Brief Interludes

1. The ‘wretched refuse of our teeming shore.’

The Great Famine, brought by a pestilence that destroyed Ireland’s potato crop, the nation’s primary food source, plagued the land for seven years, from 1845 until 1852.

Starvation and disease drove two million to North America during this time.

Most departed from Liverpool, where thieves and swindlers lurk…