This article by Bill Bigelow, first published in 2012, looks at how the famine was the result of British colonialism, not a potato blight; there was abundant food in Ireland during the worst years of the famine.

"Wear green on St. Patrick's Day or get pinched." That pretty much sums up the Irish-American "curriculum" that I learned when I was in school. Yes, I recall a nod to the so-called Potato Famine, but it was mentioned only in passing.

Sadly, today's high school textbooks continue to largely ignore the famine, despite the fact that it was responsible for unimaginable suffering and the deaths of more than a million Irish peasants, and that it triggered the greatest wave of Irish immigration in U.S. history. Nor do textbooks make any attempt to help students link famines past and present.

Throughout the Irish potato famine there was an abundance of food produced in Ireland, yet the landlords exported it to markets abroad.

Like with today's climate justice crisis, the capitalist market ruled, and commerce trumped need.

A trial role play helps students question and reflect on responsibility for the deaths of Irish peasants during the so-called potato famine:   YOU ARE CHARGED with the murder of more than a million Irish peasants who died in the famine years of 1846 and 1847. These were needless deaths. ...   The trial includes roles and indictments for the British Government, British Landlords, the Anglican Church, the Irish Tenant Farmers, and the System of Colonial Capitalism. Download the lesson and see our guide for teaching with role plays.