Irish Examiner view: Learning compassion from our history 

In the context of Irish history and in respect of our wide diaspora, it is incumbent on us, as a modern society, to maturely reflect on our emigration past and welcome those who need help

As President Michael D Higgins noted in a speech in Co Donegal on National Famine Commemoration Day, the fall-out from those years lives with us still. Picture: Clive Wasson

Last weekend’s National Famine Commemoration Day events brought out a number of sobering parallels between the events of 175 years ago in Ireland and what is happening right now in our modern-day society.

An Gorta Mór, ‘the great hunger’, directly caused the deaths of more than a million Irish people and — between 1845 and 1855 — forced some 2.1m people to leave Ireland, in what was one of the greatest exoduses from a single island in history.