Samples of Emigrant Letters, A NPR Discussion about the History of the Irish Famine and a Visual Presentation on the Devestating Effects of the Famine

Samples of letter from Irish emigrant's to the US

http://www.irishclub.org/emigrant.htm
An IRISH Emigrant's Letter Home to Ireland
from the Pacific Northwest in 1883

http://www.emigrantletters.com/IE/output.asp?CategoryID=6585
Samples of Irish emigrant letters from America and information and bio's of those who wrote these letters back and forth across the Atlantic.

http://www.hsp.org/default.aspx?id=578

These letters were written by Curtis family members residing in Philadelphia and Ireland during the years of the Famine. They were preserved by the historical society of PA.

http://www.hoganstand.com/general/identity/extras/roots/stories/kilkelly.htm

Historical information about the famous "Kilkelly" Ireland letters

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EjYYaVnWuAA
Here is a you tube link to the Kilkelly Ireland Song
The "Kilkelly Ireland Song" now a famous ballad, draws its inspiration from a series of ten surviving letters written on behalf of Byran and Elizabeth Hunt by the local school master to their emigrant son in America.
John Hunt emigrated to the States in 1855 and the letters written to him by his parents were re-discovered in an attic in Bethesda Maryland by his American descendants the Jones family. Some 120 years after they were written, Peter Jones a great, great grandson of John Hunt composed the ballad based on the contents of the letters.
It is a poignant song dealing with the effects of Famine, poverty and emigration in one Irish family. However its universal appeal comes from the fact that this could be the saga of countless thousands of other families in the latter part of the 19th century.

NPR AUDIO on St Patricks Day 1997 History of the Irish Potato Famine

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1011309

1997 was the 150th anniversary of "Black 47" the peak of the Irish Potato famine. In 1845, a fungus attacked Ireland''s potato crop, destroying it within a year. For millions potatoes were the only significant source of food. More than a million people died in the famine, another two million emigrated. On St. Patrick''s Day, join Melinda Penkava for a historical perspective on the Irish potato famine and how it impacts Irish society and life today. That''s next on Talk of the Nation, from NPR News.\n \r Guests: \n Tim Pat Coogan \n Historian, Author\n Editor of the Irish Times for 20 years\r Christine Kennelly \n Fellow, University of Liverpool, England\n Author\n This Great Calamity (Rinehardt, 1995),\n A Death Dealing Famine (Pluto Press, 1997)

A Short Visual Presentation on the Effects of the Irish Potato Famine 1847

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rjtkRfsZUck&feature=related

A six and a half minute poignant visual presentation showing the devestating effects of the irish Famine upon its people.