for the bad crops. The geese

mentioned are a scourge for any farmer because they eat their corn. In addition, the goose is a

migrating type of bird, so they leave when it is winter or when there is nothing left for them to

eat. Their ability to leave when they want to seems to be a quality which the author envies. The

first sentence of the last stanza reads “[o]h, we’re trampled in the dust”. This represents the bad

harvest, and the desperate way the Irish would ransack the grounds for the last potatoes. Thus,

they would be covered by dirt. This song even portrays the faith the Irish had that no matter how

bad the circumstances were, God would never let them starve to death. This analysis shows that

the writer laments the current potato harvest in Ireland, and wishes to be able to flee from

hardship. This also explains the use of present tense in the song. However, there is a second

interpretation possible.

The song could also be seen as a political lament. The praties represent the Irish

population in the song, and due to the failed crops, the population will not have enough food for

everyone. Thus, due to starvation, literally people will decrease in size, but this can even be

taken one step further. If the starvation would endure too long, the population will become

smaller due to death, which eventually happened. The geese in the second stanza symbolise the

English. Partially, because of their ability to enter and leave Ireland whenever they want, but

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mainly because the English would, despite the bad harvest, still claim their share of the harvest to

feed their own countrymen. The last stanza displays the faith the Irish have that God will save

them from any hardship. This analysis portrays the political situation of Famine Ireland. Ireland,

as a part of the United Kingdom, was obliged to ship the much-needed food of the Irish to

England. Nevertheless, the Irish held on to the idea that as long as they believed in their Catholic

God nothing would truly harm them.

Johnny Joyce

Oh Johnny Joyce, heed my voice As I come to you full of hopeFor you are the star of knowledge, the brightest beaconMy eye has encountered in the House of GodYou are the flower of youth of the finest talkThat my eye has seen since I was bornFor the love of Christ, grant me reliefAt least until Christmas Eve is overOn the following day, I got the piece of paperAnd I was happy as I was happy as I went on my wayBut I got no answer on that dayFor I was left with my children out in the dewI am tired, lashed, frozen, upsetAnd lacerated from all the walkingAnd Mister Joyce, the workhouse is fullAnd they won’t accept anyone else insideIt is great source of fame to the village of CarnaAs long as this couple are passing throughFor the woman’s appearance is finer and fairerThen the morning star when it risesThe queen is ill and lying lowAnd the doctors say that she will dieThe Reason for it all as they explain it to meIs that she is not married to Mister Joyce

The song Johnny Joyce was written in 1847 and presents a man begging for help during

the Famine. In the first stanza, the man addresses Johnny Joyce “with the traditional high praise

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that one would find in much older texts” (Williams 75). From the second stanza onwards, the

man encloses his narrative to Johnny Joyce. He discusses his wish to leave Ireland, but he did not

receive a grant, despite the fact that he and his children are homeless, and they have travelled a

long way. The third stanza stands out from the rest because he discusses his personal state. The

man is “tired, lashed, frozen, upset / [a]nd lacerated from all the walking”. The use of the

adjectives ‘tired’, ‘frozen’, and ‘upset’ are not unexpected. However, the strong ‘lashed’ and

‘lacerated’ connect to violence. Someone is lashed, when he or she have received a punishment

by the whip, and to lacerate means to make a deep cut in someone’s skin. Thus, it seems that the

writer not only wants to portray the aftermath of the Famine but also hints towards an intentional

punishment. The last stanza discusses Johhny Joyce’s reputation in “the village of Carna”. The

writer seems to reveal that Johnny Joyce has a mistress, and the pair is the talk of the town.

However, his mistress, also referred to as “the queen”, is ill and might die soon, not due to the

Famine, but because she has an extramarital relationship with Johnny Joyce.

