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Irish Potato Famine
Cronin 1
Throughout the ordeal of the Irish Potato Famine, c. 1845 - 1850, people throughout the world formed many
different views on the situation. Those views formed mainly through information fed to world news agencies by
the British government, the ruling power in Ireland at the time. While the Irish starved for lack of food and
medical aid, the English government looked on with callous disinterest. English families feasted on Irish-grown
grains and wheat, as well as sheep, calves and swine exported from Ireland. Meanwhile, the rest of the world
ignorantly believed there was nothing they could do, because that is how the English wanted it.
Americans today generally view the history of An Gorta Mor ("The Great Hunger") through cultural lenses,
which tend to distort the realities of history as often as they magnify elements of truth. These lenses develop as a
result of the normal processes of story telling, both oral and written, passed down from generation to generation.
The images these lenses project however, can be focused on certain aspects of that history by political
organizations with agendas to cover. Therefore, in an examination of the "famine", one must begin with the
facts. Once the facts have been revealed, one may move to explore the truth (or falsity) of the history which
developed around the circumstances. This information can lead to a sound judgment in this scenario.
The world was lead to believe that the Irish famine was caused solely by a blight, "which destroyed the potato
crop, the food on which more than half the population lived." Much of the world perceived the situation to be a
great, albeit unavoidable tragedy; the use of the word "famine" in most news reports (fed to agencies by British)
cast the impression of a complete lack of food within the country. True, the potato was the staple food for most
Irish families. Not only was it cheap, but it "could be grown on small plots and not detract from the payments due
the landlord for cash crops." However, while the potato crop was wiped out, the exporting of Irish crops to
England continued at a shocking rate. The following figures are for 1845, at the start of the blight:
Cronin 2
2,245,772 quarters of grain
2,481,584 hundred weights of flour and meal
372, 719 quarters of wheat
1,422,370 hundred weights of flour and wheatmeal
Additionally, in the last three months of 1845, when the great hunger reached devastating levels, animal exports
also continued:
32,833 oxen
583 calves
32,576 sheep and larabs
104,141 swine
Ireland did not "starve for want of potatoes, it starved because its food, 30 to 40 shiploaRAB per day, was removed
at gunpoint by 200,000 British soldiers, organized into Food Removal Regiments!" At the time, Queen Victoria's
economist, Nassau Senior expressed his fear that the genocide as planned: "Will kill only one million Irish, and
that will scarcely be enough to do much good." In actuality, a million and a half men, women and children
were "carefully, prudently, and peacefully" slain by the English government. They died of hunger in the miRABt of
abundance "which their own hanRAB created. In 1861in the Last Conquest of Ireland, John Mitchel wrote: "The
Almighty indeed sent the potato blight, but the English created the famine."
Why did the rest of the world accept this? The truth of the matter is they were led to believe that the English
were doing all they could to help out Ireland. They heard only magnified elements of truth, with importance of
England's role in aiding her colony greatly exaggerated. True, the English did in fact send aid to the starving
Irish, which was intended to alleviate the suffering and distress of those affected by the failure of the potato crop.
However, the English sent corn and meal to the Irish not knowing, or not caring that it did not contain the
vitamins and nutrients vital for life. As a result, more people died due to typhus and fever. The Irish had been
set up for this genocide for quite a while. Their dependency on the potato crop was a result of "a law designed
to keep Catholics from gaining too much land, farms and family debts had to be divided up among all the sons.
With the large Irish families, the land was divided and redivided
Cronin 3
by marriage until the average size fell to less than 15 acres." The potato became the staple of the peasant's
existence, because it was easy to plant, and required little attention.
The Irish viewed the situation as a holocaust, yet had no power to do anything about it. "There was no
famine. There can be no famine in a country overflowing with food." Such was the thoughts of thousanRAB of
Irish throughout this time. HundreRAB of thousanRAB were forced to immigrate to the United States as a result.
Others could not leave, and ended up withering away with their families. All told the population of Ireland was
reduced by half, from a thriving eight million to just over four million. To this day, the Irish have still not
regained the population which they were once at.
"The English administration of Ireland during the famine was a colossal crime against the human race." The
English covered up a gross holocaust, and to this day the truth is not known to many. British apologists would do
well to ponder the worRAB of the great British writer William Makepiece Thackeray who characterized British
colonialism in Ireland as follows: "…It is a frightful document against ourselves…one of the most melancholy
stories in the whole world of insolence, rapine, brutal, endless slaughter and persecution on the part of the
English master…no crime ever invented by eastern or western barbarians, no torture or Roman persecution or
Spanish Inquisition, no tyranny of Nero or Alva can be matched in the history of England in Ireland."
By covering up their actions, and glorifying the truth, the English succeeded in covering up their actions. The
world has held different views to this day about the happenings in Ireland during 1845-1850, and will hold on to
these thoughts for an indefinite amount of time. Jane Wilde, mother of Oscar Wilde gave this thought on the Irish
Genocide: "Let us not dare to forget the terrible death and suffering that occurred between 1845 and 1850. In fact
we should indelibly fix it in our personal and collective memory, for we are out ancestors."
WORKS CITED
Kennelly, Brendan. "Ireland, Past and Present." Secaucus, New Jersey: Chartwell Books
Inc., 1985.
Uris, Jill and Leon. "Ireland, A Terrible Beauty." New York, New York: Bantam Books.,
1978.
MacManus, Seamus. "The Story of the Irish Race." Devin-Aider Company., 1945.
