They form no class of the Irish people, or any other people. There are men who claim protection for them, and for all their tyrannous rights and powers, being “as one class of the Irish people”. Wherefore I say, let them get a notice to quit at once or we shall oust possession under the law of nature. They have served us with a general writ of ejectment. It is a people to be saved or lost it is the island to be kept or surrendered. Today, as part of our On the Shoulders of Giants series we republish an article Lalor wrote for ‘The Irish Felon’ in 1848. That Ireland would never be free until that gombeen class had been removed from power. Lalor understood the injustices of British rule and that the exploitation of Irish peasants and workers could not be imposed without the cooperation and willing collaboration of an indigenous propertied class. In the midst of this genocide, and in the aftermath the horrors of Black ‘47, James Fintan Lalor used the pages of ‘The Irish Felon’ to make an urgent call for a revolutionary uprising against the landlord class and British rule. In the midst of this suffering and starvation, virtually every Irish family not protected by any wealth and connections suffered the loss of close family members through death or emigration. Millions more fell victim to enforced-emigration as the British state oversaw a sustained period of ethnic-cleansing of the indigenous population. Over one million, predominantly Irish-language speaking men, women and children died of starvation and disease between 18. 'They Or We Must Quit This Island' - James Fintan LalorĪn Gorta Mór, otherwise known as The Great Hunger, was the single most devastating and important event in Irish history.
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