Famines, then and now: Ireland and Gaza 

Famine Memorial / Customs House Quays, Dublin by Rowan Gillespie  CC Much like dispassionate responses to the reports of looming famine in current-day Gaza, many lacked compassion for Ireland’s starving millions in 1845.

The U.S. President James Polk, Queen Victoria and The Sultan of Turkey all gave relatively paltry pledges. There were other more creative and generous minded contributors.

The Choctaw Indians sent money and maize. Baron Lionel de Rothschild, a prominent London Jew, co-founded British Association for the Relief of Distress in Ireland and the Highlands of Scotland in response to the famine. That association raised $600,000 in 1847 – about $20 million in today’s terms! Baron Rothschild also oversaw the opening of distribution centres to provide food-aid across Ireland. (1)

That was then. This is now.

Between famine-era mass starvation deaths and forced emigration, Ireland’s population fell from 8.5 million in 1845 to 6.6 million by 1851. The Irish famines (from 1845 to 1852) got seared onto the soul of Irish consciousness.

Many history books and documentaries mark the effect of that catastrophe on the national consciousness. Many modern sculptured famine memorials got erected around Ireland. (2)

Each year since 2008, there have been official famine commemorations. This national calamity was much on the mind of President Michael Higgins, as keynote speaker of the National Famine Commemoration.

In a typically loquacious speech said:

“No other event in our history can be likened to the Great Famine, either for its immediate, tragic impact, or its legacy of involuntary emigration, cultural loss, increased decline of the Irish language, and demoralisation,” he said.

Higgins made some politically-pungent parallels between Ireland’s historic famine and the extreme food, fuel and water shortage in today’s Gaza.

“We are now also seeing starvation being used as an instrument of war….” He declared.

All of the above backstory might help explain Ireland’s concern and robust response to the potential famine in Gaza.

How can concerned individuals respond?

The sheer mass of numbers of war-displaced, homeless and starving people in Gaza are overwhelming. Ubiquitous, enraged protesters make many strident demands of Israel and the Irish government. Governments issue ineffectual edicts; newspaper editorials posit political solutions; NGOs and aid agencies paint a dystopian drama.

Perhaps the painful personal stories might change hearts and minds.

“Today we will mostly eat lentils, or pasta,” Riyadh al-Housari, a 25-year-old in Gaza City, said in a phone interview. “We eat one meal in the late afternoon. It is one meal and there is no other.” (4)

In recent days, a dramatic claim stated that 14,000 babies in Gaza faced imminent death within a 48-hour window.

Naturally, such dramatic news quickly spread online, through media outlets, in many countries’ parliamentary debates, and on the international diplomatic stage.

However, after an investigation by BBC Verify this scary statistic of 14,000 life-and-death threatened babies got later clarified by the UN. They downgraded the timeline of those monumental figures that the mortality risk was actually over an entire year – not 48 hours… (5)

Warlords, words and a pitiful people.

Hamas warlords add to Gaza’s ration-status maelstrom. They frequently hijack food aid lorries and loot the UN food warehouses with impunity. Empathy for their own people is absent.

Knee-jerk suspicions against well-intentioned plans for starvation solutions don’t help the crisis.

In a statement released last Friday, Hamas called on the international community “to take urgent action to prevent the militarisation of aid and its transformation into a tool for managing starvation and a blatant violation of humanitarian standards.” (6)

Then there are intransigent Knesset politicians, who seemingly stubbornly dismiss many outside critiques. Perhaps that is partially because of constantly being publicly hectored at rather than being more privately appealed to…?

All that aside, the harsh aid blockade policy presents painful ethical issues for thoughtful Jews, families of hostages and many evangelical pro-Israel Christian onlookers abroad.

Many would say that Israel has lost its way in the war against Hamas, that the Israeli government collectively seems to have disgarded their moral compass.

Where is the empathetic equivalent of the earlier-mentioned, Rothschild-like initiative? I hope that there are some effective visionaries doing noble things quietly behind the scenes. Both sides’ propaganda presentations of this awful attrition make it hard to know who or what to believe…

Justice in Jewish sacred scripture is not merely a legal or judicial concept. It encompasses a broader moral and ethical framework that governs relationships within the community and with God.

‘(Yahweh) has shown you, O mortal, what is good? And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God’. (Micah 6:8).

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Sources:

1. Jews and the Irish Potato Famine

   https://aish.com/jews-and-the-irish-potato-famine/

2.  List of memorials to the Great Famine https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_memorials_to_the_Great_Famine
3. President highlights ‘forced starvation’ in Gaza in speech during commemoration of the Famine https://www.thejournal.ie/president-highlights-gaza-michael-d-higgins-famine-ireland-6707700-May2025/

4. Israel Said It Eased Its Blockade, But Gazans Are Still Waiting for Food

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/21/world/middleeast/israel-gaza-blockade-aid.html

5. UN admit misleading in ‘14,000 Gaza babies’ claim

https://www.israelhayom.com/2025/05/21/bbc-un-admit-misleading-in-14000-gaza-babies-claim/

6. US admits its new aid plan would initially only feed 60% of Gaza, as UN rejects proposal

https://edition.cnn.com/2025/05/09/middleeast/us-gaza-aid-plan-un-rejection-intl

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Addendum:

As the Israeli aid blockade enters its third month. BBC’s Irish-born special correspondent, Fergal Keane, reports on parents fearful about finding food and medication for their children (Warning: Contains distressing scenes from the start). https://www.bbc.com/news/videos/cwyn9291yv0o

The Agora Initiative represents aspirations for open debate and conversation…

Their mission is to mobilize the global community to seek viable solutions to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict …https://theagorainitiative.org/about/#

Ramallah Without A Map by Ihab Hassan The most precious object for a person trapped in hell is a means of navigation. https://libertiesjournal.com/online-articles/ramallah-without-a-map/ 

(Ihab Hassan is a Catholic Palestinian writer, researcher, and activist. His area of interest is Hamas’ Human Rights violations).

https://x.com/IhabHassane