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The Great Famine and the Irish Diaspora

As predicted by Robert Malthus nearly half a century earlier in An Essay on the Principle of Population the inevitable consequence of unchecked population growth is famine.  And in 1845 his theory was vindicated when disaster struck.  That year the potato crop failed due to the fungal infection: Phytophthora Infestans.  Soon people began to die, some of starvation, but many more due to other causes, as widespread malnutrition lowered immunity and social breakdown led to crime.  In the following year alone over a million, mostly working class, people died of cholera.  Cholera and Typhus struck again in 1847 and 1848.  Millions more died.

Nevertheless, Ireland continued to export grain to England and this led to outrage against the landowners.  Yet without healthy workers grain production soon collapsed and with it the Irish economy. Very soon workers in England, emboldened by Karl Marx and Frederick Engels, began to protest against the increase in bread prices and to demand 'free trade'.  British and Irish grain production had been protected from cheap imports by the 'corn laws' that imposed steep tariffs on imports.  These laws were repealed in 1846 so that cheaper grain could be imported to feed the British.  This further exacerbated the collapse in Irish agriculture and added endemic unemployment to their miseries. Then the potato crop failed a second time in 1852.

Ireland began to depopulate as working class people fled to find work, initially to England then to Canada, then the United States which gave a new home to nearly two million. 

 

See album
Emigration - part of the business case for the 'Great Ocean Liners' that would soon ply the Atlantic

 

Soon Irish intellectuals like Shaw, Wilde, Yeats, Synge, O'Casey, Behan and Beckett would also leave and begin to dominate English theatre and literature with their eye for the personal; a satirical view of the establishment; and contempt for the failings of the established religions and people's misplaced faith in God. A new intellectual class of Irish Marxists and free thinkers wanted revolution.

 

 

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Travel

USA - middle bits

 

 

 

 

 

In September and October 2017 Wendy and I took another trip to the United States where we wanted to see some of the 'middle bits'.  Travel notes from earlier visits to the East coast and West Coast can also be found on this website.

For over six weeks we travelled through a dozen states and stayed for a night or more in 20 different cities, towns or locations. This involved six domestic flights for the longer legs; five car hires and many thousands of miles of driving on America's excellent National Highways and in between on many not so excellent local roads and streets.

We had decided to start in Chicago and 'head on down south' to New Orleans via: Tennessee; Georgia; Louisiana; and South Carolina. From there we would head west to: Texas; New Mexico; Arizona; Utah and Nevada; then to Los Angeles and home.  That's only a dozen states - so there are still lots of 'middle bits' left to be seen.

During the trip, disaster, in the form of three hurricanes and a mass shooting, seemed to precede us by a couple of days.

The United States is a fascinating country that has so much history, culture and language in common with us that it's extremely accessible. So these notes have turned out to be long and could easily have been much longer.

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Fiction, Recollections & News

The Coronation

Last Time

 

 

When George VI died unexpectedly in February 1952, I was just 6 years old, so the impact of his death on me, despite my parents' laments for a good wartime leader and their sitting up to listen to his funeral on the radio, was not great.

At Thornleigh Primary School school assemblies I was aware that there was a change because the National Anthem changed and we now sang God Save The Queen.

Usually, we would just sing the first verse, accompanied by older children playing recorders, but on special occasions we would sing the third verse too. Yet for some mysterious reason, never the second.

The Coronation was a big deal in Australia, as well as in Britain and the other Dominions (Canada, South Africa and New Zealand) and there was a lot of 'bling': china; tea towels; spoons; and so on. The media went mad.

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Opinions and Philosophy

Six degrees of separation, conspiracy and wealth

 

 

Sometimes things that seem quite different are, when looked at more closely, related. 

 

Read more: Six degrees of separation, conspiracy and wealth

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