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In the first of two programmes marking the 150th anniversary of the start of the famine, Dublin-born writer Ian Gibson tells the story of the tragedy and explores its background, from the Georgian splendours of Dublin and Strokestown Park to the wild landscapes of western Ireland. Concluding part next Monday.

In the second of two programmes, Dublin-born writer Ian Gibson tells how thousands of the Irish poor died on board the "coffin ships" that carried them across the Atlantic to the fever sheds of Quebec and the slums of New York. He explores some of the myths of famine history, finding them to be more complicated than on superficial examination, and explains how the bitter experience of the mass emigration has shaped Irish-American support for nationalist causes, from the Fenians to the Irish Republican Army.