Was An Gorta Mor (the great hunger as it is known in the Irish language) of 1845-50, in which one million people died, the work of God? Many contemporaries thought so. Such a view also influenced government relief policies. If God sent the Famine, no amount of state aid could circumvent the intentions of Divine Providence. These and cognate ideas will be examined to determine how individuals and governments could conclude that the Famine was a ‘visitation from on high.

About the speaker: 

Father Oliver Rafferty, S.J., professor of History at Boston College, has taught at several universities and colleges in Britain and Ireland. He has also been a visiting professor in the United States, Korea and Australia. He has written or edited seven books including Violence, Politics and Catholicism in Ireland (Dublin, 2016) and Irish Catholic Identities, paperback, (Manchester, 2015). He is currently teaching a course at LMU on “Ireland at War in the Twentieth Century.”