In their book Bright Star of the West: Joe Heaney, Irish Song Man, Sean Williams and

Lillis Ó Laoire state that this song is “an excellent example of how folk memory can add to the

picture we have of the Famine by drawing attention to a particular event or sequence of events”

(75). They also explain that “[a]s in many other Irish songs, the verses are allusive, evoking a

previous undefined context of intimacy but providing no direct linear narrative” (ibid). This leads

to “[t]he conflict about the correct meaning of ‘Johnny Seoighe’” due to “the Famine’s unequal

and divisive impact” (ibid). Nevertheless, “this song was long regarded as taboo, and kept well

within the Carna community, until [...] the late 1950s”, but it remains unclear why the song was

criticised, “as the scéal (story) is now partly missing, and the irony thus remains partly lost”

(Falc’her-Poyroux 160). Nonetheless, in addition to the literal telling of a family’s Famine

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misfortunes, there is also a less ambiguous or anti-English interpretation possible. As such, the

personal story of this family represents the entire Irish population affected by the Famine. They

would try to find ways to survive, but most attempts seemed pointless. The workhouses were

full, there was no food, the people were evicted from their houses if they could not pay the rent,

and numerous people could not finance their emigration. This Johnny Joyce is seemingly a

powerful man, and according to Williams and Ó Laoire, he was “an Irish opportunist [...] who

allegedly tried to usurp the position of the local relief distribution officer” (Williams 76-77).

However, due to its non-exclusive nature, the song might lead to an anti-English interpretation

since Johnny Joyce is clearly a figure with power and probably associated with the English.

Moreover, the use of the intentionally violent adjectives might add to the idea of an English

punishment of the Irish. Nevertheless, “the song can provide no support for a simplistic binary

division of helpless Irish people maltreated at the hands of the hateful English” (75).

Skibbereen

O, Father dear, I ofttimes heard you talk of Erin's Isle,Her valleys green, her lofty scene, her mountains rude and wild;You said it was a pleasant place wherein a prince might dwell,Why have you then forsaken her, the reason to me tell?

My son, I loved our native land with energy and prideUntil a blight fell on the land and sheep and cattle died,The rents and taxes were to pay, I could not them redeem,And that's the cruel reason why I left Old Skibbereen.

It's well I do remember on a bleak November's day,The landlord and his agent came to drive us all away;He set my house on fire with his demon yellow spleenAnd that's another reason why I left Old Skibbereen.

Your mother, too, God rest her soul, lay on the snowy ground,

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She fainted in her anguish of the desolation round.She never rose, but went her way from life to death's long dream,And found a quiet grave, my boy, in lovely Skibbereen.

It's well I do remember the year of forty-eight,When we arose with Erin's boys to fight against our fate;I was hunted through the mountains as a traitor to the Queen,And that's another reason that I left Old Skibbereen.

And you were only two years old and feeble was your frameI could not leave you with my friends for you bore your father’s nameI wrapped you in my cóta mór in the dead of night unseenI heaved a sigh and bade goodbye to dear old Skibbereen

Oh father dear, the day will come when vengeance loud will callAnd we'll arise with Erin's boys and rally one and all,I'll be tbe man to lead the van, beneath our flag of green,And loud and high we'll raise the cry," Revenge for Skibbereen!"

The song Skibbereen is “attributed to Patrick Carpenter, a poet and native of Skibbereen”

(Carroll). Its “first known appearance of this song was in a 19th-century publication, ‘The

Wearing of the Green Song Book’, which was published in Boston in 1880" (ibid). Due to the

date of publication, it seems most likely that Patrick Carpenter was a second generation survivor

of the Famine. Thus, similar to the literature of the second generation this song will probably

contribute mostly to the collective memory. This is confirmed in the lyrics, which “manage to

cram in a lot of information about Ireland in a very short space of time” (“Skibbereen Lyrics and

Chords”). Due to the date of publication, it seems that Colette McCormack has made an

anachronism in her book Mary-Anne’s Famine. The characters emigrate from Ireland to America

during the Famine, and Mary-Anne hears this song on the streets soon after their arrival, whereas

Skibbereen was not published until 1880.

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Skibbereen is written “in the form of a conversation between a father and son”

(“Skibbereen Lyrics and Chords”), therefore, there are two voices. The first one that opens the

song is the son who asks his father why he left Ireland since his descriptions of Ireland sound as

“a lovely land”. The father gives five reasons for their departure, the first concerning the blight

itself. He describes the effects the blight had on his situation. His cattle died, and he could no

longer pay his rent. Consequently, as was custom, he as tenant was evicted from his land by his

landlord and the roof of his house was burned. In this stanza, the author uses a seemingly odd

word. He describes that the actions of the landlord were done with the “cursed English spleen”.

