While people were dying of starvation, food continued to be exported to England. Canal barges carrying wheat and other foodstuff had armed soldiers on board to repel hungry trying to steal something to eat.
It was often the Irish landlords that sold this foodstuff to Britain though. Irish people being merciless to Irish people. Just like with the Highland Clearances of Scotland, it was Scots that did that to other Scots. It's a bit too easy to blame it on single politicians like Trevelyan, whom whose policies would had no effect at all, if all the Irish landlords did like what only a few did: Help their fellow Irish, going bankrupt from doing good.
@@elvenkind6072 You do understand that the Irish landlords you speak about were protestant "Anglo-Irish" planters who would have been as Irish as the average Northern Irish Protestant Unionist Orangeman is today. They were british like yourself.
@@seanmccann8368 I'm sorry, but life isn't 2D, and neither is history. Also I'm not British. I'm quite an anglophile though and love history, but have read history of the whole British Isles. But if you really want to believe that people are divided up into Protestant/British/Orangeman/Evil and Irish/Celtic/Catholic/Good, then continue by all means to do believe that. Also, don't forget to give cookies and milk for Santa. One of the few people that continue to do good during the famine was mostly Quakers (Protestants), that kept soup-kitchens going. Catholics did nothing like that.
@@elvenkind6072 Where did I say the proddies were evil and the papists good? I explained that the "Irish landlords" you were speaking of were not Irish and would not have seen themselves as Irish anymore than a true blue unionist would today. Congratulations on your Anglophilia you have succeeded in being more british than the british.
This fills in some gaps in my education which was in an English school. The catastrophe of the famine in Ireland was never mentioned in our history lessons.
Are we in the US following this route to disaster by allowing the big agro conglomerates limiting our main food sources, such as wheat and corn to one or two non reproductive genetic varieties, and make our farmers depending on chemical fertilizers and pest control?
Google Monsanto, Dupont & Carlisle Ukraine 2014 Monsanto plants its GMO crops next to other farms and when the wind cross-polinates into the neighbours property, they then sue the neighbours for having their patented GMO growing without licenced use of patent.
@@ix-Xafra Yes, they put a neighbour put of the farming business- totally bankrupted him because he planted seed that was non-GMO from England ON HIS OWN Property! They sued him and brought 7 corporate lawyers to the one he could afford, and by the time it was done, so was he. They have more agendas that we can't see or even understand. Why would we allow the same corporation to fiddle with our food that developed Agent Orange for the Viet Nam war and contributed to the hydrogen bomb studies in WWII? Frightening.
Haven't watched the video yet but here's what I've heard. Crop failures are nature made, but famine is man made. All of Europe suffered potato blight at the same time, but only in Ireland did it, did it rise to mass starvation. In no small part to the English policies of protect the wealthy and blame "Irish indolence". As an aside, I am Irish heritage so I've been bred to love potatos.
@@tedwarden1608 Not the same Belgium had its own goverment who stopped the export of food when they realised what would happen in time of internation shortages.
I'm Jewish, of a people among the most despised in modern history. I remember signs saying "No Irish Need Apply" for job openings😳 As a folk music scholar, I've never understood why the Childe Ballads were subtitled "English and Scottish Ballads"⁉️ A Huge percentage of the folk songs collected from the Appalachian hills in the 1920s - 1950s by John and Allan Lomax were from Irish ballads. They also collected songs from Western bronc busters. Country Music has all its roots from those collections. There were Many movies about Irish families in America. Can't think of ANY about Scottish families, films or songs 🤷🏽♀️ Bless the Irish people and all they have suffered snd triumphed over☘️❣️❣️👍🏽👏🏽🫶🏽🤟🏽
Your empathy is genuine. My uncle was an Orange-man, heading his local anti-Catholic organisation in Christchurch, NZ. A supporter of King Billy or William of Orange, a Dutch nobleman who at the invitation of English noblemen invaded England and usurped James2. Uncle Patrick hated Catholicism and Catholics, and was a nasty manipulative man by nature.. The majority (51%) of NZers have no religion.
Climate change. The weather turned very damp and cloudy, and facilitated the growth of the blight on the potatoes. It also happened in the Netherlands and caused hunger and hardship in many parts of Europe.
Many Landlords hadn't received any rent for 7 years, one tenant farmer had 300 people living on the land he farmed, trinity collage Dublin had 12,000 living on the land they owned only 1% paid rent, 11 landlords were murdered.
I have a very good set of 1898 encyclopedias and in the section on Ireland it states that food exports from the island were at there highest point during the catastrophe as it was put.
A bit of irony Australia was a penal colony ironically again started because instead of the government helping the poor they imprisoned them and then when they ran out of prison space because they couldn't build prisons fast enough they simply sent them overseas It's a testament to convicts that despite the colony almost dieing out due to serious water shortages the colony survived And due all the different races at the time they learnt very quickly that if they were going to survive they had to get along with each other hence forth why that ethos is now ingrained So long as you work and pay taxes then we don't care where you come from PS Canada bay in Sydney is so named because of the american and canadian convicts that were kept in the vicinity of the bay
Why do you think that 1848 has gone down in history as 'The year of revolutions'? All across Europe, but especially in France and Italy there were popular uprisings against the old order. One of the principle factors causing these uprisings was the pan European potato famine. All across Europe poor people, reliant on the potato, starved. It wasn't so bad in the rest of the UK as it was in Ireland because the English had instituted agricultural reforms over a century before with what were called enclosures (the agrarian revolution) and in Scotland with the Highland clearances which removed people from marginal land in favour of ranch farming sheep. While the Highlanders still resent the clearances there is no doubt that they saved millions of lives because they had been dependent on the same potato economy as the Irish poor and as they were cleared from the land this was no longer the case, certainly not to anything like the same extent, when the blight came (I write as a Scot). In Ireland, however, there was no agrarian reform before the blight years so the poor there were especially vulnerable. Indeed, the marginal land that the Irish peasantry relied on had been repeatedly subdivided into smaller and smaller plots as the population grew. This situation was unsustainable in the long term, even without the potato blight. The Anglo Irish landowners didn't care what the 'cotters' did with such marginal land anyway, as long as they got their rents. Equally, it should be remembered that in those days, governments did not see it as any part of their business to provide poor relief and the British, in at least trying to do so, were more advanced in their thinking than anywhere else, certainly in Europe. The fact is that the only way the potato famine could have been prevented in Ireland would have been to clear the people from the land so that they were not dependent on the potato when the blight came and quite frankly, the landowners couldn't have done that in Ireland without provoking a rebellion, so they did nothing... and when the blight came, the people starved. Could the British government have done more to provide poor relief? Yes, of course they could.... but quite frankly, the remarkable thing is that they did anything at all because providing poor relief was simply not seen as a function of central government in those days, not in Britain, or Europe, or anywhere else in the world.
Thank you for explaining that to me old boy, it makes it all seem so much jollier now. Are you for one minute excusing the british for the genocide (of course that word wasn't a thing then either) of Irish people like you have excused them the Highland Clearances which inflicted death and suffering on those you claim descent from? It was better to kill slightly fewer people earlier than more later? Frightfully british of you old man!
Nobody starved except in Ireland. Because there was extensive relief in Scotland from the British government during the Scottish famine that never was. That relief is why there was no famine in Scotland. The Highland Clearances had nothing to do with saving anybody. They simply replaced people with sheep to improve returns for landowners. The people were then forced to emigrate. The only way to prevent the famine in Ireland would have been to give the land to the tenants. They grew plenty of other food other than potatoes but as tenant farmers that other food was for the rent. The potato blight was nature but the famine was 100% man made. If the tenants had owned the land there would have been no famine. As they had loads of food. Indeed when the British began lending money to tenant farmers and allowing them to buy their land from the 1880s the threat of famine receded quickly.
The Quakers provided some famine relief for the Irish. Maybe governments didn’t see that as their purview, but certainly conscience should have lead them to help. The British had little care for what happened to the Irish. Look at what happened when the Irish emigrated to Canada during the famine. 5,0000 Irish died within six months in the immigration center at Grosse Isle in Canada.
