Being something of a smart aleck, I’ve sometimes joked that while I may look white, actually I’m Irish. All eight of my great-grandparents were born there. Indeed, there was a time during the Great Potato Famine of 1845-’52 when my ancestors endured conditions similar to Black enslaved people in America. Millions of Irish peasants starved even as the country exported plentiful foodstuffs guarded by British soldiers. Had they been enslaved, they might have been fed.
So, the Irish fled to America in “coffin ships,” so-called because many thousands failed to survive the journey. The best way I know to understand this historical tragedy is to read Joseph O’Connor’s terrific novel “Star of the Sea.”
