Was the Great Famine (Ireland) genocide?

[Myles]

Mostly like to hear from our members in Ireland. 

When reading about the mass quantity of food that was exported, it started me wondering if it was a plan.

My guess is that it wasn't as much genocide as it was the British just didn't care.  

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Famine_(Ireland)

 

[XenoFish]

The only thing I can say is that if it didn't happen I wouldn't exist. 

[aztek]

back than we did not know much about hygiene, bacteria.mold, . food may have been contaminated without anyone knowing,.

 

[Robotic Jew]

Are we talking about the great potato famine?

[Eldorado]

It is estimated that about a third of the population of the western Scottish Highlands emigrated between 1841 and 1861.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Highland_Potato_Famine

[Essan]

No, it wasn't genocide (by definition it couldn't be, unless the wealthy of a nation are considered a different people to the poor of the same nation?).   It was weather.

There was no deliberate intent*.   But Victorian values were different.  Bob Geldof hadn't been thought of.   And unfortunately the Industrialisation that "saved" (or enslaved?) the English hadn't spread to Ireland.



* although I am sure some landowners - whether they be English, Irish, Scottish or whatever - used it as an excuse to clear "their" land of useless poor people  




 

[Myles]

On 12/21/2018 at 5:32 PM, Robotic Jew said:

Are we talking about the great potato famine?

Yep.  Coupled with the high cost of food, many people starved. 

[Duke Wellington]

On ‎21‎/‎12‎/‎2018 at 3:53 PM, Myles said:

Mostly like to hear from our members in Ireland. 

When reading about the mass quantity of food that was exported, it started me wondering if it was a plan.

My guess is that it wasn't as much genocide as it was the British just didn't care.  

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Famine_(Ireland)

The working class in Ireland lived off potatoes and full fat milk.

There were plenty of other staple vegetables like corn but they couldn't afford them. So what happened is when the potato crop failed in order to get fed they ended up going to work houses making roads etc. But by the time people went to work houses they were malnourished meaning that they were susceptible to the diseases living in communal housing exposes them too. Most who died did so from those diseases.

The reason why there is accusations of genocide is because England didnt help until sometime into the famine by opening those work houses. They also didnt provide funding so the working class could afford the other crops such as corn and wheat. Until the potato famine Ireland had the highest population density of any western nation. Today its still no where near what it was back then.

Most starving people didnt die, they migrated to the US, Canada, and Liverpool instead. Funnily enough if they converted from Catholicism to Protestantism then they got fed lol.

[Ozymandias]

On 21/12/2018 at 3:53 PM, Myles said:

Mostly like to hear from our members in Ireland. 

Wikipedia is a good start for reading up on the Irish Famine if you follow up its references.

Quote

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Famine_(Ireland)

But I would recommend this BBC article as a decent summary from a modern researcher.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/victorians/famine_01.shtml

It is not surprising given Victorian attitudes to the Irish, some of which continue in evidence to this day on this forum, that a million Irish people starved or died from starvation related diseases while Ireland was governed from London. It would not have happened if we were an independent country and in fact the memory of this disaster was a major spur to our indelendence movement in the 80 years after the Famine.