The Great Hunger

Buried in the Clonrush parish baptisms and marriages registry are minutes for a famine relief committee that bears witness to my paternal three-times great grandfather’s contribution to alleviate starvation during Ireland’s great famine, commonly referred to as An Gorta Mór. Would knowing what your ancestors did, influence you when history repeats?

In May 2025, Irish President Michael D Higgins gave a powerful keynote address at the National Famine Commemoration in Kilmallock, Co. Limerick, referencing the starvation in Gaza. ‘As I speak, trucks with vital food, medicine and water are blocked at three entry points to Gaza. Two sets of aid from Ireland are waiting in Amman, Jordan.’ He noted, ‘We are now also seeing starvation being used as an instrument of war.’ The President spoke of the extensive work of historians and their historiography in uncovering the systemic processes, mechanisms, policy and humanitarian failures that resulted in the ‘cataclysmic event experienced by the Irish people then part of the British Empire’. It is worthy of a read in its entirety.

“An Gorta Mór” the Great Hunger

From 1845-1852, Ireland – under British occupation – experienced a severe and sustained famine as potato blight wiped out the monocrop that nearly a third of the Irish population subsisted on. At the same time of this ‘great hunger’, vast quantities of food were exported to Britain. Additionally, British government policies such as the Corn laws – a tariff on grains – kept the price of bread artificially high. However, it was more than just food scarcity. Despite the British government’s macroeconomic policy decisions[1] and initial relief, a new Whig administration, extremely unsympathetic towards the Irish, insisted on limiting government aid, believing that “the judgement of God sent the calamity to teach the Irish a lesson”.[2] Furthermore, responsibility for famine relief was transferred onto Irish landowners, prompting waves of “Famine clearances” displacing hundreds of thousands of impoverished people from their land and homes through eviction.

The results were catastrophic. Millions of Irish people perished, and millions emigrated causing the population to drop from about 8.5 million in 1847 to 4.4 million in 1901.[3] In 2025, the population has still not recovered, it is estimated to be about 5.3 million.

The fact that I am here to write this story means my ancestors survived the catastrophic starvation of the Irish people.

My three times great grandfather, John Sheehy was a grocer and importer in a village called Whitegate (An Geata Bán) in County Clare. A report from Whitegate in late March 1846, noted ‘a crowd of about 100 people prevented farmers with grain to sell accessing Williamstown Harbour from where it was scheduled to be transported down the Shannon.’[4] The Tipperary Free Press later reporting, ‘The uncertainty of obtaining even one meal a day of bad lumpers under which our unfortunate people have been for some time suffering … the people at length, stimulated by hunger, attacked the Cahir flour carts’.

Within days, the Clonrush parish pulled together a relief committee seeking to alleviate the hunger and destitution through the importation of Indian corn meal, employment initiatives as well as lobbying the government for greater action.

Clonrush Parish Treasurers account, 1846

Tucked away on pages 50 – 60, in between decades of baptisms and marriages, the Clonrush Relief Committee recorded their resolutions, actions and finances from 4 April 1846 until 23 October 1846. My ancestor, John Sheehy, was tasked with producing a report for the committee on the destitute cases and recipients for ‘gratuitous relief’ in the neighbourhood.[5] He was also responsible (and paid) for organising the purchase, cartage and storage of Indian corn meal on behalf of the Committee.[6] The Treasurer’s report noted that John Sheehy donated two pounds as part of a local fund collection (public subscription) raising £94, alongside the government’s grant of £65, and the Calcutta Relief committee donation of £40, one of the first international fundraising efforts for the Irish famine. I wonder about my ancestor’s feelings, what he witnessed, what he experienced, how heavily it weighed on him, and how it felt as one year rolled into another with destitution ever growing.

The parallels with Gaza are striking and familiar. On 1 August 2025, the Time Magazine published an image of destitute women with empty pots on its front cover with the byline, ‘The Gaza Tragedy’. The copy byline that accompanied the cover stated, “when children are starving, the enemy is hunger.”

Time Magazine cover and byline posted on X social media

Is hunger really the enemy?

As devastating images of starvation in Gaza gain traction in western media, the public are faced with inane media headlines like, ‘How did hunger get so much worse in Gaza’ (New York Times) and ‘Why isn’t enough food getting into Gaza?’ (The Wall Street Journal) and there is very little attribution or accountability for the cause of this hunger.

Starvation doesn’t happen overnight.

