# Titles Needed--Irish History--The Famine **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [October 30, 2000, 8:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/titles-needed-irish-history-the-famine/38965 "2000-10-30T20:06:21Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2000, 8:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/titles-needed-irish-history-the-famine/38965/1 "2000-10-30T20:06:21Z")
I’m looking for materials on the _Irish Potato Famine 1845-1849_. Web searches have revealed sites, but I find the listed bibliographies to be unsatisfactory. Suggestions from the SD posters? Lukers? Teeming Millions in general? General histories, diaries of Irish writers, observers, or clerics are good. So are other contemporary accounts. **Anything** will help. Materials must be in print, or recent reprints of old materials. No historical journal or magazines, please. Yours, with thanks, Bosda Di’Chi ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2000, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/titles-needed-irish-history-the-famine/38965/2 "2000-10-30T20:30:47Z")
When I was in Ireland there were several books on this topic, but the most common one was The Great Hunger : Ireland, 1845-1849 by Cecil Blanche Fitz Gerald Woodham Smith, Cecil Woodham-Smith, Charles Woodham It’s published by Penguin books, and I have read. Highly recommended. There are many other books on the topic, which you can find at one of the book sites, such as [amazon.com](http://amazon.com) ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2000, 11:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/titles-needed-irish-history-the-famine/38965/3 "2000-10-30T23:12:57Z")
Cal-that’s the one I was about to say. Haven’t read it myself, but my history professor recommended it for my sister, who’s doing her history paper on the very same thing. ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2000, 2:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/titles-needed-irish-history-the-famine/38965/4 "2000-10-31T14:20:23Z")
> [@](#): > > The Great Hunger : Ireland, 1845-1849 > by Cecil Blanche Fitz Gerald Woodham Smith, Cecil Woodham-Smith, Charles Woodham Already read that. I’m looking for a new title. Diaries of Famine survivors, maybe? ---
**Author:** ![delphica](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e9a140/32.png) [@delphica](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/delphica)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2000, 4:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/titles-needed-irish-history-the-famine/38965/5 "2000-10-31T16:28:41Z")
If only my mom could use the computer … the Irish Famine is her current hobby. I guess it’s better than the year she tried to knit scarves and mittens. There is, however, some sort of Irish Famine organization and they make T-shirts and that’s what we all got for Christmas last year. Not very uplifting. There’s a journal by a guy named Robert Whyte that I believe is still in print. It’s about the famine and then how he emmigrated on a coffin ship. There is also a collection of journal entries and other first hand accounts which I think is called “Irish Hunger” and the editor is Thomas (?) Hayden. I’m not sure about the first name. I assume you have done searches for Irish Famine on the Amazon and Barnes and Noble websites. ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2002, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/titles-needed-irish-history-the-famine/38965/6 "2002-03-17T20:39:13Z")
Never did get many answers to this thread, so I’ll revive it for Saint Patrick’s Day. ---
**Author:** ![Caesar\_s\_Ghost](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/73ab20/32.png) [@Caesar\_s\_Ghost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Caesar_s_Ghost)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2002, 10:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/titles-needed-irish-history-the-famine/38965/7 "2002-03-17T22:23:30Z")
I’m doing a research report on Ireland and found one book on the topic. It’s historical fiction, though it’s interesting: _The Grave_ by James Heneghan. It’s the story of a boy in the 1970’s who gets sent to the 1860s and the potato famine. Pretty interesting. ---
**Author:** ![Spavined\_Gelding](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/958977/32.png) [@Spavined\_Gelding](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spavined_Gelding)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2002, 10:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/titles-needed-irish-history-the-famine/38965/8 "2002-03-17T22:33:11Z")
Woodham-Smith’s book is probably the best, recent, generally available book. She includes a pretty extensive bibliography. You might take a look at some of that stuff. In addition her “The Reason Why” on the Charge of the Light Brigade has an extended chapter on the Great Famine in County Mayo where Lord Lucan had extensive holdings. ---
**Author:** ![ruadh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/d2c977/32.png) [@ruadh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ruadh)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2002, 10:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/titles-needed-irish-history-the-famine/38965/9 "2002-03-17T22:35:15Z")
I know this is the sort of thread I’m usually all over, but unfortunately I haven’t got much to contribute this time, as the only famine-specific books I’ve read are _The Great Hunger_ which was already mentioned and Thomas Gallagher’s _Paddy’s Lament_ which I can’t recommend. A few others that I’ve been told are good are: _Irish Hunger_ by Tom Hayden (yes, that’s Jane Fonda’s ex) _Black 47 and Beyond_ by Cormac Ó Gráda - this is said to be a somewhat revisionist history _Letters From Ireland During The Famine of 1847_ by Alexander Somerville Good luck, anyway.