Paddy's Lament, Ireland 1846-1847: Prelude to Hatred

This paperback book came to me in excellent, brand-new condition.I was interested in this book as an American of Irish descent. I originally checked this book out from the local library to read. I have now purchased it for my collection / personal library. It is a very important, non-fiction book detailing a very important time in Ireland's history. It is well written and the facts are well researched, as shown by the "Notes", "Bibliography", "Acknowledgments" and "Index" sections of the book. It helped me understand the history of my family and what the people in Ireland endured. I would say it is a must-read for an American of Irish descent.

Having always been fascinated by my Irish heritage and Ireland's history, I began reading about the famine after reading Mary Pat Kelly's "Galway Bay" (great fiction novel, must read), read online papers and old news articles. Searching for a new read "Paddy's Lament" had such good reviews I ordered this book- very happy that I did. Thomas Gallagher gives such an insightful and emotional encounter of what happened in Ireland in 1846, along with EVERY detail imaginable on what the Irish people endured and pushed through in attempt to live and reach a new world. The book can be a sad read, it will make you wish there were a way to travel back in time and help all those people in Ireland, and, it will make you seriously wonder why American schools do not touch on the topic of the Irish famine when so many of those Irish immigrants became such important inventors/ builders/writers/ and leaders throughout our American history! We are taught so much about European history, war, African American slavery (news, Irish were enslaved too!), and mass race genocides (this being potentially one of the first acts of genocide), but, we never talk about how an entire country's population was booted out all due to a dead crop, unnecessarily starved, shipped away in sea boxes, and left to die; how if America hadn't stepped in to lend a helping hand the Irish would have basically become extinct. The only enlightenment to the Irish famine of the 19th century, it aided in America to be seen as the land of opportunity and freedom for immigrants in exile, setting in motion a people's movement that would enforce structure of the east coast of New York & Jersey, build the rail, and intimately set forth a frontier to the west where land and crop would be bountiful- yet U.S. schools don't care to touch on the topic...?I absolutely loved this nonfiction book, and I'm looking forward to reading another by Thomas Gallagher. Highly recommend if you're into anything Irish, and history in general.

I bought this as a gift for my sister as it is a most comprehensible yet readable history of the Irish potato famine. Well written.

Paddy's Lament is a good look at the potato famine in Ireland. Although it is pretty straight-forward and tries to trace a path that people took from the the beginning of the famine to arrival in the USA, it suffers from being repetitive. It would be difficult for an English person to read and not understand, even if not agreeing with, the Troubles that were to come.

I found nothing to dislike in this book. The author, Thos. Gallagher, did a superb job of telling us how the famine came about and what it was really like in Ireland during those two awful years (then the voyage across the Atlantic and adjusting to NYC). The first part of the book was just excruciating reading, painful, sad, awful.... I could read no more than 5 pages at a time. Five stars, no doubt.

This gives such an understanding of what Irish tenants went through at the hands of their landlords after the dreaded Potato Blight struck. I knew about the Famine and how many escaped to America, etc., but this brings you right into the agony of that time in Ireland and on the ships bringing them to their new homelands, if they survived the journey. It was quite an eye-opener for me, an Irish Catholic with family roots there.I had started to read more of Irish history based on my family genealogy in which every search led me to Ireland. I couldn't really understand The Troubles and such hatred still existing today, but "Paddy's Lament" sharpens the focus. If you were a child listening to your parents or grandparents telling you old family stories of what they suffered during the Famine, especially the first few years, I'd imagine that the hatred would stick with you for generations. "Prelude to Hatred" is so accurate. After the laws against Irish Catholics in the 1600s, this continuation of genocide lingers as I read of deliberate efforts not to relieve the suffering.For example, Ch 3 remains with you. The image of that girl running made me cry. The eviction of tenants who couldn't pay the rent is heartbreaking. How could landlords bear the anguish on their tenants' gaunt faces as they threw them out of their homes? The landlords or agents would promise 5 shillings to the evicted if they helped to tear down their homes! They'd only laugh and not pay them afterward, knowing they did it simply to buy food. To know that so much food was being shipped to England that these tenants had grown, while they received none, is disturbing.I'd always wondered, why the potato? Couldn't they have planted other crops? Well, they did - for their landlords and English profits. Tenants were allowed only a small portion of the land they worked to grow their own food. The potato was easy to grow and took little space. It could be used to feed family and animals alike. When the blight appeared, they had nothing.Overall, a must for anyone interested in Ireland and a disturbing time in Irish history.

This was a fine example of how the Irish were treated as second class citizens even in the home country. The English government exploited and slowly exterminated the population. Only by emigrating to America did many families and individuals break the chains that bound them. Good read.

History at its best. Immersive experience; if you read one book about the Irish famine, this should be it. I had no idea how bad and hopeless and all-encompassing this famine was.

This non-fiction book is the best one I have ever read about the Irish potato famine of 1846/47. Thomas Galagher set out to discover why the Irish everywhere had such dislike for, and lamented about, England, hence the title "Paddy's Lament"Being Irish I grew up hearing a lot about the famine, the causes and England's part in the aftermath. I heard stories of emigration and famine ships but this book puts all the facts together and backs them up with references to the contemporary Government papers and press reports. It has been extremely well researched and despite all the detail it was an easy read and I would recomend it to anyone wanting to know the plain facts.

Superb account of C19th Irish history - as compulsive to read as the most exciting novel, moving, dramatic and shameful if like me you're English. The research is fastidious and the writing style elegant.

Great service and great price. Delivery good. Thank you

A real eye opener, no wonder the Irish don't like the Brits.

Not my normal kind of read, but it has sucked me in. Hard core and very informative. Hard read!