Mere Irish Evictions

“Evictions of Peasantry in Ireland”, an article dated December 16, 1848, in the Illustrated London News portrays the mass eviction of the “mere Irish” out of their homes and on to the street. The use of the word mere makes the Irish seem less important. One of the pictures has a mother and child pleading with a gentleman on a horse while their house is being taken apart piece by piece. It is sort of symbolic of how England took Ireland apart piece by piece when it was colonized. The expression of the mother and child show hopelessness and it kind of reminds me of the 1929 stock market crash better known as Black Tuesday where Americans loss everything and illustrated that very same look of hopelessness. But this situation is different for America’s 1929 crash because the Irish are being kicked out of their homes and neighborhoods by aristocrats. The article speaks of hospitable Irish national trait diminishing because the race is upon extinction. It appeared to me that the writer of the article was an outsider looking in on the despair of the “mere Irish” thus he did not fully understand their plight, because he constantly identified them in the third person. He author of the article’s tone sympathized with the poor Irish but he spoke as if this was evitable because this was “social revolution” and necessary. It seemed as if the desires of a few where placed before the needs of many.