Letter to Editor: Our Famine genocide not suitable for ‘Spud’ satire

In 2015 plans by Irish scriptwriter Hugh Travers to develop a comedy series commissioned by Channel 4 about Ireland’s Famine drew the ire of public opinion which led to an online petition with almost 20,000 signatures expressing outrage at its apparent trivialisation.

Four years on another Irish comic, Kevin McAleer, has written a comedy on the Famine entitled Spud!, which is due to open in Belfast shortly. Regardless of one’s opinion on whether the Famine is an appropriate topic to satirise, and there are well reasoned opinions on all sides, I believe society continues to ignore the primary factor which caused such starvation, coffin ship emigration and tragic deaths on such a vast scale.