"I fear the lack of perspective in on your end... "

Really?? Here are a few examples that indicate the reverse:

1: "Spain & Portugal fluctuated from neutral to allies to opponents... pick a year."

The oldest and most constant alliance in Europe? That between England and Portugal. Spain were allied with the French, motivated by a desire to regain possessions lost to the British during your War of Independence, until Napoleon forced the rightful King of Spain to abdicate and then put his brother on the throne. From 1808, when the British first landed troops in Portugal, until Napoleon's final defeat in 1815, the Spanish were our allies. Your point is irrelevant, and it displays not only lack of perspective but an astonishing lack of knowledge.

2: "so if a pennisula has ports... how many do you think an ISLAND like Ireland has??? Actually, you don't have to guess... just google.. "

No need to guess and it is you who should do the "Googling". Ireland has many ports, it had many ports at the time we are discussing. Only problem was that they happened to be on the wrong side of the country. Again amazing lack of knowledge and understanding of the problems involved.

3: "this is what is relevant: food was exported from Ireland …… it was transported to ports & onto ships for export ….. it was not all grown within a days easy travel to those ports."

Your lack of perspective and knowledge displayed yet again. Over the period of the famine Irish food exports declined greatly and Irish import of food increased dramatically. There is a very good map showing the extent of the effects of the famine. Looking at that map you will see that the areas least affected tended to be the areas close to those eastern ports and the areas that had decent roads.

4: "so I say that it is you who has to explain why food can leave the country, but it too difficult to import & distribute.

or why food grown in Ireland could not have been purchased & distributed locally? or at least transported from the growing areas to those areas of need."

1840s – right?:

- No refrigeration, no freezers, only methods of preserving food are to dry, smoke, pickle or salt – all take time, all cost money to the producer, all require storage, and not all are suitable means of preservation for the country in question because of climate. So generally crops were harvested and beasts slaughtered and they were sold fresh, or in the case of livestock delivered on the hoof in which case the animals need feeding on the way. The decision to do this is not one taken by Government, or dictated by Government policy, they are decisions taken by the man actually farming the land - Not necessarily the owner of the land.

- Ireland's main trading partner has always been mainland Britain (Ireland's entry into the Common Market was conditional on Britain being allowed in). That is why most of Ireland's best developed ports and cities happen to be on its eastern seaboard – Cork, Dungarvan, Waterford, Wexford, Wicklow, Dublin, Balbriggan, Dundalk, Newry, Belfast. It is evident even today, look at the port facilities in Ireland, much better in the east. Of the ports that do exist on Ireland's western seaboard take a look at the bearing strength of the quays there compared to those of its eastern ports, a reason why Ireland's offshore oil & gas industry is located in the Irish sea and not in the Atlantic, and why any exploration off its Atlantic coast is based out of eastern ports.

- Weather, the prevailing winds are South Westerly making the west coast of Ireland stormbound compared to the more sheltered east coast – So where do you expect ports to be built?

- Population, the eastern side of the country was easier to farm and live in, it was therefore more heavily populated than the west – So where do you expect to find the cities and ports?

- Because those ports are trading ports good roads are essential to allow the transport of goods, livestock and crops – So there is a means of distribution for both exports and imports – sound rational enough for you?

- Over on the west coast there were only two ports developed to any extent Limerick and Galway, the hinterland around them did not consist of rich farmland, it had no large export trade, there were no good roads or bridges that provided easy access to that hinterland.

Now does any of that register? Does that answer your questions with regard to distribution – Simply no means of distributing it existed in the period in question in the west of Ireland.

5: "that the casualties were far higher than they should have been, in part because of a prevailing attitude among the upper classes that controlled policy and money."

As apparently none of you have bothered to read the letter that Charles Edward Trevelyan wrote in answer to Lord Mounteagle I will copy it out in full – Now honest opinion having read it through, who is it that Trevelyan is coming down heaviest on in his criticism of the situation in Ireland – the Irish land-owners or their tenants?

To the Right Hon. Lord Mounteagle

My Dear Lord,

I have had the pleasure of receiving your letter dated 1 inst., and before proceeding to the subjects more particularly treated in it, I must beg of you to dismiss all doubt from your mind of the magnitude of the existing calamity and its danger not being fully known and appreciated in Downing Street.

The government establishments are strained to the utmost to alleviate this great calamity and avert this danger, as far as it is in the power of government to do so; and in the whole course of my public service, I never witnessed such entire self-devotion and such hearty and cordial co-operation on the part of officers belonging to different departments met together from different parts of the world, as I see on this occasion.

