Odds are you know at least something of the Great Famine of 1845-1850 that led to the long surge of Irish immigrants to American shores, many of whose descendants will be marching today to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day (including my mom, a proud immigrant from County Cork). To us today, the Great Famine is an awful but distant thing. After all, it was poor people in an unenlightened corner of the world who suffered because they relied too much on the potato. A tragedy for sure, but hardly a mirror on us today. Right? The reality is far more...
