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To: Ann Corrigan who wrote (16575)	5/29/1998 10:57:00 PM
From: Grainne	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 39621

Hi, Ann!! I am not sure how to respond to your comments about the Irish in Ireland. I agree with you wholeheartedly that the Catholics in the North have suffered in ways the others did not. Certainly, being at war since the late '60's has been very, very difficult. Where I have different perceptions to some degree is that there is still enormous anger in the south about the domination of the English. I remember how relieved everyone in the south was when England apologized for letting the Irish starve during the Potato Famine of the 1940's. This was on the 150th anniversary of the Famine, just a couple of years ago. There was quite a lot of press opinion in the Irish Times that this would start some kind of healing process. In the same way, it was very nice that the Australians had Sorry Day this week to apologize to the aborigines for taking their children and forcing them to go to boarding schools where they lost their culture and were physically and sexually abused. Over a million people signed Sorry Books to express their feelings. I am handicapped because I get my information from Irish people who have come to America recently, my own husband, and the press, instead of being there at the moment. I do know that those in the south are not as concerned about the plight of the North, but the Famine was much more devastating in the south, killing many more people, so from what I can scrape together people are still fairly furious there. Sinead O'Connor wrote a scathing song about it a couple of years ago. Most of the industrialization has been in the South. In order to get the peace accord going right there has been a hundred million dollars offered by the British government to the North, so more firms will probably be moving in there. But already, around Belfast, there were several European manufacturing branches of well-known, and not so well-known computer companies. Did your family come to the United States to escape the Famine? From what county did they come? Most of the immigration to the United States was due to horrendous hardships inflicted on the Irish by the English. Perhaps you are not aware of it, but Ireland at one time was heavily forested, and the Celts and the Vikings who came to attack but stayed to marry and have families, were living there pretty happily. After the English came they confiscated the lands of the peasants, and made them work as tenant farmers. The English landlords were just ruthless. The Irish were not allowed even to own a horse unless they gave up their Catholicism and became Protestant.