solanum tuberosum

‘The Deep and Inveterate Root of Social Evil’

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  It would surely be a great piece of good fortune for Paddy … if English cultivation could drive all his fairies out of his head Examiner, June 10, 1843, British Library Newspapers What hope is there for a nation which lives on potatoes? Charles Trevelyan At the end of March last year, during what … Read more

The Emerald Delusion

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Let no feeling of vengeance presume to defile The cause of, or men of, the Emerald Isle. From William Drennan’s ‘When Erin First Rose.’ (1795). The intense green colour of much of the landscape of Ireland – the so-called “Emerald Isle” – bears testimony to Garrett Hardin’s assessment that ‘As a rational being, each herdsman … Read more