The Irish Famine: LOL?
They say comedy = tragedy + time . A proposed television series set in Ireland during the Famine (1845-1852) has raised interesting questions about how to attribute meaning and weight to each variable in this particular equation. When screenwriter Hugh Travers, a Dublin native, mentioned in an interview that he had been given an open commission to develop a television program by Channel 4, and was working on a tragicomedy set during the Famine, he referred to it as a "kind of Shameless , set during the Famine." Reaction was speedy, and quite what you would expect. Most stories ran photos of Rowan Gillespie's Dublin memorial to Famine victims. The Daily Mail led the race for the headline with, "Is this the Most Tasteless Idea for a Sitcom Ever?" while IrishCentral.com's Irish-American pundit Niall O'Dowd forgave those who thought this was an April Fool's joke . The Irish Times interviewed writers and historians who said it was in poo