Potato+Famine

Lara, Antonia M., Ines

**The Irish Potato Famine** **//Characters://** //Ines- Mrs. Bloup, interviewer// //Lara- Helen, American// //Antonia- Tara, Irish Immigrant//

**//Scene Settings://** //Scene: BBC TV station//

**//BBC TV Station//** **Mrs. Bloup - Tara** **Mrs. Bloup:** Hello, I'm Mrs. Bloup, and welcome all to BBC news! We are here with two women which had and expirience with migration. Tara, the one by my side (points at Tara) has moved from Ireland to Boston, America and she has come today to speak about it! Welcome Tara! **Tara:** Hello **Mrs. Bloup:** Tara, you're Irish, and how come you don't have an Irish accent? **Tara:** Oh, because I've been living in Boston for quite some time. **Mrs. Bloup**: Well, Tara how was life during the 1800s? **Tara:** In 1798 before the 1800s Ireland was under British rule inspired by the French and American reveloutions. The English army in Ireland increased by 100,000 men. Two years later the british act of union made Ireland a part of Britain. The act got rid of the 500 year old independent irish parliament. Ireland was under the power and authority of Great Britain. <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">**Mrs. Bloup:** Oh, I get it, interesting. Tara, I've heard about a potato famine during 1845-1850, what was it and what does it mean to you? <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">**Tara:** Well, during that time, potatoes started to have disseases and potatoes were our main source of food so when we ate potatoes, we got sick, so we started to die of hunger because there were two options, to die of sickness or to die of hunger. The prices of other foods started to increase because the potato shortage, and us, the poor, couldn't afford that. Then, in 1847, the dissease destroyed 90% of the potato crop. More than one million people died, and others left Ireland. At, first, the British government provided food and jobs for the ones who suffered the most. Then, the government started paying the Irish people to build roads and buildings, but they were payed really little, and that wasn't enough to stay alive.The potato famine was horrible, and we couldn't do anything to stop it. <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">**Mrs. Bloup:** How did it harm your lives? <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">**Tara:** Well, potatoes were our main source of food as I said before because they were cheap and they were easy to grow and they did not take a lot of time to grow, so when the blight hit the potatoes, my family and I started to starve, and I had to leave everything behind, my things, my friends and my family just to survive. <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;"> **Mrs. Bloup:** I see, so what did you do? <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">**Tara:** We had two choices. One was to stay in Ireland and starve or we had to take a ship to somewhere else. The answer was pretty obvious at the time since I didn't want to die of starvation. I had heard about amazing opportunities in Boston, America so I decided to go there.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">**Mrs. Bloup:** How did you feel when you arrived to Boston? Did something happen? <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">**Tara:** When I stepped off the boat on to American soil all the Bostonians were laughing at us because our clothes were twenty years out of fashion. The places where us Irish lived in America were so unclean that they brought diseases and particularly cholera. 60% of Irish children born in America din't even live to see their 6th birthday, it was so sad. Even the adult Irish lived just about six years after stepping off the boat on to America. The Irish that weren't ill were driven to despair and behaved badly because they were drinking too much alcohol or because they were bored and there were so many badly behaved adults that crime increased up 400%. Men and boys without employment or an education got into serious trouble. I just couldn't believe all the bad behavior that was going on around me. Can you believe that there was an estimated 1,500 children roamed the streets everyday begging and making trouble. There was only a limited number of unskilled jobs and there was rivalry between the Irish and Americans which soon led to "No Irish Need Apply" signs. <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">**Mrs. Bloup- Helen** <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">**Mrs. Bloup:** Now, everyone watching BBC, we`ve brought a little surprise, we´ve got Helen,(Mrs. Bloup points at Helen when Helen comes in the scene) who has come from America to do this interview. Hi Helen, are you ready for the interview? <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">**Helen:** Yes, and does she need to be here? ( She points at Tara laughing.) <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">**Mrs. Bloup:** Yes, she does but, now lets get to the questions. How did you feel when a bunch of Irish came to Boston? <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">**Helen:** Well, I just felt really overwhelmed and so did the other Americans because the Irish famine immigrants were the first wave of poor refugees to arrive in America.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">**Mrs. Bloup:** Oh, I see. But what did you do? <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">**Helen:** As Tara said we did all those nasty things to the Irish like "No Irish Need Apply" signs and gave them unclean conditions to live in.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">**Mrs. Bloup:** Why? <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">**Helen:** Because we didn't like them because they were taking all of our jobs when there were barely enough for us Americans. <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">**Mrs. Bloup:** Did you help them or ignored them? Why? <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">**Helen:** We didn't help them and we ignored them because they were taking everything and leaving nothing for us.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">**Mrs. Bloup:** I see, I see. After all this conversation, how do you feel about the Irish? Why? <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">**Helen:** Well, now I see how they felt. It must of been horrible for them and I should of just taken the time to talk to them and see how they were feeling. <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">**Interviewer- Irish Immigrant** <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">**Mrs. Bloup:** Tara, after you´ve seen her point of view, how do yo feel about the Americans? <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">**Tara:** Well now I see why they didn't like us and were mean to us.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">**Mrs. Bloup:** You might not noticed, but I think you could become friends for life! So now I want you to hold hands, and be friends. 1, 2, 3! (Tara and Helen shake hands and smile at each other)