Hi Meghan I can seriously lay claim to being Irish as my dad as born there, and my mum's maiden name was Irish.

Many Irish people fled to the lowlands of Scotland too, where I grew up. As I said in a post I am currently writing...they fled far away from certain death, but settled close enough to Ireland, in case they could ever return.

Of course the reason they had the famine in the first place was they had no idea that planting only potatoes, a monoculture, they were setting themselves up for failure.

My dad hated the English for what they did to his homeland, hate being a strong word. He was actually very gentle.

Great story and lovely to meet you. :)