“…I am glad to here of yourself getting your health so well and of your father and mother being satisfied with their journey I think they went in a good time for the like of this kingdom at the present is not to be found I believe there is neither employment nor food the people is in a starving state and dying in the hundreds and the streets of Belfast crowded everyday with people gowing out to America half naked…” --Letter from William Dunne to his nephew John Curtis in America.