I've been assembling photos from online views of Skellig Michael and they are hypnotizing. If I go back to Eire I'll surely pay a visit.

Meanwhile, individual experiences run the gamut and coming up with broadbrush slams at either Catholic or Protestant perfidy re: the Irish famine is not a good fit IMO in this venue. I've been told that in the Irish famine about 1 million died and 1 million emigrated. Seems a right horror no matter how we break down the various treatments people received.

I remember reading in the NYTimes obit column about a Jewish man who attended a Protestant college but was not allowed to graduate. They said they only graduated Protestants. They why he asked did you let me matriculate here? Because we thought you'd have converted by now was the reply. Not exactly nice treatment, and far from starvation, but also far from a typical experience.

As for how Irish Catholic institutions treated Irish Catholics, there is a world of information on the subject, which is a significant one all its own self. I've seen "Spotlight" and "Philomena" and they are both excellent films. But they are not history.