Bid to include Irish Famine on US schools’ curriculum

A Co Cork-born man is spearheading a campaign in America’s third largest state to have the Irish Famine put on its schools’ curriculum.

John F O’Riordan of the California Democrat Party, who emigrated from Doneraile in the 1990s, is leading the charge because he says he says millions of Californians can trace their Irish roots to the Famine.

“Consequently, the Famine is central to the history of California and the United States.”

Mr O’Riordan said, however, that The Famine, also known as The Great Hunger, has very limited references within the public school curriculum in the state.

He was on a delegation from the Irish American Caucus which recently met with Tom Torlakson, California State Superintendent of Public Instruction, to discuss the proposal to create a more robust discussion about the Irish Famine being added to the school curriculum.

As a result the group have been invited to meet with Tom Adams, director of Curriculum for California’s Department of Education, to further discuss the current role of the famine within the school curriculum and how the Irish community would like to see enhancements.

The Irish American Caucus will recommend that the Famine be taught as part of an integrated American ethnic studies programme.

“The Great Hunger in Ireland was a period characterised by mass starvation and emigration — tragedies compounded by a fundamentally unjust economic system and a criminally negligent British government response to the crisis. The full story of the heartbreak of the Irish experience is a lesson that needs to be shared within the school system in California.”

After graduating from the NUI Maynooth in 1991, Mr Riordan emigrated to California and is vice-chairman of the Irish American Caucus of the California Democratic Party.

Pat Uniacke, a past president of the Gaelic Athletic Association in North America, is also backing the initiative. “This represents an opportunity to share the story of the voiceless Irish people who perished during the Famine and those who survived to build a new life in America. It will also provide an opportunity to remind our children of our constant obligation to the poor and suffering throughout the world.”

He pointed out that when much of the world turned a blind eye to the suffering of the Irish people, the Choctaw native Americans gathered funds for them.