I found this so helpful. For a long time I've been doing shamanic healing work on the famine both with clients and myself.
I had anorexia nervosa as a teenager in response to tragedy in my family. There's also a history of alcoholism and diabetes among us which I knew was famine related but it never occurred to me that the control issues involved with anorexia could be related too. So fascinating, and heartbreaking as well.
Thank you Siobhan. I am so glad that this helped add another piece to the puzzle. The Famine in Ireland feels like something so far away, yet it’s effects remain so very present. I salute the massive work you are doing and have done to unravel that xx
Quite a number of years ago I did my dissertation on this exact subject. It was such an exhausting and terrible time reading about the day to day horrors of life and death in Ireland during An Gorta Mór.
It’s wonderful to see that more is being written about the impact of such a devastating cultural event.
Hi Maeve. Ooooph yes, I dip and out of historical research on An Gorta Mór quite frequently, but I can’t tarry for long especially on pieces written by eye-witnesses who were often so prejudiced I find myself being doubly battered by both the horror they are describing and their apparent inhumanity. I really saulte you for sticking with your research and writing your dissertation on such a emotively challenging piece of our history xx
This is fascinating and gives me much to consider in my healing journey. Do you know whether the genetic changes persist in the bodies of the mother and father, thus affecting the offspring of future pregnanies once the traumatic situation has ended?
Hi Sherry. Thank you for your kind words and I’m glad this piece was able to offer something. Re: the genetic changes I am absolutely no expert so I don’t have a definitive answer for you. However, my understanding of epigenetic changes are that they are not fixed, but rather an adaptation to e.g. an environmental stressor/a trauma. So, the primary structure of the DNA is not altered but rather, modified, and that modification is what can be passed on to offspring if the traumatic event impacted the parent resulted in a modification of the parent’s DNA. This, at least, is what theories of intergenerational trauma propose (although the science is still developing and nothing has yet been irrefutably confirmed).
Thank you so much. I’ve read it now and left a comment on it. I’m delighted to have found your work. It provides a missing piece for me both personally and professionally.
What an incredible amount of information to digest. I'll have to read this again and again. My Scottish father's grandparents came to Scotland from Ireland in the mid 1800s, but his grandmother moved back to Ireland after his grandfather died. She died in one of the poor houses. My father's generation are all dead. It's hard to know where to look for information.
"If the relatively short Dutch Winter Famine of 1944-45 caused epigenetic changes which increased the likelihood that people in utero during that time would present with schizophrenia in later life, then what did nearly six years of hunger (and the associated disease and despair) do to people in Ireland?"
My old boss was born in Holland in 1945. I remember him telling me that he was far shorter than all of his 10 siblings; he is also the oldest child.
I'm really glad I came across your post and look forward to digging into your work. This is a deeply resonant topic for me.
I found this so helpful. For a long time I've been doing shamanic healing work on the famine both with clients and myself.
I had anorexia nervosa as a teenager in response to tragedy in my family. There's also a history of alcoholism and diabetes among us which I knew was famine related but it never occurred to me that the control issues involved with anorexia could be related too. So fascinating, and heartbreaking as well.
Thank you so much for this.
Thank you Siobhan. I am so glad that this helped add another piece to the puzzle. The Famine in Ireland feels like something so far away, yet it’s effects remain so very present. I salute the massive work you are doing and have done to unravel that xx
This. All of this.
This is fascinating, thank you for organizing all this information making it accessible. Wonderful work by another Belinda!! ❤️❤️✨
Another Belinda! I so rarely encounter another Belinda. Lovely to have you here :)
Quite a number of years ago I did my dissertation on this exact subject. It was such an exhausting and terrible time reading about the day to day horrors of life and death in Ireland during An Gorta Mór.
It’s wonderful to see that more is being written about the impact of such a devastating cultural event.
Hi Maeve. Ooooph yes, I dip and out of historical research on An Gorta Mór quite frequently, but I can’t tarry for long especially on pieces written by eye-witnesses who were often so prejudiced I find myself being doubly battered by both the horror they are describing and their apparent inhumanity. I really saulte you for sticking with your research and writing your dissertation on such a emotively challenging piece of our history xx
Thank you for writing about it here. I’m fairly new to Substack - and enjoying lots of the amazing writing here.
This is fascinating and gives me much to consider in my healing journey. Do you know whether the genetic changes persist in the bodies of the mother and father, thus affecting the offspring of future pregnanies once the traumatic situation has ended?
Hi Sherry. Thank you for your kind words and I’m glad this piece was able to offer something. Re: the genetic changes I am absolutely no expert so I don’t have a definitive answer for you. However, my understanding of epigenetic changes are that they are not fixed, but rather an adaptation to e.g. an environmental stressor/a trauma. So, the primary structure of the DNA is not altered but rather, modified, and that modification is what can be passed on to offspring if the traumatic event impacted the parent resulted in a modification of the parent’s DNA. This, at least, is what theories of intergenerational trauma propose (although the science is still developing and nothing has yet been irrefutably confirmed).
Excellent. As an Irish trauma therapist I find this very helpful.
There is also a second part to this piece about the impacts in terms of societal and behavioural change. You can find it here: https://belindavigors.substack.com/p/part-two-behavioural-patterns-as?r=1of292
Thank you so much. I’ve read it now and left a comment on it. I’m delighted to have found your work. It provides a missing piece for me both personally and professionally.
What an incredible amount of information to digest. I'll have to read this again and again. My Scottish father's grandparents came to Scotland from Ireland in the mid 1800s, but his grandmother moved back to Ireland after his grandfather died. She died in one of the poor houses. My father's generation are all dead. It's hard to know where to look for information.
"If the relatively short Dutch Winter Famine of 1944-45 caused epigenetic changes which increased the likelihood that people in utero during that time would present with schizophrenia in later life, then what did nearly six years of hunger (and the associated disease and despair) do to people in Ireland?"
My old boss was born in Holland in 1945. I remember him telling me that he was far shorter than all of his 10 siblings; he is also the oldest child.
I'm really glad I came across your post and look forward to digging into your work. This is a deeply resonant topic for me.