To what extent can this source give insights into Irish people's agency during, and experience of, the potato famine? Source 6: Letter from Mary Rush (undated). Published in Kerby Miller and Paul Wagner, Out of Ireland: The Story of Irish Emigration to America (Washington, D.C.: Elliott & Clark Publishing, 1994), pp. 28–29 (Note for students: Many such letters were dictated by the signatories as they may have been only semi-literate.) Dear Father and Mother, Pen cannot dictate the poverty of this country at present. The potato crops are quite done away all over Ireland. There is nothing expected here, only an immediate famine. If you knew what danger we and our fellow countrymen are suffering, if you were ever so much distressed, you would take us out of this poverty isle. We can only say, the scourge of the Almighty fell down on Ireland, in taking away the potatoes, they being the only support of the people. So, dear father and mother, if you don’t endeavor to take us out of it, it will be the first news you will hear by some friend of me and my little family to be lost by hunger, and there are thousands dread they will share the same fate. So, I conclude with my blessings to you both and remain, Your affectionate son and daughter, Michael and Mary Rush take us out of poverty, and don’t let us die with the hunger.
To what extent can this source give insights into Irish people's agency during, and experience of, the potato famine? Source 6: Letter from Mary Rush (undated). Published in Kerby Miller and Paul Wagner, Out of Ireland: The Story of Irish Emigration to America (Washington, D.C.: Elliott & Clark Publishing, 1994), pp. 28–29
(Note for students: Many such letters were dictated by the signatories as they may have been only semi-literate.)
Dear Father and Mother,
Pen cannot dictate the poverty of this country at present. The potato crops are quite done away all over Ireland. There is nothing expected here, only an immediate famine. If you knew what danger we and our fellow countrymen are suffering, if you were ever so much distressed, you would take us out of this poverty isle. We can only say, the scourge of the Almighty fell down on Ireland, in taking away the potatoes, they being the only support of the people. So, dear father and mother, if you don’t endeavor to take us out of it, it will be the first news you will hear by some friend of me and my little family to be lost by hunger, and there are thousands dread they will share the same fate. So, I conclude with my blessings to you both and remain,
Your affectionate son and daughter,
Michael and Mary Rush
take us out of poverty, and don’t let us die with the hunger.
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