Cronin 1
Throughout the ordeal of the Irish Potato Famine, c. 1845 - 1850, people throughout the world formed many
different views on the situation. Those views formed mainly through information fed to world news agencies by
the British government, the ruling power in Ireland at the time. While the Irish starved for lack of food and
medical aid, the English government looked on with callous disinterest. English families feasted on Irish-grown
grains and wheat, as well as sheep, calves and swine exported from Ireland. Meanwhile, the rest of the world
ignorantly believed there was nothing they could do, because that is how the English wanted it.
Americans today generally view the history of An Gorta Mor ("The Great Hunger") through cultural lenses,
which tend to distort the realities of history as often as they magnify elements of truth. These lenses develop as a
result of the normal processes of story telling, both oral and written, passed down from generation to generation.
The images these lenses project however, can be focused on certain aspects of that history by political
organizations with agendas to cover. Therefore, in an examination of the "famine", one must begin with the
facts. Once the facts have been revealed, one may move to explore the truth (or falsity) of the history which
developed around the circumstances. This information can lead to a sound judgment in this scenario.
The world was lead to believe that the Irish famine was caused solely by a blight, "which destroyed the potato
crop, the food on which more than half the population lived." Much of the world perceived the situation to be a
great, albeit unavoidable tragedy; the use of the word "famine" in most news reports (fed to agencies by British)
cast the impression of a complete lack of food within the country. True, the potato was the staple food for most
Irish families. Not only was it cheap, but it "could be grown on small plots and not detract from the payments due
the landlord for cash crops." However, while the potato crop was wiped out, the exporting of Irish crops to
England continued at a shocking rate. The following figures are for 1845, at the start of the blight:
Cronin 2
2,245,772 quarters of grain
2,481,584 hundred weights of flour and meal
372, 719 quarters of wheat
1,422,370 hundred weights of flour and wheatmeal
Additionally, in the last three months of 1845, when the great hunger reached devastating levels, animal exports
also continued:
32,833 oxen
583 calves
32,576 sheep and larabs
104,141 swine
Ireland did not "starve for want of potatoes, it starved because its food, 30 to 40 shiploaRAB per day, was removed
at gunpoint by 200,000 British soldiers, organized into Food Removal Regiments!" At the time, Queen Victoria's
economist, Nassau Senior expressed his fear that the genocide as planned: "Will kill only one million Irish, and
that will scarcely be enough to do much good." In actuality, a million and a half men, women and children
were "carefully, prudently, and peacefully" slain by the English government. They died of hunger in the miRABt of
abundance "which their own hanRAB created. In 1861in the Last Conquest of Ireland, John Mitchel wrote: "The
Almighty indeed sent the potato blight, but the English created the famine."
Why did the rest of the world accept this? The truth of the matter is they were led to believe that the English
were doing all they could to help out Ireland. They heard only magnified elements of truth, with importance of
England's role in aiding her colony greatly exaggerated. True, the English did in fact send aid to the starving
Irish, which was intended to alleviate the suffering and distress of those affected by the failure of the potato crop.
However, the English sent corn and meal to the Irish not knowing, or not caring that it did not contain the
vitamins and nutrients vital for life. As a result, more people died due to typhus and fever. The Irish had been
set up for this genocide for quite a while. Their dependency on the potato crop was a result of "a law designed
to keep Catholics from gaining too much land, farms and family debts had to be divided up among all the sons.
With the large Irish families, the land was divided and redivided
Cronin 3
by marriage until the average size fell to less than 15 acres." The potato became the staple of the peasant's
existence, because it was easy to plant, and required little attention.
The Irish viewed the situation as a holocaust, yet had no power to do anything about it. "There was no
famine. There can be no famine in a country overflowing with food." Such was the thoughts of thousanRAB of
Irish throughout this time. HundreRAB of thousanRAB were forced to immigrate to the United States as a result.
Others could not leave, and ended up withering away with their families. All told the population of Ireland was
reduced by half, from a thriving eight million to just over four million. To this day, the Irish have still not
regained the population which they were once at.
"The English administration of Ireland during the famine was a colossal crime against the human race." The
English covered up a gross holocaust, and to this day the truth is not known to many. British apologists would do
well to ponder the worRAB of the great British writer William Makepiece Thackeray who characterized British
colonialism in Ireland as follows: "…It is a frightful document against ourselves…one of the most melancholy
stories in the whole world of insolence, rapine, brutal, endless slaughter and persecution on the part of the
English master…no crime ever invented by eastern or western barbarians, no torture or Roman persecution or
Spanish Inquisition, no tyranny of Nero or Alva can be matched in the history of England in Ireland."
By covering up their actions, and glorifying the truth, the English succeeded in covering up their actions. The
world has held different views to this day about the happenings in Ireland during 1845-1850, and will hold on to
these thoughts for an indefinite amount of time. Jane Wilde, mother of Oscar Wilde gave this thought on the Irish
Genocide: "Let us not dare to forget the terrible death and suffering that occurred between 1845 and 1850. In fact
we should indelibly fix it in our personal and collective memory, for we are out ancestors."
WORKS CITED
Kennelly, Brendan. "Ireland, Past and Present." Secaucus, New Jersey: Chartwell Books
Inc., 1985.
Uris, Jill and Leon. "Ireland, A Terrible Beauty." New York, New York: Bantam Books.,
1978.
MacManus, Seamus. "The Story of the Irish Race." Devin-Aider Company., 1945.