Coffin Ships: What Famine Emigrants Endured [Classic Replay]

Irish History Podcast

Fin Dwyer

Ireland, Irish History, Norman Invasion, Great Hunger, Vikings, Interviews, History, War Of Independence, Great Famine

4.7 • 1.6K Ratings

🗓️ 19 March 2025

⏱️ 48 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

By 1855, over two million Irish people had fled Ireland to escape the devastation of the Great Hunger. The journeys of these emigrants were often harrowing, and the term "Coffin Ship" has become synonymous with their perilous crossings of the Atlantic.

While the term evokes images of misery, what was the actual experience like? This episode, originally released over two years ago, reveals the reality of life at sea in the late 1840s and 1850s.

It is centered around a conversation with historian Dr. Cian T. McMahon, author of the excellent book "The Coffin Ship."

You can get a copy of The Coffin Ship - Life and Death at Sea here.

Become a member at https://plus.acast.com/s/irishhistory.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	A lot of legal decisions in this country are made by magistrates, volunteers, like you and me.
0:05.8	Working as a team to make decisions on cases in criminal or family courts with support from legal
0:10.3	advisors. You don't need specific qualifications or experience. I'm an electrician myself,
0:15.7	but you could be anything. A teacher, a delivery driver, unemployed. With ongoing support,
0:21.8	you'll learn new skills,
0:29.6	enjoy new challenges and help create positive change for your community. Volunteer at Icanbeamagestrate.co. UK.
0:34.9	Hello and welcome to the Irish History podcast. My name is Finn DeWire. Now I, along with the rest of the country, will be recovering from Paddy's Day when I should be making this week's episode, so I don't have a new show for you. However, this podcast on the story of coffin ships from over two years ago is well worth listening to again.
0:55.9	And if you haven't heard it already, it's really fascinating.
0:59.8	So as you probably already know, the words coffin ship is the term given to the vessels that
1:05.0	famine emigrants cross the Atlantic on. And they symbolise the horrors of the great hunger
1:10.4	in the minds of many.
1:11.9	However, this podcast looks at what the experience was actually like.
1:16.6	It's based around an interview with Dr. Keene T. McMahon, who published the excellent work,
1:21.7	The Coffinship.
1:22.7	I've linked to that book in the show notes below.
1:24.7	It's a really great read.
1:26.4	And as you'll hear from this episode, Keen has a really great read. And as you hear from this episode,
1:28.2	Keen has a really fresh approach and explores it very much from the perspective of the passengers
1:33.3	on those ships and looks at what were often grueling conditions, but also things like friendships
1:38.4	and solidarity among the passengers, stuff we don't often think about when we think of that word
1:44.0	coffin ship.
1:45.6	Now when this episode was originally released back in 2023, it came out in two shows, but
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Fin Dwyer, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Fin Dwyer and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.