"Do you think the Irish are the only people to be victims? "
Have I ever suggested they are?
The Clearances were as much an atrocity as was the handling of the famine but the comparison of natural disasters in other parts of the world is frankly ridiculous
At the time of both British events the British Empire was the wealthiest in the world with the ability to feed the starving Scots and Irish without even going to the bank
Not only did it not do so but it continued to ship food out of Ireland for profit and refuse to open the locked warehouses that contained enough food to feed the population for the duration of the Famine
Tenant families who were unable to pay rents because of the crop failure were evicted, turned out on the road and left homeless in their many thousands - some survived by scraping out shelters in the fields, others died by the roadsides
The alternatives offered to the Irish were emigrate or die - ethnic cleansing at best, but in fact genocide
In the last twenty years documented evidence has now been published which indicates that this was a deliberate policy on the part of the British to solve 'The Irish Question'
The man appointed to handle famine relief. Sir Charles Trevelyan, hated the Irish and described the Famine as "God's punishment" for their evil nature
He closed relief workhouses and forced those who could afford to, to buy food at market prices, (Laissez-faire)leaving those who couldn't under the care of woefully ill-equipped charities like the Quakers to bear the brunt of the burden
Protestant charities operated a "souper" system - "we'll feed you if you change your religion."
You spoiled your perfectly sensible question with your usually insulting innuendo and accusation - you really will never learn, will you?
I do not seek to "denigrate" the English - I condemn outright the murderous policies of its administrations, including those wielded against English working people
IThe only hatred I have seen expressed against the English i that by the contributors to this forum who describe its workers as layabouts not fit to be educated, its hospital patients as malingerers as bed-blockers, and its peple as a whole as potential itinerant labour if there is no work in their own place of residence
The hatred of the English people as proposed on this forum regularly as now reached racist proportions
Nigel
You are right of course - the Church reluctantly removed the ban on cremation in the early sixties - the position remained as I have described in Ireland until the Church began to lose its power following the cherical rape scandals
There are still only five crematoriums as Jowe pointed out three have emerged since the Clerical abuse scandal
THe church here is now attempting to prevent to scatter the ashes of the deceased over the sea or mountains, or any other place the deceased might have requested
They even do battle with the dead in their efforts to stay in control
Jim Carroll