I just now got around to completely reading all the political posts in this thread. Yikes!

Please, please do not think my post was taking ANY sides in THAT debate. I feel I have to say this after readingall the above posts. I was merely recounting the conversation I had with my own father about 2 weeks ago. Most Mudcatters have pointed out that there are not many songs in english that speak only of The Great Hunger and that is because the songs in english for the most part are addressing larger issues. For the emmigrants, the Great Hunger was part of a larger scheme of Opression. Now whether or not that is true is not my concern.

I mention this detail about the belief that the Great Hunger was part of a larger 'plan' or attempt to re-order land ownership only to further illustrate exactly why such songs were not considered fit for polite company in many Irish-American families. Call it 'folk-memory' if you wish, but the entire subject was distasteful. Notice that we never refer to our families as 'Immigrants' but as Emmigrants which underscores the lack of choice in the matter of leaving Ireland. It's unlikely that 'Immigrants' from other parts of the world had any more choice in their leaving, but to this day, it still irks Irish-Americans that their families had to leave and thus, they refer to them as Emmigrants. It's linguistic evidence of a belief.

Since politics, Home-Rule, Occupation, Land Evictions, the Cromwell Invasion, and so on all get rolled up into one big ball of bad memory, any reference to any of it tends to be distasteful. I'm not surprised that this thread got ugly but I am disappointed. I would explain it by saying just as you can't use the 'N' word if you aren't black, you can't pontificate about The Great Hunger if you aren't at least of identifiable Irish descent. That doesn't stop people from doing either thing.. but there you have it.

Again, my family is of more recent Irish origin than most Irish-Americans and I suspect that as a result, our family views on the subject are more restrictive. You don't really learn about that stuff in our family until you are old enough to appreciate the gravity of it all. My grandfather had cousins executed and for years he had this one cousin we had to call by one name in public and another in private because he was a fugitive from British justice (stemming from acts committed before 1919 I think). The family was convinved that if his real name became known he'd get shot in the streets of NYC. How real or imaginary that threat was, I have no clue. He lived into his 90s and had a huge family. It's not ALL ancient history.

Since all these issues tend to get rolled into one.. any mention of The Great Hunger will inevitably lead to thornier issues..thus - NO SONGS ABOUT ANY OF IT IN POLITE COMPANY.

Please, nobody be offended. If my family is deluded, they aren't alone. I can't really speak to the issue being only 40. I can tell you that there are more poems/songs in Irish that are closer in time to the event but they exist mostly in Libraries and Academic Collections.   One such poem was used on the Soundtrack to THE LONG JOURNEY HOME. I'll see if I can find the documentation.

I'd be interested to read actual discussion on the posted topic and not more political views if it can be avoided.