Kinealy, Christine. This Great Calamity. The Irish Famine 1845-52. Dublin, Gill & Macmillan, 1994. 23.3cm x 15.5cm. xxi, 450 pages. With 17 illustrations, 3 maps and 27 tables. Original illustrated softcover. Very good condition with only minor signs of external wear. Includes for example the following Note on Currency/ The Rags and Wretched Cabins of Ireland/ A Blight of Unusual Character/ The Deplorable Consequences of the Great Calamity/ Expedients Well Nigh Exhausted/ Making Property Support Poverty/ The General Advancement of the Country/ Their Sorrowful Emigration etc. The Irish Famine of 1845-52 was the most decisive event in the history of modern Ireland. In a country of eight million people, the Famine caused the death of approximately one million while a similar number were forced to emigrate. The Irish population fell to just over four million by the beginning of the twentieth century. Kinealy's survey of the Famine uses both new and previously neglected sources. A systematic use of detailed local records and of national archives throughout Ireland and Britain has produced a fresh perspective on the complexity of the Famine years. This is the most complete, scholarly survey of the Famine yet produced.