Agnostic.com

8 5

Enjoy being online again!

Welcome to the community of good people who base their values on evidence and appreciate civil discourse - the social network you will enjoy.

Create your free account

8 comments

Feel free to reply to any comment by clicking the "Reply" button.

1

Not the best article I have read on the subject. Conflating the idea of the pre-eminent nations of the two periods deliberately allowing starvation in the interests of protecting commerce. An interesting thought, though I think the tariff approach might have made more notice and maintained the parallel with today.
The effects of the mono-culture potato crop failure were exacerbated by the Corn Laws which placed a tariff on imported grain, thus keeping prices high. Grain was available as has been mentioned.
The Corn Laws were a left over from feudal times and represented a clash between the landed and industrial groups. The latter were opposed to them as higher prices of staples led to wage demands and there had been civil unrest in the early part of the 19th century over high bread prices.
The Corn Laws were repealed in 1846 allowing the distribution of grain, by which time the damage had been done.
Sloppy of the article not to mention them.
Not our finest hour.

2

I've heard it called genocide.

4

Sad but true. Many refuse to understand the market forces that dictated a single variety of potatoe be planted. The lots the Irish worked were 3 acres. In order to grow enough to satisfy the British tax man and feed themselves the highest yielding pototo needed to be planted. It was susceptible to the fungus that spread rapidly thru the mono crop culture. Yes there was plenty of food the taxman gets paid first and the British refused to intervene. That whole history makes me very disappointed to have British ancestry. Capitalism is the root cause.

3

I didnt know this.

2

Some historians refuse to call it The Great Famine and call it The Great Hunger instead. They claim there was plenty of food in Ireland but it was being shipped out to feed the people in England. Ireland was referred to as 'the breadbasket of the British Empire'.

[bairishstudies.wordpress.com]

4

And the Irish famine marked the beginning of the Irish diaspora to Argentina; it started in 1850 and the immigration wave lasted until 1930s

The first (recorded) Irish emigrated to Argentina in 1547...and many more during the following centuries...along with many from Wales and Scotland....but the massive wave of people from that region took place during the XIX and XX centuries.

2

And English arrogance..

1

No, it was fungus. Lenin came later!

zesty Level 7 Mar 17, 2019
Write Comment
You can include a link to this post in your posts and comments by including the text q:312805
Agnostic does not evaluate or guarantee the accuracy of any content. Read full disclaimer.