I read in today’s ‘Guardian’ newspaper,that “A protective gene that could have prevented the Irish Potato famine, in which more than 1 million people died in the 1840’s,has been discovered by scientists at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in the U.S.”
The effect of the famine upon the Irish people is incalculable-apart from the deaths,it speeded the emigration of hundreds of thousands to America,Australia,Canada,New Zealand and beyond,and left it’s mark on Irish culture in words,song and music.
“A day late and a dollar short” as they say, huh?
'Tis just as well it wasn’t known back then. Imagine if the Famine had never happened and the US had not had the great waves of irish immigration. The economic damage caused to US beer sales in the month of March would be catastrophic.
it was a hard life to live on potatoes, while the english harvested their corn in ireland, and shipped it to england. (i mean no offence to the english government today)
No offence taken by this Englishman.
Something I’ve always wondered about the whole famine thing - in a country surrounded by water, why didn’t they all just eat fish? 
~Larry
Not everybody in Ireland lived near the coast, Madguy. The roads back then weren’t so hot either. The fish would have probably spoiled before they got to the inner portions of the island, nevermind there are only so many fish that can be caught at one point in time…
Believe it or not, I realize not everyone lived near the coast! And actually, my post was meant to be a bit “tongue-in-cheek”! 
~Larry
would you still call it famine, if the mexicans came over and took all the wheat, rye, corn,barley,… to their own country? i don’t think this is funny
lixnaw, I sure didn’t mean to offend anyone. Lighten up!
~Larry
I’ve read Irish history, and was very saddened by the long suffering by the countless numbers of the population. Many exports were going out of the country during the potato famine, cattle and other livestock in addtiion to grain crops.
And of those who emigrated, thousands died on the “coffin ships”, or soon after arriving in the new country. Imagine how many sons and daughters wept as they saw the land they called home recede in the distance, as family members were left behind. For many of these, the positive aspects of life in a new land never offset having lost everything they knew and loved. The immigrant experience is not always the wonderful experience that we hear so much about. For many immigrants from around the world, it is always life in an alien world. This is true not just for the Irish, but for peoples of any nationality–and continues to this day.
For anyone interested, read Ireland: A Terrible Beauty, by Jill and Leon Uris (he just passed on. RIP). Somewhat dated (1975), but gives you a sense of what Ireland has gone through–a very human book. Also, a book called Lost Ireland, full of photos of life during the late 1800’s and early 1900’s. A wonderful sense of the Ireland of the past-
Ireland has had more than its share of tragedy. While we have the popular stereotype of the jovial Irishman, the truth of the Irish is far more complex. The beauty of their music contains both joy and sorrow, but as with all music is linked to real people and real events, and those should not be forgotten as we play their music.
best to all,
Baen
No offence taken by this Englishman either. Unfortunately it points to a parasitic pillaging which has been going on for centuries and continues to this day. The Romans used England as its bread basket and made life tough for native Britons, the Soviets used Eastern Bloc countries for food (which is what started the whole Lech Walesa protest in the early 80s), and right now first world countries including the USA and the UK exploit third world countries in the same way. Will we ever learn?
i agree with you nick and just add this:
70% of the world population is still illiterate
50% don’t have enough to eat
1% has done university or college
30% are white
30% are christian
1% has got a computer
59% of the property is owned by rich americans. together they represent 6% of the worlds population.
if we have money on the bank, some in our wallet, then we belong the 10% of the whealtyest people in the world
one day the scale will be in ballance
Yes, the day when more of the world’s people are equal in terms of quality of life and opportunity–that will be a great day. And, actually, the wealth of the world is being spread out a bit more-unfortunately, this usually means that the masses of people are still desperately poor, while the rich in that particular country grow richer (look at China for a great example). The middle class in the US is shrinking, but most of them are becoming poor, rather than richer. The multinational companies that go overseas have much to do with this, and their aim is not about spreading the wealth around–but to grow ever more wealthy through paying their workers ever less money, having no environmental protection laws to have to follow, etc. Then they’ll move to the next country where the workers will work for even lower wages. It’s a criminal act, pure and simple.
