More pointless, massive, self-contradictory, unattributed, cut'n'pastes then Christmas? Pity that you couldn't master the art of presenting them just a little bit better.

No such commandment by the way as - "Thou shalt not kill". The correct translation of that commandment is - "Thou shalt not do murder" - The former would prohibit and deny all, the essential and basic right of every living creature on this earth that of self-defence.

1666 eh funny that after that extended, and hardly harmonious, period of Cromwell's rule throughout the British Isles all the farmers and land-owners in Ireland suddenly have to be viewed as being Irish because of aid they sent to London (All those fat cattle). Yet when it comes to the Famine all the evil land owners and farmers in Ireland are English. By the bye Christmas there is a very good reason why aid was sent from Ireland to London in 1666, but I doubt that you would ever discover it, or ever own up to the reason for it.

"Carlyle first visited Ireland for four days in 1846, …………… [then again] ……….. made a comprehensive tour of Ireland in 1849 during which he visited a Westport workhouse [Along with its subsidiary workhouses and outdoor relief].

I thought you said that these had all been closed down Christmas??

Soup kitchens?? They'd been shut down too hadn't they? Yet during Black '47 and onwards until the famine was over they kept 3 million alive, hardly the deliberate act of genocide eh?

"The Poor Law Extension Act (1847) was the spawn of two conflicting ideological parents: one maintained that Irish property should pay for Irish poverty; die other that, for both ideological and economic reasons, relief should not be given outside the workhouse walls."

You say that Trevelyan pushed this through and strictly adhered to it yet as Carlyle found in 1849 those receiving aid amounted to 200,000 inside workhouses and "outdoor relief" was being given to a further 800,000 - so much for relief not being given outside workhouse walls.

Article 2 of the UN Convention on Genocide 1948 - has what relevance in discussing the events of one hundred years before? - Rhetorical question Christmas - IT HAS NONE.

Shorter Oxford Dictionary definition of Genocide = "The (attempted) deliberate and systematic extermination of an ethnic or national group".

The policies adopted by the two British Governments in power between 1845 and 1851 could be described in many ways - "deliberate" and "systematic" - would not top the list of adjectives used to describe them.

Neither Government did anything to prevent extra food from being imported to Ireland. The 1815 Corn Laws were repealed to specifically allow this. Here by the way are the figures for grain exports from and imports into Ireland between 1844 and 1848 (Expressed in thousands of tons):

1844 - Exported 424 - Imported 30 - Non-famine year Corn Laws in place
1845 - Exported 513 - Imported 28 - Famine struck late in year, Corn Laws in place
1846 - Exported 284 - Imported 197 - First full year of the famine Corn Laws repealed
1847 - Exported 146 - Imported 889 - Black '47 Corn Laws repealed
1848 - Exported 314 - Imported 439

In the Highlands and Western isles of Scotland where the Famine struck just as hard as it did in the West of Ireland and lasted for a longer period (Until 1857), Scotland received only one-sixth of the relief given to Ireland.

The cause and nature of the blight was not understood at the time and an effective fungicide capable of combating the blight was not discovered until 1882. At the time in question there were no cures for common relapsing fevers, typhus or cholera, if Victoria's husband Prince Albert and the King and the heir to the throne of Portugal could die from contracting typhoid then what chance did anyone else have?

Purely a matter of perception in the Irish mind, particularly in the mind of Irish Americans, but what Keith states is true the point with regard to British Policy amounting to deliberate Genocide IS DISPUTED among historians of all shades who have studied the subject. Studies and works by modern historians have resulted in great doubt being cast on the conclusions reached in earlier works such as Cecil Woodham-Smith's "The Great Hunger" (Which Christmas I still think is a very good book).

The two Governments in power in Great Britain in the period 1845 to 1851 did more in terms of relief efforts and aid programmes than any other Government of any other country affected in Europe, yet you do not hear accusations of genocide leveled in any of the German States, in Russia, the Netherlands, France, Denmark or Norway. Within the British Isles themselves there have been no accusations of genocide voiced by the Scots who suffered a famine no less severe and more prolonged than the Irish. Odd isn't it that those historians asked to study the period were asked to do so just prior to the 150 anniversary of Black '47 and they were all Americans (Couldn't possibly have anything to do with marketing could it?).

In 1984 famine struck in Ethiopia it affected 8 million people, forcibly displaced millions and killed ~1 million (Any parallels in terms of scale?). In 1845 not a single Government in the world could have coped with what happened in Ireland. In 1985 not even a well co-ordinated effort by a combination of the richest countries in the world aided by every modern means of communication, transport, distribution, and with unlimited medical and financial resources managed to cope with what was unfolding in Ethiopia - was that a case of genocide on their part? The austerity measures recently forced upon the Irish Government by the IMF and the EU Commissioners that caused widespread unemployment particularly among the youth of Ireland prompting them to move abroad in an effort to find work - was that "ethnic cleansing" was that "genocide"?

Anyone studying the period and the subject objectively will view all the data and not just the bits that suit any preconceived ideas. They will not witter on about workhouse closures and ignore the fact that there were 30% more workhouses in Ireland in 1851 than there were in 1845. They will not parrot complete and utter crap about food exports and ignore the food imports that kept over 3 million Irish men, women and children alive in the worst year of the famine. They will not blithely dismiss as irrelevant and unimportant the complexities of the situation as it constantly evolved or difficulties that had to be overcome in terms of communications, planning and logistics.