"Yes sciencegeek it was done EVENTUALLY both in Portugal and in Spain always using the main access roads and routes with the Royal Navy in support and relying on well established ports up and down the coast it took SIX years to get right and the effort required to mount the relief effort in Ireland you seem to imagine possible would have taken far more in terms of resources (Remember Wellington's Peninsular Army was very small - minute by European standards of the day)."

More fruit salad from the great "let's compare apples to oranges" viewpoint.

Ireland: Land area: 26,598 sq mi (68,889 sq km); total area: 27,135 sq mi (70,280 sq km)


Portugal: Land area: 35,382 sq mi (91,639 sq km); total area: 35,672 sq mi (92,391 sq km).

so a basically unarmed country, smaller than Portugal, would require vast logistical efforts the equal to waging war???

what were they going to do? pelt them with rotting potatos???

they needed good roads because they were hauling cannon & munitions along with food supplies. I never said it would be easy, I said it could be done if the will to do so were there.

In the same time period the Admiralty offered a reward of £20,000 (£1.56 million in 2009 money) "to any Party or Parties, of any country, who shall render assistance to the crews of the Discovery Ships under the command of Sir John Franklin".

To which I am sure the response will be... "why should the Admiralty be responsible for famine relief?".

My point being that the money was there for what concerned them. And that concern was not the welfare of the starving Irish.