Sir, – Regarding Fintan O’Toole’s article “Time to cancel talk of Irish coffin ships” (Opinion & Analysis, April 18th), while it is true that the term “coffin ships” did not appear until decades after the Famine, a similar phrase was used during the Famine. As reported in the Nation newspaper of March 18th, 1848, during a speech addressed to a reported 3,000 members of the Irish Confederation at the Music Hall, Dublin on March 15th, Thomas D’Arcy M’Gee, criticising Lord Lieutenant Clarendon, used the term “sailing coffins” to describe the vessels carrying Irish people across the Atlantic. – Yours, etc,
JAMES DOHERTY,
Limerick.