The word spleen seems misplaced; however, it has two meanings. It can refer to the “abdominal

organ involved in the production and removal of blood cells in most vertebrates and forming part

of the immune system” or to a “bad temper; spite” (“Spleen”). The obvious explanation then

would be that the author described the manner of the English as a bad temper of spiteful;

however, the biological interpretation gives an interesting insight into the political views of the

author. Since the function of the spleen is consciously creating and removing of blood cells in the

body, one should look at the Irish opinions about the English and their role during the Famine.

This interpretation suggests that the author is of the view that the English government

consciously made sure that the Irish Catholic population was removed, in whatever way, from

society; and it created the opportunity for new blood cells, English, Scottish or Irish Protestants,

to form an immune system fitted for the United Kingdom. Other reasons of the father concern

the death of his wife, the failure of the 1848 uprising, and hoping for a better future for his son.

After hearing his father’s motives, the son promises him that “the day will come”, when

“[a]ll Irish men of freedom stern will rally one and all” and fight for a free Ireland and “cheer,

Revenge for Skibbereen”. This final stanza portrays the transferral of a personal trauma to the

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second generation, and thus, providing material for the cultural trauma. The son is affected by

the narrative about the Irish Famine and moved by his father’s emotions concerning the Famine

in such a way that he wants “to avenge his father’s suffering by leading a rebellion to secure Irish

independence” (“Skibbereen Emigration from Ireland”). In this song, it is remarkable to see that

the father’s voice mainly describes the events of the Famine. He discusses the blight, eviction,

death and emigration. However, he does not discuss his suffering and his starvation during that

period. He represents the first generation that would discuss the general situation, but would not

fully include their personal circumstances. The son represents the second generation that would

become the carrier group of a, in this case, political trauma. The author first includes a hint, with

the use of the word ‘spleen’, towards his political opinion and later through the vengeful son

fully displays his pro-Irish message.

Dan O’Hara

Sure it's poor I am today For God gave and took away And He left without a home poor Dan O'Hara With these matches in my hand In the frost and snow I stand So it's here I am today your broken hearted

Achusla geal mo chroi*, won't you buy a box from me And you'll have the prayers of Dan from Connemara I'll sell them cheap and low, buy a box before you go From the broken hearted farmer Dan O'Hara

In the year of sixty-four I had acres by the score And the grandest land you ever ran a plough through But the landlord came you know And he laid our home so low So it's here I am today your broken hearted

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For twenty years or more Did misfortune cross our door My poor old wife and I were sadly parted We were scattered far and wide And our children starved and died So it's here I am today your broken hearted

Though in frost and snow I stand Sure the shadow of God's hand It lies warm about the brow of Dan O'Hara And soon with God above I will meet the ones I love And I'll find the joys I lost in Connemara

The song Dan O’Hara was written by Delia Murphy in 1951. Unlike the other songs

discussed in this chapter, this song is very straightforward. It discusses the life of a man named

Dan O’Hara, who lived in Connemara during the Famine. Delia Murphy’s “family was regarded

as being wealthy”, as they owned “the large Mount Jennings Estate in Hollymount” (Costello).

Her father “allowed Irish travellers to camp on the estate”, and from these travellers, she

“learned her first ballads at their campfires” (ibid). The stories she had learned from these

travellers influenced her ballads, including the story of Dan O’Hara.

Rónán Gearóid Ó Domhnaill displays the life of the actual Dan O’Hara in his blog Dan

O’Hara: The Man Behind the Song. The man was “regarded as something of a prosperous farmer

who farmed eight acres around his average sized cottage” (Ó Domhnaill). Ó Domhnaill explains

that “nobody owned the land on which they farmed and the tenants could be evicted on a whim

or if the landlord suddenly decided the land would more profitably be used for grazing” (ibid). In

the case of Dan O’Hara’s eviction, “[h]is fatal mistake was to improve his cottage by installing

larger windows around 1845” (ibid). In that time “[h]ome improvements were frowned upon by

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landlords and agents”, and they had ruled that “[d]oors and windows could not exceed a certain

height and dimension without the notorious window tax coming into force” (ibid). Dan O’Hara

could not pay the rent and he and his family, consisting of himself, a wife, and eight children,

were evicted. Their house was ruined, “[t]he thatch was set alight, the walls pushed in” (ibid).

