Shouldn't…but Do

Peanut gallery alert: Warning essay ahead…

I am a fan of St. Patrick’s Day.

On a day when “all the world is Irish,” it matters not, at least in my opinion, whether a blood claim exists. There is something for everyone – a spring festival, a saint, the gritty origins of the world’s biggest immigrant celebration.

In 1845 a highly infectious, fungus-like pathogen called Phytophthora infestans (commonly known as “Late Blight) changed the course of Irish history. In the mid-1800’s, Ireland was a generally poor country that supported a population of about eight million, one-third of which was either entirely or significantly dependent on the cultivation of potatoes as a staple food. By 1901, after the Famine era, the population had fallen to four million.

The crop failure that occurred during 1845 coincided with a period of Irish population growth as well as economic stagnation. The potato failure of 1845 should not have had a lasting effect on Ireland. However, the lack of effective intervention by Irish landlords, merchants and most importantly, the British government, transformed the crop failure of 1845 into a famine known as An Gorta Mor (the Great Hunger).

Successive crop failures between 1845 and 1851 and an inability or unwillingness to provide assistance to the poor and destitute brought unimaginable pain, disease or death to over two million souls who fled into Ireland’s underworld arms or sailed beyond the ninth wave to find new life in countries such as America and Canada. Tragically, many of those seeking to escape the famine died on disease-ridden vessels known as “coffin ships.”

Ironically, the pathogen that caused the potato famine itself came from the Americas (central Mexico) and traveled across the Atlantic to Belgium where it began its deadly devastation of European potato fields in 1843. The ravages of poverty, pestilence and politics permanently changed the lives of those who call themselves Irish.

Millions of people fled Ireland’s broken hearth during and in the years following the Great Hunger. Carrying their culture and their connectedness with them, these immigrants took up residence all over the world. The fortune, political clout, and identity forged by these immigrant populations abroad has served to sustain their ties with Ireland.

Whether or not the descendents of these immigrant families ever physically return to Ireland is not of consequence. With no geographic borders, the Irish psyche remains connected over boundless space and time, and sometimes, I think, over history.

Beannachtai Na Feile Padraig – The Blessings of St. Patrick on you.