Israel’s total blockade of aid in the occupied territory of Gaza commenced on 2 March 2025 following nearly 17 months of continuous displacement of trapped civilian populations, unrelenting bombing and complete decimation of all infrastructure. Given the long-term, scale of destruction, particularly on life sustaining infrastructure (hospitals, sanitation, residential shelter, fuel sources and agriculture), and the prevention of aid delivery to the Palestinian people who are now starving after 160+ days of the total blockade, the question of whether a genocide is occurring is rightly being asked. A Dutch newspaper, NRC, interviewed seven renowned genocide and Holocaust scholars from six countries, including Australia, in May 2025, and found unanimous agreement that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza.[7] Further determinations are documented here and here.

In teasing out the purpose of starvation, academic Bridget Conley argues, ‘While failures of food production or distribution are often central factors, mass starvation results from a broader range of acts that actively debilitate a population’s capacity to survive.’ She also considers nine objectives in the process of mass starvation that serves political, military or economic goals. They are: (i) extermination or genocide; (ii) control through weakening a population; (iii) gaining territorial control; (iv) flushing out a population; (v) punishment; (vi) material extraction or theft; (vii) extreme exploitation; (viii) war provisioning; and (ix) comprehensive societal transformation. ^[8]

Today as many watch the world’s first live-streamed genocide in Gaza on their phones (noting that there are multiple genocides occurring concurrently in the world), there is recognition of the interchangeability and nuance of words like famine and genocide. Writer, Anoopreet Rehncy wrote in a post widely circulated on Instagram, ‘Famine sounds like misfortune. Genocide sounds like guilt … Famine preserves power. Genocide threatens it.’[9]

Famine preserves power, genocide threatens it

As I bear witness to the genocide in Gaza, I have found that I am channelling my three-times great grandfather’s methods against the famine in 1846. Whilst he bought and distributed food to destitute peoples, I donate direct to Palestinians to enable them to buy food (when it is available). His committee noted resolution after resolution to write to various officials, I have an inbox full of emails to members of Parliament.  His membership of a committee could be akin to my subscriptions to advocacy groups. Anything at all to alleviate starvation and genocide of a people in the absence of meaningful government intervention.

Historians have demonstrated, as mentioned in President Higgin’s Famine Commemoration speech, ‘The Irish Famine was but one of the 19th-century British Empire’s many famines. Imperialism itself – imposing demands upon a society, disrupting the natural indigenous development of that society, expanding beyond its strength and understanding – is inextricably linked with famine around the colonised world, perhaps most notably in India and Ireland.’

Concluding his speech in Kilmallock, the Irish President essentially asked a question of us, he said, ‘Surely, we, the descendants of Famine survivors, should demand and work with others to ensure that no other people anywhere in the world shall ever experience such a calamity.[10]

*If you wish to heed the Irish President’s call for action or channel John Sheehy, I recommend donating to The Sameer Project to support Palestinians directly in the North or the South. The Australian Palestine Advocacy Network has extensive guidance on how to lobby Australian members of Parliament. Joining the organised weekly marches in Melbourne (Sundays 12 noon at SLV) will give you a sense of community action. The next national-wide protest march in Australia will be on Sunday 24 August 2025.

**Main image – John Sheehy’s residence and grocery store in Whitegate, Co. Clare. Photo taken in 2018 by author. [11]

Footnotes

[1] Charles Read, ‘Ireland and the perils of fixed exchange rates’ in History and Policy, weblink

[2] UK Parliament, weblink 

[3] Great Famine wikipedia, weblink

[4] James Kelly, ‘Food rioting in Ireland in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, Four Courts Press, 2017, p.64.

[5] National Library Ireland, Catholic Parish Register Clonrush Microfilm 02476/05 Diocese of Killaloe | County of Galway, Clare, weblink

[6] Catholic Parish Register, ibid., p.53.

[7] University of Western Australia, Press Clippings, Melanie O’Brien, weblink 

[8] Bridget Conley, ‘The Purposes of Starvation: Historical and Contemporary Uses, in Journal of International Criminal Justice, Vol 17, Issue 4, September 2019, pp.699-722. Weblink

[9] Anoopreet Rehncy @annoopreet posted 29 July 2025. Weblink 

[10] President delivers Keynote Address at the National Famine Commemoration, Saturday 17 May 2025. Weblink

[11] Alfie O’Brien, Lakyle School The Old and the New, A centenary celebration. Lakyle National School 2009, p.34.