ABOUT THE CONTENTSThese units follow the

Teacher and Student Summary (pp.3-18):I.

LAWS THAT ISOLATED AND IMPOVERISHED THE
IRISH: This sectionshows how the Penal
Laws, and the Statutes of Kilkenny,
reducedthe Irish to the status of
disenfranchised non-persons in theirown
country, and it examines how “laissez
faire” and repression oftrade laws laid
the groundwork for the Famine to take
place.(pp.19-32)II. RACISM: This section
provides numerous examples and
cartoonillustrations showing how the
Irish, as well as Africans andothers,
were made into racist stereotypes. (pp.
33-60)III . MASS EVICTION DURING FAMINE:
This sections shows the extentto which
eviction was employed during the Famine,
the reasons whyit was employed, and its
devastating consequences for
thesuffering people. (pp.61-69)IV.
MORTALITY RATES AND “THE HORROR”: This
sections shows deathrates in relation to
Ireland's population at the time of
theFamine, and gives personal accounts
of Famine scenes to help put ahuman face
on the tragedy. (pp.70-79)V. EMIGRATION:
DEPARTURE, CROSSING, AND ARRIVAL: This
sectiondescribes the conditions faced by
the famine-stricken people
atdisembarkation centers, on board
"coffin ships" and at
quarantinestations. (pp. 80-95)VI.
GENOCIDE: This section gathers together
several definitionsof genocide, as well
as statements made by historical figures
andhistorians, and asks the students to
relate facts, opinions anddefinitions.
(pp. 96-105)VII. POETRY: This section
features a selection of poetryinspired
by the mass starvation in Ireland. (pp.
106-116)

The Great Irish

3.

FamineTeacher and
Student SummaryBridget O'Donnell and
her children

4.EARLY IRELANDHuman habitation in Ireland

dates from the mesolithic (middle stone
age)period, approximately 7,000 years B.C.
The people are assumed to havebeen hunter-
gatherers and fishermen. They showed great
reverence for thedead, and left behind
stone tombs like Newgrange, outside Dublin.
About3,500 years B.C., in the neolithic, or
late stone age, Irish farmerscleared land,
used stone tools, planted crops and kept
sheep and cattle.(1.)THE CELTSThe Celts
began arriving from Europe as early as the
6th century B.C.They brought with them the
iron-age culture. Celtic Ireland was
dividedinto 150 little kingdoms, and five
provinces, four surviving to today:Ulster,
Munster, Leinster & Connacht. The extended
family was the socialunit and there were no
towns. The Irish Celts spoke the Irish
language,believed in druidism, and obeyed
the laws interpreted by early lawyerscalled
brehons. (2.) ST. PATRICK & CHRISTIANITYIn
the 5th century A.D. Irish pirates raided
Britain and captured a 16year-old Roman
citizen named Patrick. He was kept as a
slave in Ireland,and worked as a shepherd.
He eventually escaped and returned home.
Whenhe was studying in Gaul (now France) he
had recurring dreams in which thechildren
of Ireland appeared to him, asking him to
return. He came backto Ireland as a
missionary, and by the time he died in 465
all of Irelandwas Christian.St. Patrick is
also credited with bringing the Latin
alphabet to Ireland,and founding a great
many monasteries. By the 8th century the
Irish monkshad made great technical
advances in the craft of making
illuminatedmanuscripts. The best example is
the Book of Kells, an 8th century copyof
the New Testament.THE VIKINGSThe monks also
worked elaborate ornamentation in bronze,
enamel and gold.(3.) Rumors of these
treasures brought on invasions by fleets of
longboats carrying Danish Vikings. They
deployed fortified settlements andbuilt
towns. In the year 841 they founded Dublin.
(Dubh Linn meaningBlack Pool)THE NORMANSThe
first Normans from England and Wales landed
in Wexford, Ireland in1169. They conquered
the disunited Irish using armor, horses
andfortified castles. The Normans brought
with them the tradition of CommonLaw, based
upon the personal ownership of property, in
contrast with lifeunder Irish Brehon Law
where ownership was vested in the extended
familyor clan. However, the newcomers
quickly adopted the Irish language,married
into Irish families, and "it was said of
them that they becamemore Irish than the
Irish themselves." (4.)

5.STATUTES OF KILKENNYThe English crown

wished to preserve the racial purity and
culturalseparateness of the colonizers.
They instituted the Statutes of
Kilkenny.These decreed that the two races,
Norman and Gaelic (Irish) should
remainseparate. Marriage between races was
made a capital offense. The
statutesexplained:"Whereas at the conquest
of the land of Ireland and for a long
timeafter, the English of the said land
used the English language...Now manyEnglish
of the said land, forsaking the English
language, fashion, modeof riding, laws and
usages, live and govern themselves
according to themanners, fashion and
language of the Irish enemies..." (5.)The
government responsible for the statutes was
in control only in thearea around Dublin,
known as the English Pale. The effort to
preventassimilation to Irish ways led to
the expression, "Beyond the Pale."THE
REFORMATIONIn the 1530s England's King
Henry began the process of breaking with
theCatholic Church of Rome. This split led
to the eventual foundation ofthe Church of
England. The Reformation divided the Irish,
who remainedCatholic, from the English, who
became Protestants. In 1601, at thebattle
of Kinsale, the Irish armies and their
Spanish allies weredefeated. For the first
time all Ireland was governed by a strong
Englishcentral administration based in
Dublin.THE PLANTATIONAnother English policy
to subdue Ireland was the colonization of
Ulsterwith new settlers, mostly Scottish
Presbyterians and English Protestants.This
system of colonization was known as "a
planting". The native Irishwere driven off
almost 500,000 acres of the best land in
counties Tyrone,Donegal, Derry, Armagh and
Cavan. The property was then consolidated
andcolonizers were 'planted' on large
estates. (6.)OLIVER CROMWELLIn 1641 the
Irish rebelled against the English and
Scottish who possessedtheir land, and were
immediately caught up in the English civil
warbetween Parliament and king. In 1649
Oliver Cromwell landed at Dublinwith an
army of 12,000 men. He was joined by the
8,000 strongparliamentary army. He
successfully laid seige to the town of
Drogheda,and on his orders the 2,699 men of
the royalist garrison were put todeath.
Townspeople were also slaughtered. Cromwell
reported that “We putto the sword the whole
number of inhabitants. I do not think
thirty ofthe whole number escaped with
their lives." (7.)Large-scale confiscation
of land followed. The owners were driven
offeleven million acres of land and it was
given to the Protestantcolonists. "Irish
landowners found east of the river Shannon
after 1 May,1654 faced the death penalty or
slavery in the West Indies and
Barbados."(8.) The expression "To hell or
Connaught" originated at this time: