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I am researching the famine in Ireland, but what I wanted to get from this board was more of the Irish perspective on America.
What specifically do you want to know?
I think the "Irish perspective" of today is probably much different than it was then, but if you could narrow down what you're looking for...
(Some of the Irish perspective I heard when I was there: "You don't have chicken-flavored crisps? What the hell flavors do you have like? Plain? Euuugghh" which probably doesn't help)
A random shot in the dark: Consider religion. If she's Catholic (maybe even if not), she may be aware of some clashes--American Nativists (not Native Americans
)--I think Nativism was big back then, maybe--anti-Catholics, anti-"popery" and whatnot. (Though I'm not sure how big all that would have been in Boston specifically.)
It might also depend a lot on who she was at home--her station, I mean--maybe family members are in prison or have been transported--maybe she has experience with workhouses--maybe her family was evicted--maybe she is struggling with a sense of being uprooted before she comes to Boston...
Then again maybe not
I don't know her life...
But the greater legacy of the Famine was uprooting, I believe. People were put in prison, workhouses, transported abroad to Britain's colonies, or they immigrated; many were evicted, so even if they stayed in the country they were made to move elsewhere and create new lives; the language took a hit, as people in Irish-speaking-only areas were slammed particularly hard; the population declined--it was not only a blow to the Irish people but to the broader Irish identity. So, even if she hasn't suffered direct effects, she might be feeling some of that...
Or she might not
again...that's a generalization and may not necessarily be true on an individual level.
But anyway.
I suppose you'd consider food differences, change in environment, language (when I was around Cork I noticed that people end their sentences with like and so quite often in a way that Americans might not; I heard someone from Kerry say "tip away" to mean "crack on" or "dig away at it," saying "you're grand" for "that's okay" or "you're fine there," "he's good craic" for "he's a fun guy," stuff like that--but I don't know if any of that would translate to 1860--also not sure if she'd speak Gaeilge or not), literacy, discrimination, religion...which modern views probably won't help much with
Except maybe environment. I haven't been to Boston, but I imagine it's colder and snowier in winter than in Ireland...? Hard to compare since I've no idea of Boston I guess
Ireland is mostly gray on top (sunnier in summer though) and green on bottom. I don't know how green the area around Boston is
But the specific environment she's familiar with would depend on where she's from exactly and what her family is like (farmers or other, what class of housing they had and so forth--the English started classifying houses at some point; though I don't remember what the classes were--sort of ranging from "hovel" to "actual house with some property" I think)
*disclaimer: Not Irish, just lived around Cork area for a little over a month once and studied a bit of the history (emphasis on "a bit" though)