The Famine was a “public health emergency in its own right”, during which 1 million people died, Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht Josepha Madigan said at the National Famine Commemoration in Dublin on Sunday. Ms Madigan said that those who died during the Famine did so not primarily from hunger, but from the epidemics brought on by hunger. She was speaking at a ceremony held in St Stephen’s Green that was closed to the public. Ms Madigan said that most people who died in the wake of the failure of the potato crop died from dysentry, smallpox and “famine fever”. The heroes of the Famine sought to lift and carry those who fell or could not keep up, she said.

Source: The Irish Times May 17, 2020 17:29 UTC