REFUGEES The Easy Stage
Not since the great potato blight of 1846 packed U.S.-bound Irishmen by the thousands into stinking steerages had the people of Cork seen such seaborne misery. "What's to become of them?" asked one spectator emptily, as he gazed at the puny, battered British landing craft clinging to the Cork wharfside. Strings of ragged laundry hung on her forepeak. Bales, boxes, kiddie cars and prams overflowed from some of her lifeboats. In others, passengers, unable to find space on cluttered decks, sat patiently and nibbled at their meager rations.
There...
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