The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #151520 Message #3538613
Posted By: mg
17-Jul-13 - 03:46 PM
Thread Name: Folklore/History: Irish Famine
Subject: RE: Folklore/History: Irish Famine
I have read several free kindle books written by people involved in the famine one way or the other..legislators, land managers etc. I am not left with the idea that absolutely nothing was done or that people or English specifically were totally heartless. Of course, some were. But things were done..they were inefficient, created more problems than they solved, etc...but logistics were horrible of course in those days. They would buy Indian corn, usually fed to livestock, and have no way of grinding it. They tore up good roads and had starving people build unusable ones. One great tragedy is that funds were set aside for draining lands that could have put huge numbers of people to work actually growing food...these were separate and prior to famine funds. People fought hard and long for these plans to be put in place but they never were used widely I think. Quakers did a magnificent job as far as I read. Other religions sometimes/often put religious conditions into feeding people, such as renounce your faith and we will feed you. Catholics in turn did some bad things to Protestants.
They of course were not all English landlords. Some were Irish, some were Dutch, some French. Without income from the yearly pig from each tenant, they could not pay their taxes, buy food for starving peasants, ship them abroad etc.
There was a huge plan to send huge numbers to Canada..I think it sort of fizzled. They really did thrash around and look for solutions. Some were called to court after the famine to account for their behaviors.
So everything bad that is said is undoubtedly mostly true, but there are other truths out there to complement it.
As to why they just didn't fish..some very rocky places to start with. When shores were accessible, peasants were forbidden to go within certain distances of them so they would not catch fish. Likewise deer, rabbits etc...They ate grass..as they did in our lifetimes in Iran. We also had famines or starvation in Sudan, Ethiopia, Cambodia. It is a very cruel world, made worse by religions that force overpopulation, which is behind famine, war etc....