"To a large extent, the popular understanding of the Famine in Ireland still follows a traditional, nationalist paradigm. Within this model, 'blame' is generally attributed to key groupings, either within the British government or within the landlord class. To some extent, these beliefs were fostered by the state school system south of the border, which itself arose out of particular historical circumstances. In 1922, for example, the Free State government instructed history teachers that pupils should be 'imbued with the ideals and aspirations of such men as Thomas Davis and Patrick Pearse' and that they should emphasise 'the continuity of the separatist idea from Tone to Pearse' (see Francis T. Holohan, 'History teaching in the Irish Free State 1922-35' in HI Winter 1994). In Protestant schools in Northern Ireland, Irish history was rarely part of the curriculum (see Peter Collins, 'History teaching in Northern Ireland' in HI Spring 1995). Accordingly, in many Irish schools, a heroic but simplistic view of Irish history emerged, a morality story replete with heroes and villains. This approach, however, was subsequently challenged by the Irish academic establishment. In the 1930s, a number of leading Irish academics—following the lead of British historians earlier in the century—set an agenda for the study of Irish history, which placed it on a more professional and scientific basis in terms of research methods and source materials. At the same time this approach also demanded the systematic revision and challenging of received wisdoms or unquestioned assumptions. What was specific to Ireland, however, was the declared mission to challenge received nationalist myths, and by implication, although less centrally, loyalist myths. Thus, at the launch of the influential Irish Historical Studies journal in 1938, the editors stated their commitment to replace 'interpretive distortions' with 'value-free history'. To a large extent, however, this debate took place within the rarefied atmosphere of academia and failed to percolate down into the schoolrooms either north or south of the border." - Christine Kinealy

Two obvious comments here, the first is that Nationalists at the time certainly used the "Famine" for propaganda purposes and second, who here thinks it acceptable under any circumstances for a government to instruct teachers to teach a subject that should be taught factually and objectively with a deliberate political slant to it?

This did not just happen in the Irish School system, in Scotland history was taught in exactly the same simplistic way from Primary School up until the first two years of High School. Myself and my classmates were very fortunate as right from the start of High School we had an excellent History Teacher - but it is amazing how many in Scotland view any conflict in Scotland as a straightforward England v Scotland affair with England always cast in the role of villain - once you actually start studying the history of the country you find that nothing could be further from the truth. A couple of examples:

1: The Jacobite Rebellions - More Scots fought on the side of the Government than fought for the rebels (At Culloden there were more Scots fighting on the Government side than there were Scots in the Army of Charles Stuart).

2: The Clearances were introduced and driven by British Government policy in the aftermath of the '45 rebellion. In actual fact the Clearances had started much earlier and were driven by the greed of Scottish Landlords.

The 2014 Independence Referendum demonstrated how thin the veneer was, of people who pretended that anti-English comments were all just banter, hell as like it was, most of it was fuelled by ill-informed and atrociously presented history learned at an early age.

Back to Irish history - I do not believe that what was said equated to anything like - the Irish have been taught to hate the British - I think what was said was the way Irish history is taught keeps hate alive.