At the same time, during the boom times a few years back, I noticed that all the money people had did not make them nicer people. Instead, the majority seemed even more apt to buy huge SUV’s and other ridiculous toys, and overall to become more self-centered and greedy. Of course, this was based on a “boom and bust” economy, which never produces the best in people.
It’s unfortunate that the overly-materialistic model of life is the prevailing one. As other countries become wealthier, they want to become more like the US. Many of the positive traditions that they had are then washed away by the tide of material goods and “me-ism”. Even places like Ireland went through this during the recent economic boom, and so many people could afford to buy cars that many streets were clogged with traffic. Is this progress???
As the saying goes, “Live simply, so that others may live”. And I would add to that “If we all lived simply, everyone else could live”.
Baen
There were potato varieties in England at the time of the famine, which were resistant to blight. They were not allowed into Ireland for seed potatoes.
Actually, a diet of potatoes, whle perhaps boring, is extremely nourishing- much more so than reliance on a single grain crop for example. Prior to the Blight, the rural Irish were though to be some of the best-nourished and healthiest people in Europe. Once the potato crops failed, though, there was nothing at all and that isn’t very nourishing. Wheat, beef, butter and other foods were produced in Ireland, often on large estates owned by absentee English lords. These crops were completely unaffected by the blight and were mostly shipped overseas in accordance with existing contracts.
In fairness to the English people, it must be said that not all of them were cold to the plight of the starving Irish and there were relief efforts mounted, but these were small-scale and without the support of the government and the nobility they were insufficient to have any real effect, as were efforts by Americans and others. Remember, though, that the wealthy of England were just as quick to ignore the sufferings of their own poor. Look at the Clearances in Scotland or the grinding poverty reflected in Dickens, and remember that this was at a time when Britain was the world’s preeminent economic power and unbeleivably wealthy.
Such is probably an inevitable outcome when one class of people is deemed by society to be BETTER than others - look at the plight of the Untouchables in India. In this aspect alone, I think the USA was right to get rid of the hereditary nobility - although we eventually created an economic nobility that, IMHO, is not all that much better than the various hereditary peerages.
This is obviously a pro Celtic site, therefore the posts take up a position for the underdogs without considering other conditions which affected the Irish potato famine.
This behaviour is normally referred to as bigoted, however as there are more reasonable people who visit this board I will refrain from aiming that comment at any one in particular.
The famine was the result of a rare crop disease, and as many sources tell us completely destroyed the Irish peoples crops in many areas. The crop disease was also present in England, however the English farmers found ways of controlling the disease and continued to produce crops on their fields.
Many of the crops, i.e corn, potato’s etc which grew on Irish land were the possessions of the land owners, who would not only sell the produce abroad but also charge rent to the farmers or crofter occupying said land.
Leading up to this time England forbid Irish produce from being shipped to England, as the English farmers were could not compete, and were threatening revolt. In an effort to keep the English farmers happy the government of the time stopped many imports, especially from Ireland who were England’s main trading partners, in food produce and wool.
Without the potato crops the Irish heavily dependant on agriculture, and selling produce over sea’s did not have the funds to eat or indeed pay rent to their landowners, hence the famine, and the migration to America.
It is worth pointing out that many of the land owners were themselves Irish, and were capable of feeding their people via sales from other produce such as corn and wool. Greed inevitably prevailed and the people were left to starve.
These are the conditions of the Irish Famine. England did not restrict the Irish from eating English corn, England had her own food produce, the land owners prevented this to enable them to sell this produce over sea’s, to enable them to live their comfortable lives.
Food was available in Ireland, it was not a famine like we see in the third world countries today. The people without their valuable potato stock simply could not afford the food.
The crop failure was seen in the eyes of the government as an “Irish problem”, England had her own problems during this time, seeing the problems of a colony as non important. Aid was eventually provided, but was too little too late.
England, during these empire day’s did exploit many countries for their own gains, something which in this day and age would not be acceptable, however times, and standards were different during this era.
Perhaps one of the greatest tragedies of contemporary scholarship (which might be in a great many instances a contradiction in terms) is not only viewing of past events or ‘history’ through the coloured lens of the present, but even worse, the utilisation of history as a means by which new propaganda may be fashioned to push current modes of thinking.
westu hal
Dale