In 2019 the British home secretary and Conservative politician Priti Patel suggested using food as a weapon against Ireland in future Brexit negotiations. The anger and astonishment in Ireland at her insensitivity and ignorance was profound. About a million Irish men and women died in the Great Famine. Another million or more emigrated. I blundered into this historical morass many years ago. Working as an inexperienced correspondent for the BBC in Northern Ireland, I found myself in Buswell’s pub in Dublin, just across from Dáil Éireann, the Irish parliament, spending a delightful evening
Patel
