'An tOcras Mór' The Great Hunger.

The Great Hunger By Cecil Woodham Smith (Harper & Row 1989 / first published 1962)

A brilliantly researched, highly readable blow by blow account of the Famine. Recommended as a first book to read for in-depth information with a chronological ordering of events.

The Great Famine, Studies in Irish History 1845-52

Editors R.Dudley Edwards and T.Desmond Williams

(First published in 1956. Published in 1994 by The Lilliput Press Ltd.) A collection of comprehensive articles by historians on differents aspects of the Famine. The first study of its kind.

This Great Calamity

By Christine Kinealy (Gill & Macmillan 1995)

A precise history of the Famine, from 1845-1852. Particularly good on relief schemes and the operation of the Poor Law.

The Great Irish Famine

By Cormac Ó Gráda (Cambridge University Press 1995)

A short, concise, analytical overview of the Famine.

The Great Irish Famine (The Thomas Davis Lecture Series)

Edited by Cathal Póirtéir (RTE/Mercier Press)

A very interesting collection of lectures, covering various aspects of the Famine period.

Letters From Ireland During The Famine of 1847

By Alexander Somerville (Irish Academic Press 1994)

This is a fascinating collection of the letters of an excellent writer and an observant, socially aware journalist.

The Irish Famine / New Horizons

By Peter Gray (Thames And Hudson 1995)

A beautifully illustrated, sensitive summary of the main events of the Famine years, with an interesting appendix of documents.

Famine Diary

By Gerald Keegan (Wolfhound Press 1991)

The diary, written in 1847, of a schoolteacher who left Ireland with his wife to sail to Canada. Provides a great insight into the experiences of the period.

Women Surviving / Studies in Irish Women's History in the 19th and 20th centuries

Edited by Maria Luddy and Cliona Murphy (Poolbeg1989)

A series of studies on Irish women's lives, including a look at the Poor nquiry of 1835 and women in workhouses from 1840 to 1870.

Famine Echoes

Edited by Cathal Póirtéir (Gill & Macmillan Ltd. 1995)

A selection of folk memories of the famine period, from those originally collected by the Folklore Commission in the 1940s.

Traits & Stories of The Irish Peasantry Volumes 1 and 2

By William Carleton (Colin Smythe Ltd., 1990)

A collection of stories, with factual backgrounds and extensive, informative footnotes, written in the early 1800s and first published in 1843-44. Brilliantly vivid, imaginative and entertaining, a fascinating insight into the people of the time.

The Hungry Voice

Edited by Christopher Morash (Irish Academic Press 1989)

A powerful selection of poetry from the period. Includes poems by John Keegan, James Clarence Mangan, Aubrey de Vere and many others.

The Silent People

By Walter Macken (Macmillan & Co. Ltd 1988)

A novel set in 'Ireland 1826 - when millions knew only famine, oppression and degradation'.

Famine

By Liam O'Flaherty (Wolfhound Press 1984 & 1996)

A powerful novel of the Famine period, with interesting characterisation and great descriptive passages.

The Famished Land

By Elizabeth Byrd (Pan Books 1974)

A poignant, sensitive novel with a girl as its main character. A novel of heroic survival during the famine.

Castle Rackrent

By Maria Edgeworth (Oxford University Press 1981)

A short, lively story which illustrates much about Irish life in the early 1800s.

Paddy's Lament

By Thomas Gallagher. (Harcourt Brace Jovanovich 1982)

Subtitled "Prelude to Hatred". A meticulously researched account of the Great Famine.

The Irish Famine: A Documentary History

By Noel Kissane. (Leabharlann Naisiunte na hEireann 1995)

This source-book documents the course of the calamity by means of contempory newspaper reports, workhouse records, maps, statistics, and engravings. The documents are set in context and a running story-line guides the reader as the story unfolds.

The Hungry Earth

By Sean Kenny. (Wolfhound Press, Dublin, 1995. Paperback £6.99)

A novel of the Irish Famine. Sean Kenny's powerful story is set in the Dublin of today - but it's central character, yuppie Turlough Walsh finds himself awakening in the midst of famine-stricken west of Ireland where he begins to discover the truth about people, and more importantly about himself - uprooting forever the foundations of his twentieth-century world. An extraordinary accomplished fiction debut.

The Irish Famine: an Illustrated History

By Helen Litton. (Wolfhound Press, 1994, 1996)

Helen Litton's account is aimed at the general reader and is illustrated in colour and black and white, with numerous period extracts and is written in a clear, fast-paced narrative.

The Irish Famine Curriculum

By James Mullin.

Last Setember the New Jersey Commission on Holocaust Education approved this 111-page curriculum for use in New Jersey schools and distributed it to every high school in the state. It is the first state-approved Famine curriculum in the country. It is available from the following address for $15, including shipping. James Mullin, Chairman, Irish Famine Curriculum Committee. 757 Paddock Path, Moorestown, NJ 08057, USA

The Workhouse of Ireland - The fate of Ireland's Poor

By John O'Conner. (Anvil Books)

A well-researched and gracefully written, interesting book on the history of workhouses in Ireland from their inception in 1838 to their phasing out in 1933.

Death In Templecrone

By Patrick Campbell.

The story of Templecrone Parish in Northwest Donegal. Expertly researched and written by a native now living New Jersey. Available by mail order from PH Campbell, 82 Bentley Avenue, Jersey City, NJ 07304, USA. Price $16 surface mail, $19 airmail.

Famine In The Valley

By Edmund O'Riordan.

Published by Edmund O'Riordan, June 1995.

Covers the effects of the Famine and workhouses in the Clogheen Union of South West Tipperary.

Massachusetts Help to Ireland During the Famine

By Henry Lee and H.A. Crosby (published by Forbes Museum, Milton, Massachusetts).

An excellent account of the voyage of the US Jamestown, which was called into service by Boston citizens in spring of 1847. The U.S. Jamestown carried over $40,000 worth of supplies, food and money to Cork Harbor, where the ship and its crew was received with great appreciation and praise. (Submitted by Michael P Quinlan.)

The Famine Decade:Contemporary Accounts

Edited by John Killen, published by The Blackstaff Press, Belfast, 1995.

Although the book is bracketed by 1841 and 1851 census reports, most of the pieces were taken from Irish and English periodicals. This a wealth of primary source material and includes cartoons from Punch and auction posters. (Submitted by Patricia Jameson-Sammartano.)

Fearful Realities: New Perspectives on the Famine

Edited by Chris Morash and Richard Hayes. Published by Irish Academic Press, 1996.

This collection of essays originated at a conference on the Famine organised by the society for the Study of Nineteenth-Century Ireland, held in St Patrick's College, Maynooth in July of 1994. (Submitted by Todd Bogan.)

A Death-Dealing Famine: The Great Hunger

By Cristine Kinealy. Published by Pluto Press, 1997.

Kinealy shows the complex factors which created the Famine, including the rise of free market ideologies, provedentialist ideas, the desire to disposses the Irish peasantry in order to "modernize" Irish agriculture. An important sequel to "The Great Calamity". (Submitted by Craig Gilmore.)

Excellent list...and we can add to this as other publications come to light.

well i've found my way here; however partisan,I have been boning up on the famine useing the writtings of Fred Engles written at the time,  in fact just before, during and after the famine. I find these writtings should be more widely known by those that visit your site.

jonathan