Write a letter to a friend about famine
Answers
Explanation:
The Great Irish Famine is, arguably, the most defining event of 19th-century Ireland. Affecting the whole of the island, it was, and is, described in biblical and apocalyptic terms. In attempting to convey the scale of it, scholars frequently focus on the vast numbers of those who died or who emigrated, or examine the Famine on a macro, rather than micro, level.
While there is no problem in this approach, it often ignores the more personal reflections that can be found in correspondence and in journals. One would not expect antiquarian correspondence to be a good source of this. They were, after all, scholars who spent their days translating medieval Irish literature, collecting folklore and writing history. Yet, as prolific corresponders with each other (sometimes several times a day to the same person), their letters offer a fascinating, and often overlooked, insight into the social and political matters of their day.