First-hand accounts of this historic tragedy combined to create a complete and uniquely personal picture of events. Here Enda Delaney tells the story of the Famine through the writings of four very different, real-life characters: Elizabeth Smith, an English woman who was a landlord's wife in Wicklow; John MacHale, the Catholic archbishop of Tuam; Sir Charles Trevelyan, the infamous Assistant Secretary to the Treasury who oversaw relief efforts in Ireland; and John Mitchel, an Irish nationalist who uttered the famous words, `The Almighty, indeed, sent the potato blight. But the English created the Famine.' Previously published in hardback as The Curse of Reason. "Scholars of Irish history as well as nonacademic readers can draw from Delaney's clear writing as well as his excellent bibliography."--Library Journal.