The people buried in the Paupers’ Graveyard do not feature in histories of the British Empire.
A visitor will not learn their names, just that they belonged to “Wexford’s poor, deprived, handicapped and destitute,” as an inscription beneath a Celtic cross reads.
Many had lived and died in the workhouse of this town on Ireland’s southerneast coast.
The workhouse was set up in 1845, the year when Ireland’s Great Famine began.
The workhouse was, in effect, a prison for the impoverished.
Inmates were separated from their families and forced to toil for 11 hours per day. The rationale behind having extremely harsh conditions was that only the most desperate would seek help – if that is the right word – from such an institution.
As I walked around the Paupers’ Graveyard in Wexford earlier this week, I thought about Refaat Alareer, the eloquent and brave Palestinian scholar assassinated by Israel in December 2023.
Refaat drew parallels between Palestine and Ireland. In October 2023, he posted on social media that he used to inform students about how “Britain helped exacerbate the Irish famine that happened 170 years ago,” before observing that “the US/UK are helping Israel starve Palestinians in Gaza.”
The following month, he wrote that “famine is a pure European weapon in modern times,” citing the example of Ireland, as well as Bengal. (more...)
Britain forced a famine on Ireland, now it’s taking part in the Gaza genocide
I used to angrily tell my student how Britain helped exacerbate the Irish Famine that happened 170 years ago. Can you imagine people starving in the 1840s?!
— Refaat in Gaza 🇵🇸 (@itranslate123) October 22, 2023
Well, the US/UK are helping Israel starve Palestinians in Gaza.
People are literally slimming down and it shows on their… pic.twitter.com/7Rjv4zhHsN
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