Publisher's Synopsis
During the peak years of The Great Hunger at least a million men, women, and children died from either starvation or disease. During the same period, it is estimated that up to half a million individuals were driven out of their dwellings. One neglected feature of the Famine evictions is the ideological context in which they occurred--not just the dictates of political economy but also profound religious and racial prejudices directed against the pauperized Irish peasantry. This essay seeks to redress that neglect by emphasizing the role played by pejorative images of "Paddy" in the toleration or approval in Britiain of both eviction and involuntary emigration. --Page [4] of cover.