My purchases are carried to the utmost point short of transferring the famine from Ireland to England and giving rise to a counter popular pressure here, which it would be the more difficult to resist because it would be founded on strong considerations of justice.

But I need not remind your lordship that the ability even of the most powerful government is extremely limited in dealing with a social evil of this description. It forms no part of the functions of government to provide supplies of food or to increase the productive powers of the land. In the great institutions of the business of society, it falls to the share of government to protect the merchant and the agriculturist in the free exercise of their respective employments, but not itself to carry on these employments; and the condition of a community depends upon the result of the efforts which each member of it makes in his private and individual capacity. …

In Ireland the habit has proverbially been to follow a precisely opposite course, and the events of the last six weeks furnish a remarkable illustration of what I do not hesitate to call this defective part of the national character. The nobility and the gentry have met in their respective baronies, and beyond making presentments required by law, they have, with rare exceptions, confined themselves to memorials and deputations calling upon the government to do everything, as if they have themselves no part to perform in this great crisis of the country. The government is expected to open shops for the sale of food in every part of Ireland, to make all the railroads in Ireland, and to drain and improve the whole of the land of Ireland, to the extent of superseding the proprietor in the management of his own estate, and arranging with his tenants the terms on which the rent etc. is to be adjusted. …

I must give expression to my feelings by saying that I think I see a bright light shining in the distance through the dark cloud which at present hangs over Ireland. A remedy has already been applied to that portion of the maladies of Ireland which was traceable to political causes, and the morbid habits which still to a certain extent survive are gradually giving way to more healthy action. The deep and inveterate root of social evil remains, and I hope I am not guilty of irreverence in thinking that, this being altogether beyond the power of man, the cure has been applied by the direct stroke of an all-wise Providence in a manner as unexpected and unthought as it is likely to be effectual. God grant that we may rightly perform our part, and not turn into a curse what was intended for a blessing. The ministers of religion and especially the pastors of the Roman Catholic Church, who possess the largest share of influence over the people of Ireland, have well performed their part; and although few indications appear from any proceedings which have yet come before the public that the landed proprietors have even taken the first step of preparing for the conversion of the land now laid down to potatoes to grain cultivation, I do not despair of seeing this class of society still taking the lead which their position requires of them, and preventing the social revolution from being so extensive as it otherwise must become.

Believe me, my dear lord, yours very sincerely,

C. E. Trevelyan. Treasury, 9 October 1846.

Don't know about you but it seems to me that he is taking the land-owners to task for not playing their part. Not surprising really as the Devon Commission Report of 1845 came to the same conclusion – Use of land in Ireland, i.e. how the land was farmed, had to be addressed and tenancy conditions had to be improved to benefit the tenant were reforms that had to be carried out urgently. It was just after this report was presented that the famine first struck.

Government response was to repeal the Corn Laws which had previously made it impossible to import foreign corn and controlled artificially high prices for farmers throughout the United Kingdom including Ireland – because of the repeal of the existing Corn Laws the market set the price for corn and cereals (laissez-faire) but it made it easier and cheaper to import corn from abroad. The second part, to address tenancy issues required the passing of a Catholic Emancipation Act. Peel's Tory Government was split on the first issue and the Corn Laws were repealed only with the help of the Opposition. When the Catholic Emancipation Bill came before the House, the Whigs led by John Russell acted as the Opposition were supposed to and voted against, while certain members of the Tory Party took revenge on Peel for the repeal of the Corn Laws and voted with the Opposition causing Peels Government to collapse. In the ensuing General Election Lord John Russell's Whigs were elected to form a Government. By this stage the situation in Ireland had completely outstripped any possibility of direct aid coping and it became plainly obvious that people did just have to move, or die.

So far I have not heard one single practicable solution that the Government should have or could have followed, that they were not already doing. Were mistakes made? Yes of course they were. Could it have been managed better? With hindsight yes, but this disaster was unprecedented in scale and not one single government on the planet at the time was geared up to cope with it. Was there a deliberate policy of genocide put into practice by the British Government? No of course there wasn't and every indication of what was done supports that. If there was a deliberate policy of genocide in place you do not:

- Spend £9.95 million pounds on relief efforts;

- Directly feed 3 million people (Who you are supposedly trying to kill);

- Put three-quarter of a million people (Who you are trying to kill) on work schemes to provide those people with food and a wage;

- You do not provide subsidised passage to assist emigration;

- You do not increase the number of workhouse places by nearly 30% to look after the poor.