This is the most wide-ranging series of essays ever published on the Great Irish Famine, and will prove of lasting interest to the general reader. Leading historians, economists and geographers from Ireland, Britain and the United States have assembled the most up-to-date research from a wide spectrum of disciplines including medicine, folklore and literature, to give the fullest account yet of the background and consequences of the Famine. Contributors include Dr Kevin Whelan, Professor Mary Daly, Professor James Donnelly and Professor Cormac Ó Gráda. The Great Irish Famine was the first major series of essays on the Famine published in Ireland for almost fifty years.

Cathal Póirtéir is a graduate of Univeristy College Dublin. He is a Senior Radio Producer in RTÉ where he works on current affairs and features programmes. His other works include Famine Echoes.