FamineShips2022TonyFallon116
In the dark eighteen forties Ireland was England's breadbasket
That time dead thrown in mass graves without coffin or casket
While ships sailed out loaded with meat and Irish grown grain
While sons of the rich were being educated in France or Spain
it was not the failing potatoes brought total ruination
but the result of land taken from natives during plantation
Overworked fields did not provide an adequate harvest
So food was often scarce in winter when weather was harshest
The potatoes crop rotting in the ground meant certain starvation
meanwhile clergy preached after suffering there would be salvation
with the passing generations holdings got smaller and smaller
Indoor animals only added to the unhealthy squalor
Those behind on rent were evicted on the orders of the squire
Cattle were more profitable so the house was set on fire
Thrown out on the open windy road to face certain doom
With no money in their pockets to buy food to consume
Reduced to begging for some pennies from heartless bosses
To die in the fields and ditches without benefit of crosses
The living trying to get overseas with their last few pounds
Leaving their families and loved ones in villages and towns
Immigrants boarded rotting ships which very well might wreck
Long before they safely reached the ports of Boston or Quebec
Corpses thrown overboard without any slowing motion
To become food for trailing sharks in the Atlantic Ocean
Then be treated like they were either a criminal or a spy
With signs in the windows saying No Irish people need Apply
