evidence: This poem was written in 1869 by Kathleen O’Mara: [...] Some posts make the claim that the poem was written in 1869 after the Irish potato famine of the mid-19th century. Others say it was re-printed "during 1919 pandemic", ( here ) – a reference to the Spanish flu outbreak that began in 1918. [...] The claim circulating on social media is false. The poem was not written in 1869 but in March 2020, by Catherine (Kitty) O’Meara, a retired teacher from Madison, Wisconsin.