"I would just love to hear what gains in political and economic capital for Britain came out of the "Great Famine" – Damn all as far as I can fathom. It did I suppose leave us with a legacy of a seemingly interminable list of whinging Irish Ballads and a host of complete and utter myths and fairy stories that you appear to have fallen for hook line and sinker."

An unworthy statement in my opinion. Why not ask the same about slavery or the Holocaust?

There is a huge difference between the actions of individual people and their motives for short term gains vs. what is the "enlightened self interest" of nations. You only need to observe the antics of the Tea Party in the US to see the same narrow minded self interest in action.

Man's inhumanity to man goes back as far as you care to look. As long as there are people with power who lack empathy for their fellows, this kind of behavior will persist... new place, new circumstance, but same behavior and outcome... It's the fact that they have the power/ability to put their decisions into effect that causes such hardships. Be they big business or politicians makes little difference to those who end up with the short end of the stick.

As for whining songs... see how cheerful you are if you lose most of your family to starvation and are forced from your homeland... those people were victims of discrimination coupled with a natural disaster that no one of that era was equipped to handle. There is no call to mock their plight.

Britain as a nation carries the stigma... while those culpable made out nicely for themselves and are now as dead as the famine victims.