I have been following this thread with great interest. It's usually a bad idea for me to get up on my soap box, but the Great Hunger is one of my hot buttons.

I am presently looking at a book titled The Irish Famine, A Documentary History by Noel Kissane published by Leabharlann Náisiúnta na hÉireann. It tells the story of the Famine throw images and articles from journals published during the famine as well as first hand accounts of the atrocities. I would agree that the story is complex. However, the crop failures themselves did not the cause the widespread death and forced immigration . It was bad policy. I'll be back with more when I have more time.

Brían.