“The scenes we have witnessed during our short stay at Skibbereen, equal anything that has been recorded by history, or could be conceived by the imagination. Famine, typhus fever, dysentery, and a disease hitherto unknown, are sweeping away the whole population.”

“(We) sent out for an immense basket-full of loaves, intending to distribute them to the occasional starving beings we were sure to meet with by the way; but some of the people of the town had learnt our intention, and collected in a great crowd under the window to the number of 100 or 200, mostly women. It was a frightful sight to see those pale eager faces staring up at us, uttering all manner of entreaties. Of course there was no hope of carrying off the bread, indeed it would have been cruel to have made the attempt; the only question was, how to divide it. At first we sent it down to the door, but the rush was so great, that that scheme became impracticable; and it only remained, to throw it out of the window. One can never forget what followed; the fighting, the screaming, the swaying to and fro of the human mass, as it rushed in the direction of some morsel, the entreaties and gestures by which each one sought to attract our attention to herself, and above all the insatiable expression of the crowd as it remained unsatisfied and undiminished at the exhaustion of our loaves– for what were they among so many!”

Source: ‘Narrative of a Journey: From Oxford to Skibbereen’

Friends of Ireland!

Stair na hÉireann asks you to take the time to please consider supporting this very important petition.

Irish Holocaust – Not Famine. The Push to educate in facts.

We can now prove beyond doubt that more food than was required to feed the Irish people during the period (1845-1850), was exported out of Irish ports under armed guard.

This is not a petition of Acrimony, Discord or Hate, this is a petition for Truth!

Please sign with your family, and ask your friends and their families to consider.

In Proud and Loving memory of our Forefathers, and the Truth that our Children Deserve.

http://www.petitions24.com/when_famine_became_genocide_ireland_1845_-_1850

Photo: Abandoned farmstead, Skibbereen, Co Cork