During the Famine, “[e]victed tenants would then usually set up a make shift shelter in a ditch or

a bog hole and live like animals”. However, very often “they would be expelled from the area

and friends and neighbours would be forbidden from taking them in” (ibid).

Their eviction led the O’Hara family to emigrate from Ireland to America, and it is

‘[m]ore than likely he would have left through Clifden or Galway” (Ó Domhnaill). As explained

in chapter two, the journey on these so-called ‘coffin ships’ was not pleasant, and meant death

for many people. Dan O’Hara’s wife and three of his children died on their journey to America.

Upon their arrival the Irish immigrants were considered the lowest part of society, especially

people like O’Hara who “would have spoken little or no English” (ibid). This is displayed in the

chorus of the song, which starts with an Irish phrase meaning ‘dear brightness of my heart’.

Unfortunately, the lives of the Irish did not get better in America, for example “Dan O’Hara was

forced to put his remaining children into an orphanage” (ibid). The man himself “ended his days

in destitution and never got to live the American Dream” (ibid). According to records, Dan

O'Hara lived in Connemara during the Famine, but Murphy's lyrics mention that it was in the

year sixty-four. Thus, it seems that Delia Murphy edited this in her song in order for it to rhyme

with the following line. Due to the lack of information, the song does not necessarily contribute

to the Irish collective memory. Nevertheless, the sad nature of the song based on the real life of

Dan O’Hara provides material for the cultural trauma.

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The Fields of Athenry

By a lonely prison wall, I heard a young girl calling Michael they are taking you away For you stole Trevelyn's corn, So the young might see the morn Now a prison ship lies waiting in the bay

Low lie the fields of Athenry Where once we watched the small free birds fly Our love was on the wing, we had dreams and songs to sing It's so lonely round the fields of Athenry

By a lonely prison wall, I heard a young man calling Nothing matters, Mary, when you're free Against the Famine and the Crown, I rebelled, they ran me down Now you must raise our child with dignity

By a lonely harbour wall, She watched the last star falling As the prison ship sailed out against the sky Sure she'll wait and hope and pray, For her love in Botany Bay It’s so lonely round the fields of Athenry

The Fields of Athenry was written by Pete St. John, “one of Ireland’s most successful and

prolific songwriters” (“Pete St John”), in the 1970s. His songs “have become Irish folk

standards” due to his “ability to write modern songs in such an authentic traditional style that

many people think they date back hundreds of years” (“Pete St John”). Pete St. John incorporates

“a wide knowledge of Irish history” (“Pete St John”) and he discusses the changes he has noticed

in his hometown Dublin in his songs. His song The Fields of Athenry “tells the story of a young

man who is transported to Botany Bay for stealing corn to feed his family during the Great

Famine” (“Pete St John”).

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On the one hand, it is a love song, portraying the never ending love between the fictive

characters Michael and Mary. It is about a married couple with one child, who could not feed

themselves during the Famine, and as a solution, Michael steals corn. The first stanza is written

in the first person point of view from Michael because he is the one that hears “a young girl

calling”. He retells the message his wife gave him about the situation he was in. The chorus

discusses the “young couple’s love in the pre-Famine days when they had dreams and songs to

sing, and time to watch birds fly across the field of Athenry” (“Fields of Athenry”). The third

stanza is written from the first-person perspective from Mary. In this stanza, Michael tells her to

stay strong and fight against the English rule as he did. The fifth stanza is in third person

omniscient, for Mary is described by someone other than her husband. These viewpoints connect

the ideas that people had at that time about the Famine and the English government, to those of

the author, Pete St. John.

Next to being a love song, “it is also a scathing commentary on the way the Irish Potato

Famine was handled by the British Government” (“Fields of Athenry Famine Background”). Due

to the specific references to Trevelyan’s corn and the Crown, it can be concluded that Pete St.