Thank you for a succinct historical view, always knew my family emigrated to US due to the potato famine, but now I understand the centuries of conflict between religions driven by specifically suppressive laws
Another fact: early in famine the British government set up food kitchens… but then changed public works projects. Building train bedding that were never finished. Then the UK government found it cheaper to just give the starving Irish one way tickets to America or better, Australia.
As well as English absentee landlords, 500K IRISH FARMERS exported record quantities of beef, pork, butter, grain etc right throughout the famine. The English army was used to protect these exports from the peasants. The great famine in Ireland was class oriented event rather than just race or religion. As with the majority of famines even to this day (Gaza) it is not because of lack of food, it's because of the inability of people to access the abundant available food.
The Popery Act of 1703, passed by the British parliament, forbade Catholics to pass down their land to their eldest son, and instead required landowners to distribute the land equally amongst all sons. This led to smaller and smaller farming units which forced people to switch to Potatoes from alternative crops.
Interesting, my surname by marriage is SLIGO and the family are from Scotland and emigrated to NZ. I heard that this wasn’t their surname but because they had to leave during the potato famine and once arriving in Great Britain were given the surname Sligo as that’s where they originated from. I’m not sure how true this is but I live in NZ and I’ve been to Sligo and there’s no Sligos there.
Ask any Irish Catholic who knows the history of his people, and 1845 is a year that will live in infamy. See the history of New York's five points as depicted in "The Gangs of New York."
Queen Victoria is called the Famine Queen in Ireland today. This isn't a bad video but it neglects to 'connect the dots' regarding the British exportation of foodstuffs from an island roiling with starvation. That was a calculated political plot to commit genocide against Irish Catholics -- it wasn't simply 'business as usual.' Ironically, it helped the Irish via emigration establish an empire of its people in Australia, Canada & the United States as well as significant enclaves in New Zealand, Mexico, Spain, France & elsewhere. Maybe 'empire' is a bit of an exaggeration but it's remarkable how far from that island so many Irish got.
'a calculated political plot to commit genocide against Irish Catholics' Really? What about that £8,000,000 spent on Irish relief by a British people 'largely unaware' of what was happening? Does a natural disaster of nearly 200 years ago justify the continued present Irish racism towards the English people?
@@chrisomalley50 You can't be serious! First, that Irish relief, while sorely needed, was no where near enough to make much difference in the Famine. And while the fungus was a natural disaster, the food export policy was man made & COULD have been changed to keep vital calories inside of Ireland. As for "present Irish racism towards the English people" you are delusional. As an Irish citizen, albeit living overseas, my attitude towards the British is typical. I consider them a creative people; sometimes I agree with them, sometimes I do not (Gaza, for example) but I have no racism towards them. After all, many are ethnically part Irish, lol!
Most of the Irish migrated to the rest of the UK. It was a short and relatively inexpensive journey with the opportunity of visiting family members and friends in Ireland after they established themselves.
@@Pthommie Indeed, the Government could have closed the ports to exports and did consider it. The Irish Parliamentary Party was urged to lobby against such an action by the Irish farmers who were afraid that the subsequent collapse in prices would cause economic degradation. Incidentally, Victoria was first called 'The Famine Queen' by Maud Gonne in her protest against the 1900 visit.
Why Britain can not deliver grain from USA ? This can be do in few time. Britain left the famine by wish. Same famine in India. Britain let people die without remorse
Another Aussie here. My ancestors came during the 19th century when there was another spud famine. Background is Catholic. So good that now it doesn't matter what type of religion you are. The thing we share in 2024 is a love of SPUDS. 😊
Dublin was established by the Vikings and was a centre of their trade in Irish slaves. The restriction on the Irish was to protect against Catholic attacks from the West. Irish Catholics harboured returning ships from the Spanish Armada. These were the values of the time probably because the consequences of not defending yourself was defeat by someone else.
The truth is that Irish agriculture was controlled by the English occupiers, and when the staple food of the Irish households, potatoes, were blighted and yielded no sustenance, the English just let them starve or emigrate. Some were bribed to renounce Catholicism and convert to the Anglican church in exchange for food. Don't sugarcoat the history of genocide!
Population was much smaller. The huge increase in population was behind the famine. Part of the issue was the habit of dividing land between sons leading to smaller farms which all ended being subsistence. The Duke of Wellington when he was Prime Minister attempted to introduce land reforms to stave this off but was only partially successful.
There was no famine but a failure of potato crops. There was plenty of other food as you have suggested but this was withheld. I visit Ireland twice a year where they call this period ‘ An Gorta Mor’ - the Great Hunger. There was a deliberate policy by the UK government of ethnic cleansing of the Irish. Elsewhere in the UK smaller similar practices took place such as the Highland Clearances in Scotland.
Something that isn't mentioned is that during the English/Spanish maritime war, England denuded Ireland of its oak trees. They were cut down wholesale for masts for the Royal Navy, never re-forested. Consequently, Ireland fights a constant battle with soil erosion which complicates farming and food production to this day.
That’ll be the same navy the English built that stopped North African slave traders from taking more Irish men women and children and enslaving them. BTW, they cut down plenty of oak trees in England snd Wales too to build a navy.
A lot of the plants now grown everywhere began in south America They were well ahead in plant knowkedge and classification. They had tomatoes ,Advocados ,peppers spices quinoe and lots more Thank you Aztacs Inkas and others .
We’re learning about a catastrophe in Ireland-a famine created not by a blight by by official English policies and practices. And so many of the comments are about whether it was Irish Catholics or Scots-Irish who brought music to America. Answer: It was both. Please focus on the catastrophe and its causes and consequences and on English responsibility for most of the suffering caused to a whole people because of religious hatred.
My family left Ireland (killkenny) during the potato famine , I know nothing about it and it really has never effected me ...however in the true spirit of the 21st century do you think I can get some compensation? And have a flag ? And a day named " too many spuds" day?
Apart from losing so many lives from starvation and immigration. The decline of the Irish language after what was a genocide is also a tragedy. So many Native speakers died.I hate the crown that ruled back then and their dumb way of thinking. At one stage if you spoke Irish you were shot dead on the spot. Google search to see images of people lying dead on the road for speaking Irish. That's how there's only over 100,000 native speakers left.
Except for shell fish which can be done from the shore line It was ironic that some costal inhabitants fed on oysters ,lobsters perri winkles and others of that kind, now exported to the luxury French market. These areas became know as the congested areas and another method had to be applied to them.
Im English from Irish stock, about 120 years ago. I have an interest of what happened around this time. I believe the 99.9 percent of ordinary English working people new nothing about this subject, they were being worked to death in coal mines, mills, shipyards and buidlings, or, dying of typhoid in workhouses in older age.
It has to be remembered that the governments in Britain, both Whig and Tory, at the time were OK with sending my great great grandfather down a coal mine aged 9 yrs. They didn't just not give a damn what happened to the Irish "spalpeens", they didn't care what happened to the English working classes either. Profit was king and "relief" served only to promote idleness in the lower orders, in their minds. So, I would say a heinous class crime rather than a genocide. No less reprehensible, but a crime perpetrated by our ruling class, against the poorest, not by the English people as a whole, who were largely kept in the dark about it. I don't seek to exonerate anyone. I just like to see the blame laid at precisely the right door.
Life expectancy of (Engish) males in Liverpool in 1842 was 26. My own family records from Manchester are record of the brutal lives of working people at that time, wives were often widows for 30 or 40 years.
Ireland needs compensation for this injustice by England. The English watched us starve to death and did nothing to help us but were quick to impose more fines as we died starving The UK must pay us just like everybody else tjat they screwed..
I'm beginning to figure out that the English had been so cruel against the Irish because they (the English) was a byproduct of the breeding among the hoi paloi of various tribes.
