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People:
As you listen to this audiotext on the role of a ship called the "Jeanie Johnston" in bringing over refugees from Ireland's "Great Hunger" to North America, pay special attention to how the British regarded the Irish in general and the Irish peasantry in particular. (The failure of the potato crop was an excuse that the British used to get rid of the Irish peasantry--through death or forced emigration.) Questions for you to ponder: Were the Irish illegal immigrants to the U.S? Given the centuries-old ethnicism that the Irish faced, how did they eventually become "white" people in North America? What was the consequence for African Americans of the arrival of thousands of Irish refugees? Why do history books still refer to the Great Hunger as the Irish potato famine? Whose interests does it serve to misname it that way? March 15, 2013 at 11:00 AM The podcast for this audiotext is available here: http://onpoint.wbur.org/2013/03/15/jeanie-johnston The Jeanie Johnston: The Legendary Irish Famine Ship For St. Patrick’s Day, the story of the legendary tall-masted ship – the Jeanie Johnston – that brought thousands of Irish from famine to America. For many Irish-Americans, the story of emigration to this country begins in near-panic and desperation. In 1845, a terrible blight hit Ireland’s great staple food, the potato. Governments fumbled, and famine followed. A wave of Irish men, women and children looked across the Atlantic to flee, to survive. Many of the ships that carried them were infamous. “Coffin ships,” they were called, with mortality rates up to 70 percent on the voyage. One of those tall-masted ships seemed charmed. A miracle. Deathless. This hour, On Point: before St. Patrick’s Day, the tale of the Jeanie Johnston. -Tom Ashbrook GuestsKathryn Miles, author of “All Standing: The Remarkable Story of the Jeanine Johnston, the Legendary Irish Famine Ship.” |