John sees the British Government, at least partially, as the blame for the mass starvation of the

Irish population. The character Michael tried what he could to feed his family, and out of

desperation he stole food that was meant to be shipped out to England. As a result he was sent to

Australia without knowing if he would ever return and see his family again. His request to Mary

to raise their child with dignity can be interpreted as his way to encourage his wife not to

succumb to the English. As stated in chapter two, the English landlords would try to convert the

Irish to Protestantism through a bribe of food. This song indicates the author’s feeling towards

the maltreatment of the Irish during the Famine, which makes him a carrier of a political

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message. Pete St. John mainly contributes to the political trauma of the Irish, because he does not

necessarily provide information about the Famine. He does, however, portray his sentiments

about the English government and its rule during that time.

Black ’47

Everything is stillNot a chicken not a bodyJust an awful sickenin’ silence roarin’ in my earsAnd the fog of death deepens and lies upon the landAn ould wan rolls over on her backThe grass stains all green upon her chinI can still hear her keenin’ and screamin’ in the windGod’s curse upon you Lord John RussellMay your blackhearted soul rot in hellThere’s no love left on earthAnd god is dead in heavenIn the dark and deadly days of Black 47God's curse upon you Lord TrevalianMay your great Queen Victoria rot in hell'Till England and its EmpireAnswer before heavenFor the crimes they committed in Black 47Paudie says “c’mon nowDon’t look back, she’s not livin’, she’s a phantomAnd she’ll curse us if we look into her eyes”Oh God, I must by dyin’ - the fever’s in me brainFor can’t you see that pack of children up aheadThe beards of old men sproutin’ from their chinsCan’t you hear their screams of hunger on the windOh darling Paudie save meI think I’m sinkin’ fast, me blood is boilin’Don’t let me die here in a ditchIf the hunger doesn’t get me – the fever surely willSo Paudie picked me up and threw me ‘cross his shouldersHe nursed me everyday ‘til we reached AmerikayScreamin’and shoutin’ like madman at the wind-Back 47

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This song, written by the Irish-American Celtic rock band Black ’47, was written in

1992. The song is clearly a product of the Famine since it is written after the actual event, and

contributes to the Irish collective memory and cultural trauma. Due to this knowledge, it is

interesting to look at the background of the band before analysing the song. The band is “made

up of Irish expatriates” and “plays a mixture of traditional Celtic folk music, rock & roll, rap, and

reggae, all topped by the idiosyncratic songwriting and persona of Kirwan” (Ruhlmann). Larry

Kirwan is the leader of the band, the main song writer and vocalist. Among the instruments

played by the band are the uilleann pipes and the tin whistle. The band “espouses an

unblinkingly political and thoroughly Irish form of rock ‘n’ roll with songs covering topics from

the Northern Ireland conflict to civil right and urban unrest in contemporary New York” ("It's a

Pleasure to Meet You Black 47."). The band, similarly to Celtic folklore music, uses alliteration

and assonance frequently in this song. These sound effects are often used to create structure in a

sentence, or “to create a repeated set of sounds that will either A) stand apart from the words

around them (because they are aurally different) or B) will make a pattern with their own sounds

that can be varied for emphasis (“Other Matters of Sound”).

The song is named after the worst year of the Famine 1847, also referred to as ‘black

‘47’. Due to the political decision of Liberal Prime Minister John Russell, the Irish people did

not receive enough aid anymore. Consequently, the death rate increased in comparison to the

previous years. The first stanza of Black ’47 describes the situation of Ireland during the Famine.

It refers to the quietness that roamed in Ireland due to all the sick and dying people. The lyrics

state that the sickening silence was roaring, which in literal terms is not possible but, in this case,

it emphasises the empty streets of Ireland. The last sentence of this stanza contains the assonance

‘keenin’ and screamin’’. To keen means to “wail in grief for a dead person” (Keen); this is a

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custom of Irish women at funerals. The example of the elderly woman crying for a deceased

loved one represents the loss of all the members of the Famine-affected families. Through the

use of assonance here, the author creates an emphasis on the desperation of the Irish for their

dead and their situation. Additionally, the word “[k]eening has also been used as part of civil

disobedience and protest” (“Keening”). Thus, the assonance also creates a structure within the

song itself, for the next two stanzas discuss a political protest.

In stanzas two and three, the author wishes God’s curse upon Lord John Russell and Lord

Trevelyan. These two men, as explained in chapter two, played an important political part during

the period of the Irish Famine, and in several ways could be held responsible for the loss of the

enormous amount of Irish people. The same can be said for Queen Victoria. After the Famine,

the Queen stated that the Famine was caused by divine intervention. Thus, the references to God,

heaven and the moment of judgement are a way to point out the political wrongdoings as well as

the religious differences between the English and the Irish. The band Black ’47 is known for its

politically engaged songs, and in this song, it clearly takes a stand. The author is sure that upon

facing judgment day God will punish them for their actions, not only because of their

wrongdoings but especially because in their pro-Irish view Catholicism is the true religion. Thus,

God will punish the Protestant English accordingly.

The last two stanzas return to the Irish situation in 1847. In these lines, the focus lies on

the description of the victims and their struggles. This includes the rather strange description of

children who would have “the beards of old men sproutin’ from their chins”. One of the effects

of starvation is the “growth of fine hair all over the body and face” (Smith). This is an attempt of

the body to stay warm. The song, however, particularly mentions the beards of old men and not

some fluffy bits of hair. The combination of the old men’s beards and the verb sprouting justifies

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this. To sprout means that plants “put out shoots”, so it starts to grow, it might even be

interpreted as things that “appear or develop suddenly and in large numbers” ("Sprout"). Thus,

the sequence of old men’s beards and sprouting leads to the interpretation that the children were

growing hair on their faces due to malnutrition, which makes them appear older. In numerous

cases, children had to grow up fast to take care of their siblings; therefore, the old men’s beards

also refer to the mental condition of the children during the Famine. The song ends with a

reference to the mass emigration of the Irish to, among other places, America.

Black ’47 is, as stated before, a product of the Irish collective memory. The author has

incorporated numerous events of the Irish Famine in order to transfer them to his audience as a

contribution to the collective memory. In addition to this, he has intertwined his personal view

about the political situation of that time. He fully blames the English for their lack of

involvement and their maltreatment of the Irish people during the Famine. This idea is

emphasised through the use of the verb keening. Most people will understand it solely as a

lament for the dead, but those who know the second meaning will understand the political

message this song spreads. Thus, this song contributes to the Irish collective memory mainly

through stanzas one, three, and four, and it also supplies material for the Irish cultural trauma.

Even though it does not necessarily discuss the author’s personal feelings about the horrors of the

Famine, the song does discuss his sentiments concerning the political circumstances. He has,

thus, become the carrier of a political trauma.

Comparison

All the songs discussed in this chapter discuss the Famine in their own way. The authors

have either portrayed their personal opinions about the political situation, the horrors of the

Famine or they have given a general narrative about an event. I have given an overview of songs

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discussing the Famine over a period of approximately one hundred and fifty years. The very first

song was written during the first year of the Famine, and it portrays the growing worries about

the potato crop. Underneath the immediate interpretation, I found a lament about the political

situation in Ireland. The author displays his dissatisfaction with the English government, which

took much-needed food from the Irish to their own country. This lament is continued in the song

Johnny Joyce (1847). The author addresses the problems of the landlord system and portrays

several elements the victims of the Famine went through. These two songs are first generation

songs. They, therefore, form the base for the collective memory and cultural trauma.

The other four songs, Skibbereen, Dan O’Hara, The Field of Athenry, and Black ’47, are

all products of the Famine and are based on previously told stories. They, thus, automatically

contribute to the collective memory. In general, the authors display a variety of Famine related

events, and thereby, inform their audience of the history. Both Skibbereen and The Fields of

Athenry hint towards the author’s political opinion about the English government and their role

during the Famine; while Black ’47 clearly expresses its author’s view. The only one of these

four songs that does not include any judgement is Dan O’Hara. This song solely describes the

life of the man Dan O’Hara. Delia Murphy contributes to the Irish collective memory and the

Irish cultural trauma with her song because she provides information about a person and his

Famine experience. The horrors of his life are the claim, Delia Murphy is the carrier and the

people listening to her songs are the audience, as such, Dan O’Hara contributes to both the

collective memory and the cultural trauma. However, due to the lack of Murphy’s personal views

in the song, it is solely the story included in the song that provides the base for the collective

memory and trauma and not Murphy’s opinions. She is, thus, merely a messenger of the Dan

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O’Hara claim. The other songs include the views of the authors, whether disguised or clearly

stated, but this enables the authors to become carriers of a trauma claim.