I'm an Englishman of Irish descent. I wrote an essay on the Famine for an (Irish) historian many years ago and came to the conclusion that the Famine was an eco-catstrophe made fatal by the British insisting on Ireland being treated the way the destitute in England were, so that they were returned to their parish union of settlement in Ireland, as if they were in the prosperous UK mainland, where there were alternate sources of food. I knew food was exported - but they in much smaller quantities than imports. Some of the stuff below about beef et cetara being taken under armed guard I've not heard of before - please could we have some sources for these statements?
Oats was the staple and other cereals . Payment to labourers was often in bussels of oates or wheat. It was often a punishment to pay in coinage as coinage it was very unstable.
Given that the first two minutes contain at least two glaring mistakes, not sure I'd trust the rest. Potatoes originated in the Peruvian inca Highlands not the Indies and it was a Welsh Norman force that conquered Ireland not an Anglo Norman one. They were invited by an Irish king as mercenaries to defeat his enemies. They turned on him. Abandoned watching at that point.
The salmon which in fact huge houses in Circle or in engulf these great notorious salmon rivers in Ireland it was forbidden for a hungry man to take those fish the average weight was 40pl in weight had enough protein to keep a family alive for ten days.
This could be virtually reduced to monoculture, 1 variety that crosses every box until it fails. The same happened to bananas, I don't remember what variety failed
Not really aplicable That was a family in more recent times with their own problems of drug addiction and general weakness . Even today little is done to help such families.
A very helpful and clear explanation of an historical event, one which has been clouded in the fog of denial and recriminations. I am English, and feel for the plight Of the population in Ireland during the famine. Clearly due to elitist politics. But it does highlight the risks of 'putting all your eggs in one basket' both domestically and politically. Happily, Ireland is a far better place to live today than is ever has been even if the resentments of past failures continue to fester.
Go to the Catholic cemeteries built in Limerick and Cork in the 1850's and see the MASSIVE granite tombs built for the wealthy Irish who grew rich on the backs of the poor. Queen Victoria visited Cork during the famine and wrote in her diary of how moved she was with the crowds who turned out to greet her. These people are still in Ireland in top positions. Look at the millions of people in Ireland with British surnames, Simon Harris anyone? Jack Chambers? And so on and so on.
This post did go into alot more stuff then others. 1 point, a lot of people say is famine is man made. Ethiopia had 2 million die in the 80's. In modern times and had every government and food organization sending food. Disease plays a big part. No government at that time had medicine to fix that. He did mention the population, just not enough. 1 million died and 2 moved out, but the population only dropped by 2 million. Talk about birth controll. 180 years later Ireland is still a smaller population then it was. Seriously the Irish had a population problem that the catholic church didn't help.
most famines are manmade and Ethiopia was a classic case. They starved in the provinces because the government wanted them to starve. If you knew anything about the politics of Ethiopia you would know that it has many semi rebellious provinces with rebel movements. And starvation is the weapon central government uses to punish them. Your whole post is basically nonsense. Basically blaming the Irish for having too many kids. There was plenty of food in Ireland even during the famine. But that food was paid for rent and exported to the UK. Ireland was England's breadbasket. That was its purpose. So English bellies were filled by Irish food as the Irish starved. And your numbers are wrong also.
@fiachramaccana280 lol never heard of man made famine. Crop failure can be man made like poor governments like Russia and China. You want to play by some standards of intelligence then actually use the definition. No mention of man made. I think alot of people get it wrong on the Irish workers. They rent 1 acre and gave crops up. The corn and cattle were grown on the lords lands. Having 8 kids on an acre is over population in Ireland. Going to America 8 kids on 160 was needed. You can blame England all you want, it's just another thing for your kind to cry about. Like saying native Americans were peaceful. Most people in famine die of diseases
@@fiachramaccana280"But that food was paid for rent and exported to the UK. Ireland was England's breadbasket." Ireland was part of the UK at the time of the famine. The food was transported within the country, not exported.
@brownbess8185 it was never legitimately part of the UK. It was a colony. And the political structure reflected that. We had a viceroy like India. Neither Scotland or Wales had one. Not s single Gaelic Irish ever held any political office despite being 75% of the population. Barred by law for centuries and then barred by the ruling class. Who were all foreign settlers. The British are and have always been foreigners to us. So take your BS somewhere else.
@brownbess8185 there were several native Scottish lods and also several native Welshmen who were British PM. Not a single Gaelic Irish ever even held British cabinet office. Or held a senior position in Dublin Castle. Thats the definition of a colony. So stop rewriting history. I hate lies.
Look at what happened to the Irish who emigrated to British controlled Canada. 5000 Irish people died within 6 months at the immigration center on Grosse Isle.
Not very much nutrients in it, just starches which breaks down to sugar. Good food back in the time when work was hard but not so much today since sugar makes obese.
What a selective view, my relatives came to England to escape the spud famine, only to find it as bad here in England. Typical of a yank perspective of the terrible English exploiting the poor Irish, at least the Irish received aid. The English working man didn’t, they died in the poor house.
The Türkish and a north american tribe donated during Irelands famine. I don’t think there was a famine in england simultaneously as the irish famine or was there?
@ Hi, in England we had the corn laws, this guaranteed huge land owners a profit on grain that caused the price of bread to be high, thus keeping the country hungry. As Ireland had an economy based on potato production, they got hit hard, but the corn laws were suspended for Ireland to make bread cheaper. People went hungry in both countries, it wasn’t the English people exploiting the Irish largely. The wealthy people in Parliament be them English, Scottish, Welsh, Irish exploited the people. Most men didn’t get a vote till after the 1st world war, followed by women.
England can't collect taxes from people who are too sick to work. The Video said that an Irish Men ate 10 Pounds of Potatoes per day per Capita. I find that impossible .
The potato blight affected the whole of Europe, unfortunately, Ireland with its huge land tracts of poor quality, stoney soil was more heavily dependent on potatoes. The British parliament proposed aid to the Irish but the move was defeated by Anglo-Irish land owners in order to keep their profits high with the inflated prices. The situation was further exacerbated by the problem of large families.. The Catholic church (which incidentally, as wealthy as it is, offered no assistance to Irish families) maintains to this day a cynical anti-birth control policy that guarantees the birth of more Catholics and encourages poverty among its following, leaving them more dependent on the church, the result being greater famine.
There was little birth control available anywhere then . and dispite the myths families were not large as babies were breast fed for many years The families became larger in the early 1900 hundreds when dairying became a thing. Not because there then was milk for babies but the wemon were needed to do a lot of the milking .leaving little time for breastfeeding. something like what happened in some third world countries where wemon were need in the factories and not feeding babies.
Very little mention about the English being asked in to stop wars between Irish kings. Also King James encouraging settlement by Scots and English to stop the same attacks in other settlements . My family were attacked constantly through history and they were southern Irish but Prodestant. They kept diaries which I have read. The docks in Dublin were full of food during the famine . The estate managers who were Irish stopped this grain being given out as they wanted a clearance of small Irish fams to expand on sheep farms which they thought would be mire profitable. But as with the clearances in Scotland this failed with the ending of the Napoleon wars but the land owners got the blame not the Irish Land agents. The famine was not as great in the East of Ireland From Antrim down to Wicklow. More the West was affected. This however was forgotten in time,e and a lot of myth was created. I suggest reading the likes of Miskimmons History of Carrickfergus which gives a more accurate history of a part of Ireland or the diaries from the time somevof which have been published.
Empire apologists also blame Indians for the millions of Indians starved to death during famines at the same time (19th century) during British colonial rule. Lots of excuses were made, but key contributions to why so many starved left out. Meanwhile the diaries (intended to remain secret) those responsible clearly stated that they thought it was too expensive and therefore not economically viable to save lives.
An important fact that you omitted was that the Poor Law legislation effectively forced landlords to evict tenants: >> The effect of this provision, when combined with falling rent rolls, and the liability of landlords to pay the poor rates on holdings worth less than £4 per annum, was to encourage landlords to evict their smallest tenants. Workhouse occupancy rose from around 417,000 in 1847, to around 932,000 by the end of 1849.
