I obviously can't speak for Ireland, but I can say that the USA and NY in particular have a long history of immigration... and many of those new immigrants came because of lack of options back home... and some to save their lives.

As for your concern about historians... we have school boards that want to teach creationism as a science and plenty that view the War Between the States... aka the American Civil War... as strictly a matter of state's rights - slavery had NOTHING to do with it. And despite photographic evidence and still a few eyewitnesses, there are those who claim the Nazi purges & Holocaust is a hoax.

Perhaps a population that has many residents and their families who have suffered injustice in their original homelands might just have a different perspective than your historians... who may be in the majority now but are not without opposition. Who can say what another 50 years will bring?

From AP at the time:

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) _ New York school children must be taught about the Irish potato famine under a bill Gov. George Pataki plans to sign Wednesday in a New York City ceremony with Irish President Mary Robinson.

Pataki counsel Michael Finnegan said the law will be the first in the nation to require teaching about the famine, which killed or uprooted millions in Ireland during the 1840s.

The bill mandates that the famine be portrayed as a human rights violation akin to genocide, slavery and the Holocaust _ subjects the state has mandated students be taught since 1994.

Some legislators complained the requirement will be another burden for already failing schools.

Republican Assemblyman John Faso of Columbia County, just south of Albany, called the bill a ``silly'' exercise in political correctness.

But Democratic Assemblyman Joseph Crowley of Queens, the bill's prime sponsor, said the famine has relevance in today's world.

``Hunger is still being used as a tool of subjugation, as a means of keeping people down, in places like Somalia, Ethiopia and China,'' Crowley said.

While triggered by a blight of the potato crop starting in 1845, Irishmen and historians have argued for generations over whether the attitude of the ruling British government contributed to the misery.

An estimated 1 million of Ireland's 7 million people died during the crisis _ some say more _ and 2 million or more fled the island. Many of those refugees settled in New York.