A further point Richard
Tim Pat Coogan's book, 'The Famine Plot' included a 10 page letter from Sir Charles Trevelyan, written anonymously to The Irish Chronicle, railing against the Irish people for their stubborn stupidity and their political intransigence in following leaders like O'Connell and their opposition to British rule.
It was published two years before the outbreak of the Famine.
It finishes with a proverb "Roast an Irishman on a spit and you will get him to turn".
Trevelyan was known to have been the author of the letter, yet he was still given the role of feeding the people he despised.
That fact went a long way towards convincing me that the outcome of the Famine was a little more than stupidity
Jim Carroll