The potato famine was a massive injustice and crime, made infinitely worse by London’s greed and lack of compassion but exaggerating it by introducing guns into the tragedy, is just hate talk. Unfortunately this tragedy has been compounded by Dublin using it to justify Ireland being the only industrialised country in the world whose population has reduced. In effect justifying their ethnic cleansing of the Irish nations of Connacht, Munster and the three counties of Ulster since 1911 and forcing out many times more Irish than left in the potato famine.
It's called a genocide- but of course, Britain would never do that! Along with slavery. And indentured people(usually Irish). And the Irish didn't 'head off to Austrailia' they were convicted of a crime- usually stealing a loaf of bread or something to feed their families, and sent to Oz as punishment. Of course, many of those turned their bad luck around by getting into the silver mines and making a good living, much to Queen Victoria and her cronies chagrin.
@rodjones117 since the supposed equal union Scotland has had little say, just look at Scotlands seats against England's , we are easily out voted, ergo it was England that made Ireland suffer.
my dear departed dad patrick mckenna bk home i DERRY sleeping his last , fro yorkshire granny, i do love spuds im a veggi granny xxx my dad told me ireland sad history bless yous p
Fun fact ….in 1651 following a series of massacres, the British under Cromwell stole over 11.5 million acres of the best land from Irish people. They decided the land amongst English people and in some cases imported thousands of British people in an exempt to eradicate the Irish. When their genocide attempts failed they then rented the stolen land in small plots back to the Irish at exorbitant rates. The British then passed laws forbidding Irish people from owning land or obtaining education. At various times the British tried mass murder, slaughters, genocide, starvation, extermination, transportation, theft, colonization and pogroms but still the Irish survived. Now the British want us to trust them and forget the past…..
11 pounds of potatoes per day? Is this an AI generated video? AI says weird things at times. During 1840’s, Ireland still exported food… wheat and meats even though millions were starving. Salaries in Ireland were 6d a day. Pay in England 24d a day. Pay in USA was $1 a day or 90d a day
McCartha after WW1 the returning American soldiers who fought for their country had no where to live and insufficient food supplies unarmed protesting,they were shot down Governments ,military,who violate their own people should be shown no mercy
11 pounds of potatoes per day? Is this an AI generated video? AI says weird things at times. During 1840’s, Ireland still exported food… wheat and meats even though millions were starving.
The views of some comments here are either untrue, irrelevant, taken out of context or general throughout the British Isles- At that time. You see the famine, which by the way lasted for five consecutive years with others before this date, as the Irish potato famine. It was throughout Western Europe including Scotland and England. Other countries were not as rely ant on the potato, coupled with the rising birthrate of the catholics. The blight was a disaster waiting to happen. The Irish insisted that food aid should be the potato, they said American corn gave them dysantery. Both the corn and corn mills supplied were destroyed by nationalists. Of the four million people died or displaced two million went overseas and the others died from desiese either in Ireland or later aboard ship or their adopted country. Large numbers went to cities in Britain where as a result streets in Liverpool say, were killed off due to typhus. The survivors integrated into British society and are present to this day unaware of their history or origins. A dark time indeed but perhaps not as first stated by certain groups on the Irish myth of famine and hatred.
Governments cause Problems not the Working Classes. - Some Land Owners helped, and even had to sell up. Private Charity funds were sent from England. But indeed it was a Harsh Time. My Late Grandmother being Irish.
The truth is not easily found, but originated in the importation of blighted potatoes from North America. The failed crops were Europe wide. The real root cause was the Napolionic Wars, and their disruption to European politics, which when they ended, resulted in mass unemployment amongst ex-sailors and soldiers. Even then, a change in climatic norms was indeed a contributory factor, but it was really a comedy of errors.
There is no doubt the Irish people suffered terrible deprivation over a long period of time,possible worse than any other european country,but there is also no doubt that this suffering has been used to distort history and on occassions justify the unjustifiable.The Irish are like the rest of us,they conveniently sweep their own shame under the nearest carpet.
You left out the fact that cattle, livestock and other goods were removed from Ireland at gunpoint
They usually do.
Suits the narrative 👌
TAL
@@adyseven1 TAL! 26 +6=1
Half the British standing army were located in Ireland to protect food being transported to ports for export
This was genocide
The commercial crops were exported to Britain. The tenant farmers lived on potatoes.
The work programs the English set up didn't take in account that most of the people were starving and couldn't work because they were so weak.
While people were dying of starvation, food continued to be exported to England. Canal barges carrying wheat and other foodstuff had armed soldiers on board to repel hungry trying to steal something to eat.
It was often the Irish landlords that sold this foodstuff to Britain though. Irish people being merciless to Irish people. Just like with the Highland Clearances of Scotland, it was Scots that did that to other Scots. It's a bit too easy to blame it on single politicians like Trevelyan, whom whose policies would had no effect at all, if all the Irish landlords did like what only a few did: Help their fellow Irish, going bankrupt from doing good.
How many Irish people did Britain take?
@@elvenkind6072 You do understand that the Irish landlords you speak about were protestant "Anglo-Irish" planters who would have been as Irish as the average Northern Irish Protestant Unionist Orangeman is today. They were british like yourself.
@@seanmccann8368 I'm sorry, but life isn't 2D, and neither is history. Also I'm not British. I'm quite an anglophile though and love history, but have read history of the whole British Isles.
But if you really want to believe that people are divided up into Protestant/British/Orangeman/Evil and Irish/Celtic/Catholic/Good, then continue by all means to do believe that. Also, don't forget to give cookies and milk for Santa.
One of the few people that continue to do good during the famine was mostly Quakers (Protestants), that kept soup-kitchens going. Catholics did nothing like that.
@@elvenkind6072 Where did I say the proddies were evil and the papists good? I explained that the "Irish landlords" you were speaking of were not Irish and would not have seen themselves as Irish anymore than a true blue unionist would today. Congratulations on your Anglophilia you have succeeded in being more british than the british.
This fills in some gaps in my education which was in an English school. The catastrophe of the famine in Ireland was never mentioned in our history lessons.
Are we in the US following this route to disaster by allowing the big agro conglomerates limiting our main food sources, such as wheat and corn to one or two non reproductive genetic varieties, and make our farmers depending on chemical fertilizers and pest control?
The erosion of our land is at epidemic levels. Big ag and exporting of grain control the land production. Farmers are not free.
Well, yeah. (Duh)
Google Monsanto, Dupont & Carlisle Ukraine 2014
Monsanto plants its GMO crops next to other farms and when the wind cross-polinates into the neighbours property, they then sue the neighbours for having their patented GMO growing without licenced use of patent.
@@ix-Xafra Yes, they put a neighbour put of the farming business- totally bankrupted him because he planted seed that was non-GMO from England ON HIS OWN Property! They sued him and brought 7 corporate lawyers to the one he could afford, and by the time it was done, so was he. They have more agendas that we can't see or even understand. Why would we allow the same corporation to fiddle with our food that developed Agent Orange for the Viet Nam war and contributed to the hydrogen bomb studies in WWII? Frightening.
Yes !
Haven't watched the video yet but here's what I've heard. Crop failures are nature made, but famine is man made. All of Europe suffered potato blight at the same time, but only in Ireland did it, did it rise to mass starvation. In no small part to the English policies of protect the wealthy and blame "Irish indolence". As an aside, I am Irish heritage so I've been bred to love potatos.
There was starvation in Europe especially Belgium.
I agree. 👎👎
The potato blight caused about 250,000 deaths in the whole of Europe and Britain, whereas it caused the death of over 1 million in Ireland.
@@tedwarden1608 Not the same Belgium had its own goverment who stopped the export of food when they realised what would happen in time of internation shortages.
My family came over to England during that time ❤
I'm Jewish, of a people among the most despised in modern history. I remember signs saying "No Irish Need Apply" for job openings😳
As a folk music scholar, I've never understood why the Childe Ballads were subtitled "English and Scottish Ballads"⁉️ A Huge percentage of the folk songs collected from the Appalachian hills in the 1920s - 1950s by John and Allan Lomax were from Irish ballads. They also collected songs from Western bronc busters.
