The Rebels of Ireland Quotes

“So does nobody care about Ireland?"
"Nobody. Neither King Louis, nor King Billie, nor King James." He nodded thoughtfully. "The fate of Ireland will be decided by men not a single one of whom gives a damn about her. That is her tragedy.”
― Edward Rutherfurd, The Rebels of Ireland

“True the greater part of the Irish people was close to starvation. The numbers of weakened people dying from disease were rising. So few potatoes had been planted that, even if they escaped bight, they would not be enough to feed the poor folk who relied upon them. More and more of those small tenants and cottagers, besides, were being forced off the land and into a condition of helpless destitution. Ireland, that is to say, was a country utterly prostrated.
Yet the Famine came to an end. And how was this wonderful thing accomplished? Why, in the simplest way imaginable. The famine was legislated out of existence. It had to be. The Whigs were facing a General Election.”
― Edward Rutherfurd, The Rebels of Ireland

“For the increase in the number of my Brennan cousins," Conall remarked dryly, "we must thank the potato.”
― Edward Rutherfurd, The Rebels of Ireland

“The fact that a proposition is absurd has never hindered those who wish to believe it.”
― Edward Rutherfurd, The Rebels of Ireland

“Phytophthora infestans. Era una plaga causada por un hongo, pero ¿de dónde venía? Nadie lo sabía, pero era posible que hubiera llegado a Estados Unidos con alguna importación, porque, como deseaban evitar cualquier degeneración en la raza de la patata, los agricultores americanos habían adquirido la costumbre de importar de Perú las patatas de siembra. Algunos de los barcos también transportaban guano, el estiércol de gaviota que se utilizaba como fertilizante, por lo que parecía probable que el hongo hubiera pasado del guano a la patata de siembra durante la travesía. Después de establecerse en Nueva York, el hongo comenzó a propagarse con una pasmosa rapidez. Cruzó Nueva Jersey y Pensilvania. Hacia 1845, llegaría al Medio Oeste. El comercio de patata de siembra era triangular. De la costa Este americana, la semilla viajaba a Europa; cuando apareció en el Medio Oeste, la plaga comenzaba a atacar también los patatales de los Países Bajos de Holanda y Bélgica y de la costa meridional de Inglaterra.”
― Edward Rutherfurd, Rebeldes de Irlanda (Saga de Dublín 2)