Customer Reviews

The Famine Ships: The Irish Exodus to America

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I make no apologies for the structural defects of this book, nor do I mean to suggest they should be ignored. They deserve criticism. Grammatical errors and poor editing are never welcome, however with History a factual mistake or contradiction is at best never acceptable, and at its worst can cause credibility to be questioned. I still recommend this book as the errors do not negate the events that took place, and as frustrating as they may be, they do not detract from the horror that was The Famine, nor the conduct of those involved. That the book did not gain a wider audience, possibly because of these faults is sad.

Ireland has been fertile ground for reprehensible behavior by England for over 700 years. Ireland too, at times has committed acts of violence via a variety of Catholic and Protestant groups. The dead, wounded, and the mutilated are all that either side has gained. The hatred exists to this day, and while violence has been calmer of late, a great period of time must pass before memories fade and forgiveness is accepted for apologies offered.

Prior to the ships in this book becoming "Famine Ships" many plied another trade as "Slave Ships", it is true that there were structural changes made, but beyond a certain point conditions become inhuman, period. The Potato Blight is often the only, or the primary reason given for the mass immigration that devastated the island. The truth is always more complex, it is no different here.

While starvation was rampant the food that was available, food grown right there next to those that were starving was exported to England. The English Landowners often paid for the cost of passage on these ships where so many died. These ships did carry the victims of Famine like they had carried the victims of slavery before. Transportation was almost secondary, how can it be anything else when conditions are created that are deadly by definition. It was cheaper to pay for transit than keep people alive on their ancestral land. And if they left they no longer had any use for land, so it was bought and accumulated by the same individuals that often paid for its owner's permanent eviction.

Ireland today is experiencing the return of some of the descendants of those that made that terrifying crossing. As a nation it has become one of the most prosperous in Europe by many economic standards, but that is not enough. Tolerance is not good enough, nor are plans of peace that neither party believes in their heart to be fair. It would be pleasant to site examples of hatred hardened by centuries of pain that have been put aside and new beginnings made. Perhaps the newfound economic health will help the process, perhaps not.

I hope for those who live there, be they Catholic or Protestant, that a way is found in a comparatively brief span of time to pause, heal, for apologies to be made, and accepted.

This may be the most disorganized book I have ever read, and it contains numerous factual errors to boot, a kiss of death for a supposed history book. The vignettes come at you with no apparent thought about how one inter-relates with another. It is just a jumbled mess of repetitious incidents randomly presented. A simple solution would have been to build each chapter around a port of emigration. As for factual errors, how about the Titanic sailing on its maiden voyage from New York City. Or, on one page you are told a ship sank but most of its 200 passengers survived. On the next page you are told that most died. And there is no further explanation or clarification given. Dates of events are given as one year in the book, and pages later as another year. The book is published by reputable Henry Holt. Boy, they were totally asleep on this one. Even if there are some interesting facts given, how can you trust them in the face of all the errors. If you like watching movies to find the mistakes - like Plan 9 From Outer Space -- then this book is for you. All other potential readers, beware.

Anyone interested in their family history, the treatment of the Irish by the English Crown and the resultant holacaust called the Great Famine, should study this book. Well-documented and well-illustrated, it provides the history of the circumstances leading to the famine, the exodus and the horrors suffered by the emigres -- not only in their homeland, but aboard the ships. For someone researching Irish family names, this is the book to read, if for no other reason than to provide excellent background information and conditions of daily life.

Written in a pedestrian style it meanders from one point to another making difficult reading. The book lacks progression; points are presented without foundation or connection to any proceeding or subsequent text. In a final analysis it reads like a middle-schooler's book report: occasion fact smothered in disconnected filler. The combination results in the trivialization of the book's message.

The "Famine Ships" is not a scholarly work on an important time in Irish and American History. Readers interested in fairly light, shallow treatment of the subject may enjoy the book. Readers interested in in-depth treatment of the subject should look elsewhere. As noted by other reviewers, there are technical problems with the book including poor copy editing and some writing problems. It is about one-draft away from being a better book.

The author has clearly done great research. The primary sources he has used allow him to present a very compelling story. Unfortunately, it appears that he published his first draft: full of typos, grammatical errors and contradictory statements. Too bad, because the content suffers from the complete lack of copy editing and ultimately it is an unsatisfactory read, no matter how good the material and how arduous the research

In researching my Irish ancestry I came upon this book. It is a completely amazing tale of the millions of Irish and their journey to America. I believe that anyone who is Irish should read this book. If this does not lead to an apology from the guilty party I don't know what will.

Interesting history/topic but very, very dryly written with much redundancy and minute details that distract from the history. There is a tendency to go back and forth from one period to another and not stay on task chronologically, which I found distracting. Some of the writing itself seemed immature with a lot of of trite phrasing (i.e., "watery grave" over and over) with an attempt to be profound; there were times when I felt I was reading someone's Master's thesis or doctoral dissertation, rather than an historic book written for the general public. It was so dry and laborious that I finally stopped reading it about three-quarters of the way through and picked up two other books to read. I would have liked much more detail about the famine itself and its impact on the families and/or details of the poorhouses from which many of the emigrants came and specifically what they were escaping. The destitution and impact of the famine wasn't detailed enough nor were the actual shipboard situations; the details involved the shipping companies and such, with only cursory details of the actual events on board, etc. Obviously, I was very disappointed in this book.

American Passenger Arrival Records fulfills its purpose by providing an overview of available immigration records, their contents, and where they can be found. As pointed out on the back cover, it can be considered "a roadmap."

In the chapter regarding the ancestors of JFK he mentioned that an amateur genealogist figured out which boat the immigrant Kennedy sailed on, on the back of his birth certificate. Born c. 1826 Patrick Kennedy did not have a birth certificate as these did not begin in Ireland until 1864, 6 years after his death. Maybe Katherine O'Brien viewed a naturalization certificate but who knows? I like this book since it is a quick read and I read it a chapter a day. No footnotes and definitely not as scholarly as other Irish books can be. This is not always a bad thing. It would give a good beginning to Famine history and then one should read deeper resources.