Country Music has all its roots from those collections.
There were Many movies about Irish families in America.
Can't think of ANY about Scottish families, films or songs 🤷🏽♀️
Bless the Irish people and all they have suffered snd triumphed over☘️❣️❣️👍🏽👏🏽🫶🏽🤟🏽
Your empathy is genuine. My uncle was an Orange-man, heading his local anti-Catholic organisation in Christchurch, NZ. A supporter of King Billy or William of Orange, a Dutch nobleman who at the invitation of English noblemen invaded England and usurped James2. Uncle Patrick hated Catholicism and Catholics, and was a nasty manipulative man by nature.. The majority (51%) of NZers have no religion.
There was a period of time when the English banned musical instruments. God bless.
Theres lots of Scottish songs that are influential on American country music. If you include the Scots - Irish even more. Do you need me to list them?
The Irish never settled the Appalachians.
@@TheEggmaniac you don't like the truth!
You forgot to mention Cromwell's brutal campaigns.
There is an old Irish adage: 'God sent the potato blight, the English Landlords sent the famine.'
Interesting, thx
Climate change. The weather turned very damp and cloudy, and facilitated the growth of the blight on the potatoes.
It also happened in the Netherlands and caused hunger and hardship in many parts of Europe.
Many Landlords hadn't received any rent for 7 years, one tenant farmer had 300 people living on the land he farmed, trinity collage Dublin had 12,000 living on the land they owned only 1% paid rent, 11 landlords were murdered.
@@connoroleary591 bullshit propaganda!
@@hetrodoxlysonov-wh9oo they made the problem, so that's the outcome of brutality of a English state for decades, their making
Please read “Paddy’s Lament”. It tells a very harrowing story of the potato famine.
Totally missed out that the blight was from the americas when they knew they had it too. Keep on rewriting history for more divisiveness please do.
I have a very good set of 1898 encyclopedias and in the section on Ireland it states that food exports from the island were at there highest point during the catastrophe as it was put.
Good HISTORICAL contextualisation of 'the great hunger ' 💯☘️😢🌍🧐
God bless Ireland!!!
Sean O'Dwyer- 136- 140 Hobson Street.- auckland 1010.- New Zealand.'
A bit of irony Australia was a penal colony ironically again started because instead of the government helping the poor they imprisoned them and then when they ran out of prison space because they couldn't build prisons fast enough they simply sent them overseas
It's a testament to convicts that despite the colony almost dieing out due to serious water shortages the colony survived
And due all the different races at the time they learnt very quickly that if they were going to survive they had to get along with each other hence forth why that ethos is now ingrained
So long as you work and pay taxes then we don't care where you come from
PS Canada bay in Sydney is so named because of the american and canadian convicts that were kept in the vicinity of the bay
Why do you think that 1848 has gone down in history as 'The year of revolutions'? All across Europe, but especially in France and Italy there were popular uprisings against the old order. One of the principle factors causing these uprisings was the pan European potato famine. All across Europe poor people, reliant on the potato, starved. It wasn't so bad in the rest of the UK as it was in Ireland because the English had instituted agricultural reforms over a century before with what were called enclosures (the agrarian revolution) and in Scotland with the Highland clearances which removed people from marginal land in favour of ranch farming sheep. While the Highlanders still resent the clearances there is no doubt that they saved millions of lives because they had been dependent on the same potato economy as the Irish poor and as they were cleared from the land this was no longer the case, certainly not to anything like the same extent, when the blight came (I write as a Scot). In Ireland, however, there was no agrarian reform before the blight years so the poor there were especially vulnerable. Indeed, the marginal land that the Irish peasantry relied on had been repeatedly subdivided into smaller and smaller plots as the population grew. This situation was unsustainable in the long term, even without the potato blight. The Anglo Irish landowners didn't care what the 'cotters' did with such marginal land anyway, as long as they got their rents. Equally, it should be remembered that in those days, governments did not see it as any part of their business to provide poor relief and the British, in at least trying to do so, were more advanced in their thinking than anywhere else, certainly in Europe. The fact is that the only way the potato famine could have been prevented in Ireland would have been to clear the people from the land so that they were not dependent on the potato when the blight came and quite frankly, the landowners couldn't have done that in Ireland without provoking a rebellion, so they did nothing... and when the blight came, the people starved. Could the British government have done more to provide poor relief? Yes, of course they could.... but quite frankly, the remarkable thing is that they did anything at all because providing poor relief was simply not seen as a function of central government in those days, not in Britain, or Europe, or anywhere else in the world.
Thank you for explaining that to me old boy, it makes it all seem so much jollier now. Are you for one minute excusing the british for the genocide (of course that word wasn't a thing then either) of Irish people like you have excused them the Highland Clearances which inflicted death and suffering on those you claim descent from? It was better to kill slightly fewer people earlier than more later? Frightfully british of you old man!
Nobody starved except in Ireland. Because there was extensive relief in Scotland from the British government during the Scottish famine that never was. That relief is why there was no famine in Scotland.
The Highland Clearances had nothing to do with saving anybody. They simply replaced people with sheep to improve returns for landowners. The people were then forced to emigrate.
The only way to prevent the famine in Ireland would have been to give the land to the tenants. They grew plenty of other food other than potatoes but as tenant farmers that other food was for the rent. The potato blight was nature but the famine was 100% man made. If the tenants had owned the land there would have been no famine. As they had loads of food.
Indeed when the British began lending money to tenant farmers and allowing them to buy their land from the 1880s the threat of famine receded quickly.
The Quakers provided some famine relief for the Irish. Maybe governments didn’t see that as their purview, but certainly conscience should have lead them to help. The British had little care for what happened to the Irish. Look at what happened when the Irish emigrated to Canada during the famine. 5,0000 Irish died within six months in the immigration center at Grosse Isle in Canada.
@towanda1067 The Quakers were the exception in terms of giving aid unconditionally. Their help has never been forgotten.
@@fiachramaccana280 Ever heard of the highland clearances.
"Sinister" is too kind of word for the historical deprivations inflicted by the Brit sassenachs upon the Irish. Tensions simmer to this day.
Ah, stop bleating it was something that happened a long time ago. Do you think the Jews still talk like that about the Germans?.
Thank you for a succinct historical view, always knew my family emigrated to US due to the potato famine, but now I understand the centuries of conflict between religions driven by specifically suppressive laws
Another fact: early in famine the British government set up food kitchens… but then changed public works projects. Building train bedding that were never finished. Then the UK government found it cheaper to just give the starving Irish one way tickets to America or better, Australia.
And take their land . More than the value of one way tickets on coffin boats.
The ruling classes have been at this for a while it looks like!
As well as English absentee landlords, 500K IRISH FARMERS exported record quantities of beef, pork, butter, grain etc right throughout the famine. The English army was used to protect these exports from the peasants.
The great famine in Ireland was class oriented event rather than just race or religion.
As with the majority of famines even to this day (Gaza) it is not because of lack of food, it's because of the inability of people to access the abundant available food.
There was also the rack rents which had to be paid for with cash crops . Why so much evictions of starving people?
The Popery Act of 1703, passed by the British parliament, forbade Catholics to pass down their land to their eldest son, and instead required landowners to distribute the land equally amongst all sons. This led to smaller and smaller farming units which forced people to switch to Potatoes from alternative crops.
Interesting, my surname by marriage is SLIGO and the family are from Scotland and emigrated to NZ. I heard that this wasn’t their surname but because they had to leave during the potato famine and once arriving in Great Britain were given the surname Sligo as that’s where they originated from. I’m not sure how true this is but I live in NZ and I’ve been to Sligo and there’s no Sligos there.
I’ve never heard of a surname ’Sligo’. I’d say it’s a nickname of sorts. Lucky they weren’t from Tullinaglug…
Ask any Irish Catholic who knows the history of his people, and 1845 is a year that will live in infamy. See the history of New York's five points as depicted in "The Gangs of New York."
