One source used in Andbinder’s Five Points is: Trench, Realties of Irish Life, 122-124; it is a set of memoirs written by William Steuart Trench, depicting the sufferings of the Lansdowne’s tenants starting from the start of the famine. He also talks of his theory of emigration and what happens. This would be considered as a primary source because the memoirs were written during the time the events had happened. This would be trustworthy since it depicts the time precisely but it may also be written in the author’s viewpoint. We wouldn’t know how biased he is.
The second source is Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper, August 16, 1873. This would be a primary source because it is a newspaper written during the time of the event. This is used in the beginning of Five Points, where an excerpt of the newspaper is taken out and used to describe what exactly Five Points mean, and what the connotation is. This would be trustworthy but to an extent because we do not know if the writer is biased or not.
The third source used is The Herald, April 14, 1842, which is a newspaper that constantly refers to Five Points and make jibes at the name, or uses Five Points as a negative reference for most. One specific example is where “[Herald jibed in 1842 that “if you desire to revel in the midst of Five Points literature, read the Courier and Enquirer, and the New York American,” which daily “contain columns of the lowest, most vulgar, most blackguard,most ferocious libels against the President.”]” (pg 35) This is a primary source and this would be trust worthy because the material presented was written precisely when the events happened so the probability of misinterpretation, misrepresentation is really low.
