The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #151520   Message #3543235
Posted By: Jim Carroll
29-Jul-13 - 03:04 PM
Thread Name: Folklore/History: Irish Famine
Subject: RE: Folklore/History: Irish Famine
"Remember I am not a historian Jim."
You really don't have to keep repeating this - it is glaringly obvious you are nowhere near one - it 's not a get-out-of-jail-free card for your displays of ignorance.
If you care to follow the link (or would that be too much like hard work) you will find that Foster is in fact a "revisionist" in the historical sense - someone prepared to revise their views in the light of new evidence. What you have been claiming throughout this is that "revisionists" are stuck somewhere in the first half of the 20th century - the opposite of the case.
I raised the point because I once heard Foster speak - he stuck me as neither an "80 years of of date" Republican, nor was he someone who was prepared to re-write history to suit an agenda - unlike your good self.
Your touching faith in Christine Kinnealy seems not to extend to her having said"

"Moreover, much of this death from the Famine need not have taken place. The Irish Famine was not just caused by food shortages, it was also due to political and economic choices. As a consequence, ideology triumphed over humanity.
In the face of food shortages, relief provided by the government was inadequate. Imports of food were too small to meet the scale of the problem. At the same time, large amounts of food continued to be exported from Ireland. In 1847 – 'Black '47' – 4,000 ships left Ireland, each carrying large cargoes of food to Britain."

Which is basically the crux of what is being suggesting here.
Her other statement in no way absolves the British from their crimes against humanity.
Peel's Government indeed did bring some relief.
In 1845 that Government fell and was replaced by Russell's Whig Government which set about dismantling all the humanitarian work Peel did and replaced it with a laissez faire policy, closed the food storehouses and replaced them with soup kitchens from which the people could not benefit if they owned more than a half acre of land - it turned famine victims into beggers.

Russell's home secretary Charles(?) Wood not only encouraged evictions, but it provided troops in order to carry those evictions out - one of the prime reasons for suggesting (in the words of Christine Kinealy" "The Irish Famine was not just caused by food shortages, it was also due to political and economic choices. As a consequence, ideology triumphed over humanity."
Nor is her reference to Irish historians relevant here - all the major critical quotes you have been given come from British historians.
Neither does your respect for her extend to your making the effort to spell her name correctly apparently.
Jim Carroll