My Irish ancestors left for America from county Mayo on the infamous famine ship, The Perseverance, 1845 September, 1st.
Queen Victoria is called the Famine Queen in Ireland today. This isn't a bad video but it neglects to 'connect the dots' regarding the British exportation of foodstuffs from an island roiling with starvation. That was a calculated political plot to commit genocide against Irish Catholics -- it wasn't simply 'business as usual.' Ironically, it helped the Irish via emigration establish an empire of its people in Australia, Canada & the United States as well as significant enclaves in New Zealand, Mexico, Spain, France & elsewhere. Maybe 'empire' is a bit of an exaggeration but it's remarkable how far from that island so many Irish got.
'a calculated political plot to commit genocide against Irish Catholics' Really? What about that £8,000,000 spent on Irish relief by a British people 'largely unaware' of what was happening? Does a natural disaster of nearly 200 years ago justify the continued present Irish racism towards the English people?
@@chrisomalley50 You can't be serious! First, that Irish relief, while sorely needed, was no where near enough to make much difference in the Famine. And while the fungus was a natural disaster, the food export policy was man made & COULD have been changed to keep vital calories inside of Ireland. As for "present Irish racism towards the English people" you are delusional. As an Irish citizen, albeit living overseas, my attitude towards the British is typical. I consider them a creative people; sometimes I agree with them, sometimes I do not (Gaza, for example) but I have no racism towards them. After all, many are ethnically part Irish, lol!
Most of the Irish migrated to the rest of the UK. It was a short and relatively inexpensive journey with the opportunity of visiting family members and friends in Ireland after they established themselves.
@@Pthommie Indeed, the Government could have closed the ports to exports and did consider it. The Irish Parliamentary Party was urged to lobby against such an action by the Irish farmers who were afraid that the subsequent collapse in prices would cause economic degradation. Incidentally, Victoria was first called 'The Famine Queen' by Maud Gonne in her protest against the 1900 visit.
Why Britain can not deliver grain from USA ? This can be do in few time. Britain left the famine by wish. Same famine in India. Britain let people die without remorse
My ancestors came to Australia from the famine.
We’ve been mostly Presbyterian the whole 160 years.
Another Aussie here. My ancestors came during the 19th century when there was another spud famine. Background is Catholic. So good that now it doesn't matter what type of religion you are. The thing we share in 2024 is a love of SPUDS. 😊
@judithstrachan9399
Presbyterians were treated the same as Catholics. Remember the first United Irishmen were Presbyterians.
Much of the farm produce was exported to cover the gambling debts of absentee english landholders.
Dublin was established by the Vikings and was a centre of their trade in Irish slaves. The restriction on the Irish was to protect against Catholic attacks from the West. Irish Catholics harboured returning ships from the Spanish Armada. These were the values of the time probably because the consequences of not defending yourself was defeat by someone else.
The truth is that Irish agriculture was controlled by the English occupiers, and when the staple food of the Irish households, potatoes, were blighted and yielded no sustenance, the English just let them starve or emigrate. Some were bribed to renounce Catholicism and convert to the Anglican church in exchange for food. Don't sugarcoat the history of genocide!
One question i asked my history teacher at school, was how did the Irish survive before potatoes were introduced into the country.
😂😂 that's a good question!..what was the answer?..
He couldn't answer it. Oh! Well 1970's education 😂
Population was much smaller, maybe 1 million in 1700, as compared to 8.5 in1845.@@MOJO24-y3d
Population was much smaller. The huge increase in population was behind the famine. Part of the issue was the habit of dividing land between sons leading to smaller farms which all ended being subsistence. The Duke of Wellington when he was Prime Minister attempted to introduce land reforms to stave this off but was only partially successful.
Corn (the Irish meaning) the areas of Ireland that hadn't grown potato's as their main crop were completely unaffected.
There was no famine but a failure of potato crops.
There was plenty of other food as you have suggested but this was withheld.
I visit Ireland twice a year where they call this period ‘ An Gorta Mor’ - the Great Hunger.
There was a deliberate policy by the UK government of ethnic cleansing of the Irish.
Elsewhere in the UK smaller similar practices took place such as the Highland Clearances in Scotland.
Also known as an cuiness more "The great silence" as that is what hunger does.
Something that isn't mentioned is that during the English/Spanish maritime war, England denuded Ireland of its oak trees. They were cut down wholesale for masts for the Royal Navy, never re-forested. Consequently, Ireland fights a constant battle with soil erosion which complicates farming and food production to this day.
Thank you for sharing.
That’ll be the same navy the English built that stopped North African slave traders from taking more Irish men women and children and enslaving them. BTW, they cut down plenty of oak trees in England snd Wales too to build a navy.
A lot of Ireland was deforested by local landowners as they saw profitable in it. Also burned down to stop the same being sold to England.
The famine actually took place in the UK.....as Ireland was part of the UK at the time. UNITED Kingdom my arse.
You can say the same about Cornwall.
The Irish Lumper was the potato. It was the easiest to grow, but was extremely susceptible to the blight.
A tragedy that brings tears 😭
Still not mentioning that potatoes began in the Peruvian Andes.
A lot of the plants now grown everywhere began in south America They were well ahead in plant knowkedge and classification. They had tomatoes ,Advocados ,peppers spices quinoe and lots more Thank you Aztacs Inkas and others .
We’re learning about a catastrophe in Ireland-a famine created not by a blight by by official English policies and practices. And so many of the comments are about whether it was Irish Catholics or Scots-Irish who brought music to America. Answer: It was both. Please focus on the catastrophe and its causes and consequences and on English responsibility for most of the suffering caused to a whole people because of religious hatred.
Leave religion out of it .unless Greed or colonisation is a religion.
Hmmm..... America in 2024.... some of this sounds very familiar to what is going on now.
History repeats itself. Especially if you do not learn and grasp the truth and the morals.
My family left Ireland (killkenny) during the potato famine , I know nothing about it and it really has never effected me ...however in the true spirit of the 21st century do you think I can get some compensation? And have a flag ? And a day named " too many spuds" day?
The potatoe was not to blame
Good detail and contextualisation here. ☘️ 💯
Apart from losing so many lives from starvation and immigration. The decline of the Irish language after what was a genocide is also a tragedy. So many Native speakers died.I hate the crown that ruled back then and their dumb way of thinking. At one stage if you spoke Irish you were shot dead on the spot. Google search to see images of people lying dead on the road for speaking Irish. That's how there's only over 100,000 native speakers left.
Our family tree benefited as we had a 17 yo orphan emigrated to Australia.
The starving Irish were stopped at gunpoint from fishing their own shores and rivers.
Except for shell fish which can be done from the shore line It was ironic that some costal inhabitants fed on oysters ,lobsters perri winkles and others of that kind, now exported to the luxury French market. These areas became know as the congested areas and another method had to be applied to them.
A word of caution - when a video title contains TRUTH - they actually mean OPINION !!
Yeah and America has never been the same...
Im English from Irish stock, about 120 years ago. I have an interest of what happened around this time. I believe the 99.9 percent of ordinary English working people new nothing about this subject, they were being worked to death in coal mines, mills, shipyards and buidlings, or, dying of typhoid in workhouses in older age.
...and this my friends is why the Irish people love the English establishment.
Is there a charity where we over-fed affluent indolent English folk can donate, say, 50 kilos of King Edwards to our starving Celtic neighbours ?
It has to be remembered that the governments in Britain, both Whig and Tory, at the time were OK with sending my great great grandfather down a coal mine aged 9 yrs. They didn't just not give a damn what happened to the Irish "spalpeens", they didn't care what happened to the English working classes either. Profit was king and "relief" served only to promote idleness in the lower orders, in their minds. So, I would say a heinous class crime rather than a genocide. No less reprehensible, but a crime perpetrated by our ruling class, against the poorest, not by the English people as a whole, who were largely kept in the dark about it. I don't seek to exonerate anyone. I just like to see the blame laid at precisely the right door.