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8. Caldar - Conclusions

The aim of this thesis was to provide an analysis of the transmittal of personal and collective

trauma, and cultural memory through first and second generation texts, children’s literature and

music as a result of the Irish Famine. I have mainly based my analysis on trauma theories by

Judith Herman and Jeffrey C. Alexander. Judith Herman has established a pattern which

describes the steps a trauma victim has to take in order to find peace with his or her trauma. This

theory gave me the tools to analyse first generation texts. It allowed me to establish the

differences in descriptions of the ‘before’, ‘during’, and ‘after’. Jeffrey C. Alexander provided

me with information about the collective trauma and memory. His work was important for my

analysis of the second generation texts, children’s literature and music. Alexander distinguished

the transformation process from a personal trauma, or a traumatic event in the past, to a cultural

trauma and part of the collective memory. He stated that the carrier groups, representative people

of a trauma, deliver a claim, which consists of an ongoing social subject, to an audience, people

belonging to the same social background. With the addition of ideas, such as Landsberg's

prosthetic memory, and the use of mass media as a communication mode, I was able to analyse

the transferral of personal trauma to collective memory and cultural trauma.

The texts discussed in chapter four represent the stories of four Famine bystanders. Due

to the observant nature of these writings, it can be stated that the authors did not suffer severely.

Nevertheless, the things they have seen and experienced have surely left a mark, for the Famine

is not discussed in detail. In most cases it is merely mentioned in a general sense. Robert Whyte

is the only one who describes the circumstances in detail. His narrative is, however, solely about

the other people aboard the coffin ship and do not include his personal experiences.

Unfortunately, I have not been able to find texts of victims of the Famine. This is partially

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because my focus lies on texts in the English language due to an insufficient knowledge of the

Irish language, but also because I was not able to do proper fieldwork. I think that I would be

able to find first-generation texts if these two obstacles were not an issue. However, it can be

concluded that the first-generation texts discussed in this thesis mainly provide information that

contribute to the Irish collective memory. Nevertheless, I do think that these men have been

affected by the Famine and, therefore, their texts contribute to the basis of the Irish Famine

trauma claim. The carrier groups of this claim will rise in the succeeding generations. I think that

due to the lack of victim narrations the personal Famine trauma is mainly spread through oral

narration. This, of course, is because the general Famine victim could not read or write.

However, I think that there must be some texts available in special databases in Ireland, but that

those are not accessible for the general public.

As I have stated in my introduction, I consider the second generation the transmittal

generation. This is the generation that forms the bridge between personal trauma and collective

memory and cultural trauma. All the information they provide is based on stories they have heard

from the first generation. Their continuation of these narrations forms the basis of a collective

memory and cultural trauma. They are also the first generation to adopt a prosthetic memory,

through personifying the ideas and sentiments about the Irish Famine. This is particularly seen in

their use of words with a negative connotation in order to describe the state of affairs of that

time. For example, the use of the word inmate as a description of a person living in a workhouse

expresses a sense of incarceration due to a crime. Even though the people who went to these

workhouses had no other options anymore, the general opinion of these workhouses and the

people in them was negatively associated with prison and the suppression of the English. The

main contribution of the second generation texts is to provide information about the Famine in

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specific areas. This gives a detailed overview of the different counties in Ireland and their

experiences during the Famine. Thus, the second generation mainly contributes to the collective

memory, but due to the nature of their stories they allow their audience to suture them into that

history and form a cultural trauma. So the second generation texts themselves are not the cultural

trauma but offer a platform for their audiences to develop a cultural trauma.

