The Great Hunger/Famine changed Ireland forever. The social, economic, and political structures of Ireland changed to reflect the devastation of the 1840’s and the need to survive. Emigration drained the country of its young men and women and did not abate until the 1920's and was not reversed until the 1990's.

By the 1850’s many of the people living in Ireland were in a state of “shock”. The deaths, disease, emigration, and destruction of their communities had left them in an Ireland they could not recognize. Their inner sense of confusion, anger, sadness, grief, disbelief was magnified by what they saw and heard. Gone were family members, friends, and neighbors.  Buildings had been torn down and whole villages destroyed. There was an eerie quietness s reflecting the absence of domesticated cats, dogs and other small animals who have died. Packs of angry wild dogs were a danger. People experienced horrors…