Life expectancy of (Engish) males in Liverpool in 1842 was 26. My own family records from Manchester are record of the brutal lives of working people at that time, wives were often widows for 30 or 40 years.
History just repeats. Same "elite" same crimes against humanity today and more evil plots for our future.
Ireland needs compensation for this injustice by England. The English watched us starve to death and did nothing to help us but were quick to impose more fines as we died starving The UK must pay us just like everybody else tjat they screwed..
I'm beginning to figure out that the English had been so cruel against the Irish because they (the English) was a byproduct of the breeding among the hoi paloi of various tribes.
I challenge the statement that one acre of land could produce 6 tons of potatoes , not even a quarter of that.
I'm an Englishman of Irish descent. I wrote an essay on the Famine for an (Irish) historian many years ago and came to the conclusion that the Famine was an eco-catstrophe made fatal by the British insisting on Ireland being treated the way the destitute in England were, so that they were returned to their parish union of settlement in Ireland, as if they were in the prosperous UK mainland, where there were alternate sources of food. I knew food was exported - but they in much smaller quantities than imports. Some of the stuff below about beef et cetara being taken under armed guard I've not heard of before - please could we have some sources for these statements?
What did the Irish eat before the arrival of the poato?
Each other!
@@PhansiKhongoloza😂
Whatever the druids told the to eat.
Oats was the staple and other cereals . Payment to labourers was often in bussels of oates or wheat. It was often a punishment to pay in coinage as coinage it was very unstable.
Also this should be noted it was the proud Irish who hold the patent to Mr.potato head the cherished toy enjoyed by millions 🎉
Mr. Potato Head is an American toy produced by Hasbro since 1952. Invented by American inventor George Lerner
@@jacquiewalton1355 Never heard of this toy.
@@Sallywood You obviously haven't seen 'Toy Story'
@@jacquiewalton1355 No a bit old for toy story
@@Sallywood You're never too old for Toy Story
You could get soup at an English soup kitchen if you became an Anglican...
And why not!
It is a bit far to travel if you live in Ireland.
Erin go Braugh
Given that the first two minutes contain at least two glaring mistakes, not sure I'd trust the rest.
Potatoes originated in the Peruvian inca Highlands not the Indies and it was a Welsh Norman force that conquered Ireland not an Anglo Norman one. They were invited by an Irish king as mercenaries to defeat his enemies. They turned on him.
Abandoned watching at that point.
That was hundreds of year previous to the so called famine.
I wonder how many people rely on soup kitchens today in England? Hate that people make out these things were stuff from the past
The salmon which in fact huge houses in Circle or in engulf these great notorious salmon rivers in Ireland it was forbidden for a hungry man to take those fish the average weight was 40pl in weight had enough protein to keep a family alive for ten days.
This could be virtually reduced to monoculture, 1 variety that crosses every box until it fails. The same happened to bananas, I don't remember what variety failed
One of the many genocides commited by the British empire .
Read Angela' Ashes by McCourt
Not really aplicable That was a family in more recent times with their own problems of drug addiction and general weakness . Even today little is done to help such families.
A very helpful and clear explanation of an historical event, one which has been clouded in the fog of denial and recriminations.
I am English, and feel for the plight Of the population in Ireland during the famine. Clearly due to elitist politics.
But it does highlight the risks of 'putting all your eggs in one basket' both domestically and politically. Happily, Ireland is a far better place to live today than is ever has been even if the resentments of past failures continue to fester.
Go to the Catholic cemeteries built in Limerick and Cork in the 1850's and see the MASSIVE granite tombs built for the wealthy Irish who grew rich on the backs of the poor.
Queen Victoria visited Cork during the famine and wrote in her diary of how moved she was with the crowds who turned out to greet her.
These people are still in Ireland in top positions. Look at the millions of people in Ireland with British surnames, Simon Harris anyone? Jack Chambers? And so on and so on.
Its entirely possible that famine didn't just happen but may have been planned from the start.
This post did go into alot more stuff then others.
1 point, a lot of people say is famine is man made. Ethiopia had 2 million die in the 80's. In modern times and had every government and food organization sending food.
Disease plays a big part. No government at that time had medicine to fix that.
He did mention the population, just not enough. 1 million died and 2 moved out, but the population only dropped by 2 million. Talk about birth controll. 180 years later Ireland is still a smaller population then it was. Seriously the Irish had a population problem that the catholic church didn't help.
most famines are manmade and Ethiopia was a classic case. They starved in the provinces because the government wanted them to starve. If you knew anything about the politics of Ethiopia you would know that it has many semi rebellious provinces with rebel movements. And starvation is the weapon central government uses to punish them.
Your whole post is basically nonsense. Basically blaming the Irish for having too many kids. There was plenty of food in Ireland even during the famine. But that food was paid for rent and exported to the UK. Ireland was England's breadbasket. That was its purpose. So English bellies were filled by Irish food as the Irish starved.
And your numbers are wrong also.
@fiachramaccana280 lol never heard of man made famine. Crop failure can be man made like poor governments like Russia and China. You want to play by some standards of intelligence then actually use the definition. No mention of man made.
I think alot of people get it wrong on the Irish workers. They rent 1 acre and gave crops up. The corn and cattle were grown on the lords lands.
Having 8 kids on an acre is over population in Ireland. Going to America 8 kids on 160 was needed.
You can blame England all you want, it's just another thing for your kind to cry about. Like saying native Americans were peaceful.
Most people in famine die of diseases
@@fiachramaccana280"But that food was paid for rent and exported to the UK. Ireland was England's breadbasket." Ireland was part of the UK at the time of the famine. The food was transported within the country, not exported.
@brownbess8185 it was never legitimately part of the UK. It was a colony. And the political structure reflected that. We had a viceroy like India. Neither Scotland or Wales had one. Not s single Gaelic Irish ever held any political office despite being 75% of the population. Barred by law for centuries and then barred by the ruling class. Who were all foreign settlers. The British are and have always been foreigners to us. So take your BS somewhere else.
@brownbess8185 there were several native Scottish lods and also several native Welshmen who were British PM. Not a single Gaelic Irish ever even held British cabinet office. Or held a senior position in Dublin Castle. Thats the definition of a colony. So stop rewriting history. I hate lies.
Look at what happened to the Irish who emigrated to British controlled Canada. 5000 Irish people died within 6 months at the immigration center on Grosse Isle.
Many settled in Montreal and other areas of Quebec, including the Gaspe.
Not very much nutrients in it, just starches which breaks down to sugar. Good food back in the time when work was hard but not so much today since sugar makes obese.
What a selective view, my relatives came to England to escape the spud famine, only to find it as bad here in England.
Typical of a yank perspective of the terrible English exploiting the poor Irish, at least the Irish received aid.
The English working man didn’t, they died in the poor house.
The Türkish and a north american tribe donated during Irelands famine. I don’t think there was a famine in england simultaneously as the irish famine or was there?
@ Hi, in England we had the corn laws, this guaranteed huge land owners a profit on grain that caused the price of bread to be high, thus keeping the country hungry.
As Ireland had an economy based on potato production, they got hit hard, but the corn laws were suspended for Ireland to make bread cheaper.
People went hungry in both countries, it wasn’t the English people exploiting the Irish largely.
The wealthy people in Parliament be them English, Scottish, Welsh, Irish exploited the people.
Most men didn’t get a vote till after the 1st world war, followed by women.
@@colinbarber9324 hi, oh ok, good to know.
England can't collect taxes from people who are too sick to work. The Video said that an Irish Men ate 10 Pounds of Potatoes per day per Capita. I find that impossible .
The potato blight affected the whole of Europe, unfortunately, Ireland with its huge land tracts of poor quality, stoney soil was more heavily dependent on potatoes. The British parliament proposed aid to the Irish but the move was defeated by Anglo-Irish land owners in order to keep their profits high with the inflated prices. The situation was further exacerbated by the problem of large families.. The Catholic church (which incidentally, as wealthy as it is, offered no assistance to Irish families) maintains to this day a cynical anti-birth control policy that guarantees the birth of more Catholics and encourages poverty among its following, leaving them more dependent on the church, the result being greater famine.
