"A huge amount of the land and houses were owned by British businessmen and some of higher rank. Rents were often, if not generally paid in potatoes and turnips. In many instances these were brought directly to the docks where they were weighed and then credit was issued by the ship owners who, in turn, paid the landlords from the profits gained when the produce was sold to British markets. In some places the landlords became so greedy that they created what I would call reverse quotas. A family was allowed to retain only a specified amount of potatoes. As few as two per day were allotted per adult and per pig, if pigs were kept. Children were allotted one potato per day. All else was considered as rent."

Love to know where this fairy tale came from. It certainly raises some interesting questions if it were true, so I presume Allan C would know the answers to them.

Ownership of the land. If the major part of the land was owned by "British Businessmen" how was it transferred to Irish ownership and when? The nobility and landed gentry of the "ascendancy" were for the most part "Anglo-Irish" (Not British Businessmen). To simplify matters they leased land to agents who then rented out the land to maximise the agent's profit.

Rents were not paid in potatoes and turnips, for a small parcel of land which the tenant used to cultivate to feed his family, the rent was paid by the tenant working on the land owners land. Now if what you said was true how did the the poor impoverished tenant get his crops down to the docks to be weighed? Must have taken one hell of a long time to load a cargo under this totally ridiculous system don't you think, no shipping company would stand for it logically if you think about it, it would cost them a fortune in time and lost cargoes.

No mention of the real culprits - The Gombeen Men - look them up, you probably won't because they weren't English. They didn't exist in Scotland so in the highlands and western isles right the way through the famine the men fished to suppliment the diet. In Ireland particularly on the west coast the Gombeen Men forced the fishermen to sell their gear and boats to pay their extortionate interest.

Suggest you read Cecile Woodham-Smith's book "The Great Hunger", she's hard enough on the British Government but fairly so and does give credit where and when it is due. She's very scathing in her coverage of the supposed "help" that was received from America and the treatment of Irish immigrants on landing in America (Modern Day St.Patrick's Day derives from it - a PR exercise, a street party thrown to make the Irish more popular among the other immigrant communities in American cities)

The reason most Irish emigrated to the New World via Canada was because they sailed for free. To board a ship bound directly for the USA you had to prove yourself to be of good character and health and be financially sound to the tune of £10, you were then subject to quarantine on arrival. If the ship carried any sick onboard it was held off the coast until all was clear, sometimes that took weeks. Most Irish entered the USA via Chicago from Canada having travelled across the Great Lakes.