An Gorta Mór

international | crime and justice | opinion/analysis Thursday January 27, 2005 00:25 by iosaf

Remembering Hunger

In today's world, the Irish are amongst the ten richest societies, and no-one dies from malnutrition.

In today's world one billion children are estimated by UNICEF to be at risk from malnutrition.

learn. remember. make better.

Remembering An Gorta Mór is to remember the conditions of the landless in Ireland in the XIX century.

Unfortuanately it is diffcult to set a day when any famine began or ended.

Perhaps the day of nationality?
Perhaps the day of crop sowing?
Perhaps the day of crop harvesting?

To Remember An Gorta Mór is to remember the worst decade for the poor of Europe. Beginning in Ireland and spreading throughout all potato reliant regions of the continent Blight left famine and subsequent mass immigration of survivors in its wake in these countries -
Ireland, Germany, Sweden, Poland.
Ireland suffered by far the greatest loss of population. Its worse years preceding the famines of the Germans and Swedes and by two years.
It is very possible that until the Irish people understand the Irish Famine properly they will not find the ability to remember holocausts and genocides that befell other peoples in the name of supremacism, imperialism and commercial exploitation and due to ineffectual state mechanisms.

A "Mr Finkelstein" has left a comment on the thread in events for January 28 2005 calling for memory of the extermination and experimentation which brought death and horror to millions of European citizens the majority jewish during the middle of the XX century. In which he draws attention to this site-
http://www.irishholocaust.org/
with these words -

"As an Irishman I'll start commemorating the Shoah when the UK, US and Israeli governments declare a national day of mourning for the Irish Holocaust ....."
foir full text outlining the trans-national project of remembering the Holocaust and it's consequences read-
http://www.indymedia.ie/newswire.php?story_id=68141

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We can be sure that none of the victims of An Gorta Mór were subject to experimentation. None were tatooed. None were frozen. None were gassed. None were selected because they were twins and experimented upon.

But we know many were used as a form of slave labour in the blinkered ethics of those times to "merit" food from ineffectual charitable institutions.

We know that like many states in Africa, there was enough food being produced in the country of Ireland to feed the Irish people, but that government was dominated by supremacists who wished profit before humanity.

Perhaps readers might suggest in the comments how we ought properly "remember An Gorta Mór" and why memorial of "An Gorta Mór" might be useful to memorial of "the Shoah" and how younger Irish people may use memorial of both to steer Ireland to her proper role in helping other countries as great great great grandchildren of those victims to the children of victims of AIDS/HIV and famine in Africa today.

You will find a memorial to the famine in Dublin in Stephens Green just behind the statue of Robert Emmet.

This article was originally submitted as an event listing for saturday the 29th January.
It is the opinion of members of the Indymedia editorial group that this was done deliberately to point out that while there is a clearly delineated end to the holocaust (liberation of Auschwitz), there is no clearly delineated start or end to the 'Great Hunger'.