The children’s literature based on the Irish Famine, or any historical event for that matter,

are already products of the collective memory. However, the authors use the material to write

their version of the happening. The books Under the Hawthorn Tree by Marita Conlon-McKenna

(1990) and Mary-Anne’s Famine by Colette McCormack (1998) are perfect examples of an

author’s creative freedom to transfer their knowledge and sentiments concerning the Irish

Famine. Marita Conlon-McKenna includes every piece of information about the Famine in an

adventure novel. The three children experience and witness sicknesses, death, the soup kitchens

and the workhouses, the influence of the English, the wealth in some places, and most

importantly the hunger and never-ending search for food. Nevertheless, the author does not

include the characters’ sentiments during their travels. The entire account is written in a

third-person omniscient point of view, which allows Conlon-McKenna to use the children to

seemingly take the lead in the story, but in the meantime, she never lets their emotions

overpower the importance of the journey. Due to the short descriptions of the Famine aspects in

the novel, Conlon-McKenna highlights these circumstances without emphasising just one. The

only theme that is truly continuous throughout the book is hunger. I can, therefore, conclude that

Conlon-McKenna’s emphasis lies with the transferral of information. Thus, her novel only

contributes to the collective memory. Her book, however, does allow her readers to identify with

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the characters, and, thus, offers a platform to adopt the Irish Famine into their personal lives and

become a part of the Irish cultural trauma.

In contrast to the third person omniscient in Under the Hawthorn Tree, the main voice in

Mary-Anne’s Famine is the first person. The mainly epistolary style of this novel allows the

reader to enter the inner workings of the two primary characters. This point of view mimics the

first generation narratives and allows Collete McCormack to transmit information about the Irish

Famine, as well as sentiments of the characters concerning their personal circumstances. Due to

the first person narration, the readers become actively involved in the lives and thoughts of the

characters. In addition to the first person point of view, McCormack uses a third-person limited

style to incorporate several political messages within her book. Subtle hints towards the Irish

resistance, through for example the song Skibbereen and the continuous use of Irish phrases

indicate a pro-Irish message within this book. Thus, McCormack’s contribution to the Irish

cultural trauma is more significant than Marita Conlon-McKenna’s. Colette McCormack uses her

two protagonists to transfer emotional implication to her readers, and by including events outside

the letters told from a third person limited point of view, she enables herself to include political

developments as well. It can, therefore, be concluded that Colette McCormack’s novel

contributes to the Irish cultural trauma through her characters, and provides material for the Irish

collective memory through her own words.

The final chapter discussed the music written about the Famine. The general message of

these songs has a political nature. The authors have included either through symbolism or

directly their views on the political situation of Ireland during the Famine. Furthermore, these

songs contain general information about the events of that time. They discuss the hunger,

illnesses, landlord systems, the potatoes, and even the story of real victims. Therefore, these

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songs contribute to the Irish collective memory. However, due to the addition of the authors’

personal views the songs portray the Irish Famine trauma claim and their authors and singers are

the carrier groups. The people who listen to these songs are the audience who receive

information about the Famine, but also are influenced by the opinions of the authors. Therefore,

the songs are a part of the Irish cultural trauma.

In general, I can conclude that the transition from personal trauma to cultural trauma and

collective memory based on documents discussed in this thesis do not lead to a coherent process.

This is due to the fact that I do not have sufficient first-generation victim sources. However, I

have shown that this process must have taken place, for the second-generation and further

generations are able to explain not only the events of the Famine, but also the impact it must

have had on the people. This enables the succeeding generations to adopt the idea of trauma and

incorporate it into their lives. This is shown in the children’s literature and music. These two

modes of narrating do not solely focus on providing information about the Famine, but also give

an insight into the emotional effects of the Famine. Due to the high degree of illiteracy in Ireland

during the Famine, it is not illogical that there are not many texts from first-generation victims.

Nevertheless, the horrors of the Famine will continue to be spread by the succeeding generations,

for they are the carrier groups of the Irish Famine trauma claim. They will make sure that their

audience knows about the events, and this will ensure the continuation of the information and

sentiments about the Irish Famine.

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Appendixes

Appendix 1: The distribution of forfeited/Protestant Land by c. 1650 (Crowley 66)

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Appendix 2: The percentage distribution of illiterate in 1841 (Crowley 192)

97

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