Irish Potato Famine
-hundreds died during the winter of 1846 in Skibbereen
-Government policy not to send food if town doesn't have a relief commitee
-strict gov't adherence, no food was sent
-magistrate Nicholas Cummin visted the town, and published a letter to the Duke of Wellington in "The Times", the most influential paper in London
-The letter became of symbol of the disaster
-the people had been reduced to "living skeletons"
-all 200 surviving people were like this
-all had heavy fevers
-a home was opened to find to frozen men, each half eaten by rats
-seven men were huddled under the same rag trying to stay warm
-one man died, but was frozen to the others who were still alive
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