The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #151520   Message #3538580
Posted By: Keith A of Hertford
17-Jul-13 - 03:04 PM
Thread Name: Folklore/History: Irish Famine
Subject: RE: Folklore/History: Irish Famine
Grumpy, did you read the piece you linked to?
It contains this.

"The arguments regarding the role of the British government are not sustainable. In the summer of 1847, in the wake of the almost total second failure of the potato crop, the British government established soup kitchens throughout Ireland. At the peak of this scheme, over three million people, that is, forty per cent of the population, were receiving free rations of food
daily from the soup kitchens (which, even by the standard of contemporary famines, is a tremendous logistical achievement). To make this possible, a comprehensive and nation-wide machinery was created within Ireland in the space of only a few months. As a consequence of this scheme, mortality began to fall as, for the first and only time during the Famine, the problem of hunger was confronted directly. "

Illustration.
An Irish relief squadron distributing stores from HMS Valorous in the West of Ireland.