Black 47 and Katrina

I took the pictures here near Galway Bay on the west coast of Ireland. They show scenes of a "famine village." The terrible famine in Ireland in the mid-nineteenth century was caused by the failure of the potato crop which sustained the population and resulted in death, suffering and emigration on a massive scale. Our tour guide explained that in 1847 (called Black 47 in Ireland) the landlords evicted all of the people for failing to pay rent and then burned the roofs of their homes and all of their belongings.

Those evicted were left to live and starve on their own, with no assistance from the British government, which governed the country at that time. Our tour guide said that those who lived on the west side of the country usually left for the United States and Canada, while those on the east side usually left for the UK and then Australia. Those traveling to the US faced a 30% mortality rate onboard--hence the term "coffin ships" was coined to describe them. Those traveling to Australia fared much better because the ship's captains were paid according to the number of people who arrived at their destination safely.

Almost a century and half later, these ruins still remain. The guide said that the people didn't want to tear down these structures and rebuild because of their belief that would disturb the spirits of the evicted families. I had to wonder if the reluctance to tear them down was also rooted in concern that this ugly part of history would be forgotten--built over and eradicated-- instead of remembered. Today some of these properties are being bought for development as vacation homes for British and European owners who don't share the Irish view of the famine villages. Still, the area is really eerie and sad today.

When the guide mentioned that during this time Liverpool had over 500,000 Irish refugees descend upon the city, I was reminded that only 2 years ago Houston received the same number (or more) refugees from Hurricane Katrina. It's hard to imagine Americans leaving the ruins of New Orleans or the Mississippi coast untouched as a memorial to the devastation that storm wreaked on the area rather than rebuilding it as quickly as possible.

Although Black 47 was an act of man and Katrina was an act of nature, in both cases communities were shattered and dispersed as desperate people fled their ruined homes seeking new lives elsewhere. And in both cases their governments failed to assist the people affected in a timely and efficient fashion.

El Jefe's ancestor Patrick Harrington left Ireland circa Black 47 for America, so this story is also his family's story. Patrick Harrington fled Ireland aboard one of the infamous coffin ships from Cork, Ireland. He survived the journey which took him to Halifax and shortly afterwards made his way to New England. Subsequently he traveled westward and participated in the Oklahoma land rush, becoming a landowner which would have been an impossible dream for him if he had stayed (and survived) in Ireland.

One hundred sixty years after Black 47 we are living in the Houston area which continues to cope with the Katrina diaspora and that is our story, too. Most of the Katrina evacuees will probably remain in Houston and in the other cities where they settled. Today Ireland's biggest export remains its people--more than 48 million of Irish descent worldwide compared to slightly under 6 million in the Irish Republic. That's the legacy of Black 47 and the ruined "famine villages" give their mute testimony to it. Meanwhile the legacy of Katrina is being addressed up and down the ravaged Gulf Coast and we are still living it.

And Hurricane Season began 3 days ago.