FamineShips2022TonyFallon116

 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