There was little birth control available anywhere then . and dispite the myths families were not large as babies were breast fed for many years The families became larger in the early 1900 hundreds when dairying became a thing. Not because there then was milk for babies but the wemon were needed to do a lot of the milking .leaving little time for breastfeeding. something like what happened in some third world countries where wemon were need in the factories and not feeding babies.
@Sallywood agreed, but like most Catholic countries, Irish families generally had much higher numbers of children,.as mentioned in the documentary..
@@jamesgraham6122 No they had not the birth records are available very few families had as many children as Queen Victoria.
Very little mention about the English being asked in to stop wars between Irish kings. Also King James encouraging settlement by Scots and English to stop the same attacks in other settlements . My family were attacked constantly through history and they were southern Irish but Prodestant. They kept diaries which I have read. The docks in Dublin were full of food during the famine . The estate managers who were Irish stopped this grain being given out as they wanted a clearance of small Irish fams to expand on sheep farms which they thought would be mire profitable. But as with the clearances in Scotland this failed with the ending of the Napoleon wars but the land owners got the blame not the Irish Land agents. The famine was not as great in the East of Ireland From Antrim down to Wicklow. More the West was affected. This however was forgotten in time,e and a lot of myth was created. I suggest reading the likes of Miskimmons History of Carrickfergus which gives a more accurate history of a part of Ireland or the diaries from the time somevof which have been published.
Empire apologists also blame Indians for the millions of Indians starved to death during famines at the same time (19th century) during British colonial rule. Lots of excuses were made, but key contributions to why so many starved left out. Meanwhile the diaries (intended to remain secret) those responsible clearly stated that they thought it was too expensive and therefore not economically viable to save lives.
An important fact that you omitted was that the Poor Law legislation effectively forced landlords to evict tenants:
>> The effect of this provision, when combined with falling rent rolls, and the liability of landlords to pay the poor rates on holdings worth less than £4 per annum, was to encourage landlords to evict their smallest tenants. Workhouse occupancy rose from around 417,000 in 1847, to around 932,000 by the end of 1849.
The potato famine was a massive injustice and crime, made infinitely worse by London’s greed and lack of compassion but exaggerating it by introducing guns into the tragedy, is just hate talk. Unfortunately this tragedy has been compounded by Dublin using it to justify Ireland being the only industrialised country in the world whose population has reduced. In effect justifying their ethnic cleansing of the Irish nations of Connacht, Munster and the three counties of Ulster since 1911 and forcing out many times more Irish than left in the potato famine.
Illegal immigrants brought potatoes to Ireland.
Chris Fogary's book, 'The Irish Holocaust' (unobtaiinable by me) and his UA-cam interview are more-strongly explicit.
Isn’t the english lanuage wonderful? It wasn’t a potato famine … the potatoes were not hungry … the people were.
maybe famine caused the blight...
@ he he he.
This is a bit rich coming from an American after what they did to the Native American people.
America was founded on genocide and ethnic cleansing and built with slavery.
Pope and Catholic Church omitted from famine details also Catholic Landlords exporting food - Vatican gold shipment donation to poor = No famine
Now I know way my mother -in-law loved potato's so mutch. She was a Irish woman.
One acre of land can produce 6 tons of potatoes?
Did I hear that right?
Treatment for the blight was known and easily and cheaply remedied, and England let it happen anyway.
You mean Britain.
It's called a genocide- but of course, Britain would never do that! Along with slavery. And indentured people(usually Irish). And the Irish didn't 'head off to Austrailia' they were convicted of a crime- usually stealing a loaf of bread or something to feed their families, and sent to Oz as punishment. Of course, many of those turned their bad luck around by getting into the silver mines and making a good living, much to Queen Victoria and her cronies chagrin.
@@rodjones117, no we mean ENGLAND.
@@robertyoung8785 Suit yourself, but if you think that Scotland had no part in the oppression of Ireland you're wrong.
@rodjones117 since the supposed equal union Scotland has had little say, just look at Scotlands seats against England's , we are easily out voted, ergo it was England that made Ireland suffer.
Empires are invariably awful. Us humans need to evolve. Sharpish.
my dear departed dad patrick mckenna bk home i DERRY sleeping his last , fro yorkshire granny, i do love spuds im a veggi granny xxx my dad told me ireland sad history bless yous p
Fun fact ….in 1651 following a series of massacres, the British under Cromwell stole over 11.5 million acres of the best land from Irish people. They decided the land amongst English people and in some cases imported thousands of British people in an exempt to eradicate the Irish. When their genocide attempts failed they then rented the stolen land in small plots back to the Irish at exorbitant rates. The British then passed laws forbidding Irish people from owning land or obtaining education.
At various times the British tried mass murder, slaughters, genocide, starvation, extermination, transportation, theft, colonization and pogroms but still the Irish survived. Now the British want us to trust them and forget the past…..
@@aconsideredopinion7529 that's what happens to losers.
Sorta like Stalin did in the Ukraine?
What's the solution?
@Zeeshan-ep1og the land is back with the Irish. So its fixed
@@robertpearce4316who are the losers now mate. Ireland, without aristocrats and crawlers, is pissing over the English.
How does someone consume 11# of spuds/day? Sounds fishy.
11 pounds of potatoes per day? Is this an AI generated video? AI says weird things at times. During 1840’s, Ireland still exported food… wheat and meats even though millions were starving.
Salaries in Ireland were 6d a day. Pay in England 24d a day. Pay in USA was $1 a day or 90d a day
Did the queen of England say the Catholic couldn’t catch /eat the fish also?
McCartha after WW1 the returning American soldiers who fought for their country had no where to live and insufficient food supplies unarmed protesting,they were shot down
Governments ,military,who violate their own people should be shown no mercy
11 pounds of potatoes per day? Is this an AI generated video? AI says weird things at times. During 1840’s, Ireland still exported food… wheat and meats even though millions were starving.
It wasn't a famine, it was a genocide.
For more info read Paddies Lament.
The famine was in the 19th century. What percentage of the English population would have been aware of this ?
The views of some comments here are either untrue, irrelevant, taken out of context or general throughout the British Isles- At that time. You see the famine, which by the way lasted for five consecutive years with others before this date, as the Irish potato famine. It was throughout Western Europe including Scotland and England. Other countries were not as rely ant on the potato, coupled with the rising birthrate of the catholics. The blight was a disaster waiting to happen. The Irish insisted that food aid should be the potato, they said American corn gave them dysantery. Both the corn and corn mills supplied were destroyed by nationalists. Of the four million people died or displaced two million went overseas and the others died from desiese either in Ireland or later aboard ship or their adopted country. Large numbers went to cities in Britain where as a result streets in Liverpool say, were killed off due to typhus. The survivors integrated into British society and are present to this day unaware of their history or origins. A dark time indeed but perhaps not as first stated by certain groups on the Irish myth of famine and hatred.
How many priests died?
None
Governments cause Problems not the Working Classes. - Some Land Owners helped, and even had to sell up. Private Charity funds were sent from England. But indeed it was a Harsh Time. My Late Grandmother being Irish.
Other foods are available.
Omg.
I'm watching this as I'm cooking french fries. I'm 14% Irish. 😂
The truth is not easily found, but originated in the importation of blighted potatoes from North America. The failed crops were Europe wide. The real root cause was the Napolionic Wars, and their disruption to European politics, which when they ended, resulted in mass unemployment amongst ex-sailors and soldiers. Even then, a change in climatic norms was indeed a contributory factor, but it was really a comedy of errors.
There is no doubt the Irish people suffered terrible deprivation over a long period of time,possible worse than any other european country,but there is also no doubt that this suffering has been used to distort history and on occassions justify the unjustifiable.The Irish are like the rest of us,they conveniently sweep their own shame under the nearest carpet.
.What so our wrong doings mean genocide against irish is OK?
Go too bed tan
Not a bad effort for 12 minutes