Hope in the Time of Famine

I have seen the future, and it's in Ireland.

This is a silly overdone statement at first glance, because for all general purposes, Ireland is a very old land. The streets of Galway are cobblestone and the surrounding countryside is peppered with castles- sometimes magnificent and sometimes a random ancient stone wall in the middle of a field. For all of it's current glory, the nation has a storied past that stands head and shoulders above other countries when it comes to legends and triumphs, but has also suffered very deeply in the past.

I'd heard of the Great Famine in Ireland before I'd come here, just as part of my general knowledge of the world, but never really given it too much thought, knowing there was something with potatoes but never being really sure if the problem was that there were not enough potatoes or only potatoes or if it was all a bit of an exaggeration. Here though, it's still very much a big deal, something people speak about in hushed tones and seem eager to make sure you understand how very important it was upon their history.

For the past few days, I've been part of a bus trip with my family as they're getting to see Ireland for the first time, and receiving a very different view of the country than I'd seen previously. We've just finished the portion of the tour that stops at places in County Galway that I'm becoming quite familiar with, and there was something awfully off-putting about riding in a massive coach bus down the narrow road where my apartment is situated. It made me think though, of the times during my past travels studies when I've hopped from city to city absorbing everything the guide fed to us, and as I now picked up on little inaccuracies or things our Irish driver told us that were slightly altered to fit into our mindset of what Ireland should be (continually calling the language 'Gaelic' instead of 'Irish'), I couldn't help but feel a little sad. Anyone going on a drive-by tour would only know what they heard those brief ten minutes, and since most of our group is older or middle-aged Americans, it was very much tailored to what they wanted to hear. For the rest of the trip, this is what I can expect to get too. While it's all very comfortable and convenient, and we're staying and eating at some luxury places, I know for sure that what we see will be worlds away from the way the locals view their homes.

Not long ago, I watched a fantastic TED Talk entitled 'The Danger of A Single Story', in which a Nigerian writer discusses the problems she sees with only knowing a culture from one perspective. This has been stewing around in my mind for a while, along with a few points from the lecture I attended given by former Irish president Mary Robinson much earlier in the semester. This, I think, more than anything, provided the seed for whatever I'm mentally growing right now. She talked about recent impressive humanitarian efforts by the Irish government for those currently suffering from the effects of famine, and remarked on how they are particularly successful in that area because the Irish understand: they've been there. Far fewer than we realize are not terribly removed from the famine, but they are the children of survivors. The event has come up multiple times on our recent tour, and one driver explained that the country lost over half it's population in three years to either the 'new world' or the 'next world': everyone emigrated or starved. In Dublin I learned about how people would commit petty crimes because at least in jail they'd be fed, and today in Ennistymon we stopped by a memorial for all of the children victims of the famine. Our car driver in Killarney this afternoon spoke about how the British greed and Irish ignorance was at the root of it all, bad farmers ruining the potato soil but forced to export plentiful crops of corn to pay land taxes, and then buy overpriced diseased imported vegetables for their families. Colonialism has had it's toll here, too.

So why the hope? Ireland, despite the Celtic tiger, is in a dreadful recession and still struggling economically. But it has so many additional stories, and that's why people come here. I think the talk of the famine has me more excited than anything else, because it's finished here. Ireland's not perfect, but the difference between visiting here is that while slum tourism still exists in India and Kenya, my bus through Galway talked about the cathedral, college, and historic architecture- not the struggling Shantalla school district. The famine was a dreadful part of Ireland's past, but it's also in the past. There are monuments and museums about it, lest the residents, in their prosperity, forget where they've come from. The prospect that this is a possibility for areas ravaged by famine today is an absolutely thrilling one, that Somalia may one day be world renowned for it's poets and painters, instead of pirates and insurgents. I would love more than anything to return to East Africa in 50 years and see a recreated village of how people lived during famine times, listen to an audio guide and then return to a happy, prosperous town where such suffering is merely a fading memory for ballads. I've still no idea how we're going to get there, but I know that a world free from extreme deprivation is entirely achievable. Ireland is a comeback kid, and it gives me hope.