Irish Famine

The Irish Famine of 1845-49 is one of the biggest events in Irish history, being one of the catalysts for widespread Irish emigration (Specifically to the United States of America, but also to Australia, Britain and South Africa) The level of emigration as a result of this famine meant that almost thirteen percent of Americans can trace their heritage back to the small north Western European island, similar to the amount of African Americans in the United States today. Similarily the Irish Famine had left a massive impact on the Irish countryside; leading directly into the formation of Michael Davitts Land League and that organisations agitation for rural land reform; taking the land away from the large, mainly absentee landlords and putting it in the hands of the rural tenant farmer; a movement which would not reach its ultimate goal for almost six decades.

Background

Ireland in the 1840's had a population of almost eight million, making it one of the most densly populated areas in Europe . About half of the population relied on subsistence farming, based mainly on the Potatoe crop.

The potatoe was ideal for the often damp and poor quality soil of the west of Ireland. It was considered to be the 'lazy crop' one only needed to plant it and allow it to grow with some gentle weeding needed from time to time. Farmers usually spent the rest of their time with a small number of farm animals such as pigs, chickens, geeze and sometimes a few heads of cattle (Although the richer farmers dominated the cattle market). The squalor that many Irish farmers lived in was contrasted starkly with the luxury the Irish Landlord dwelt in the Manor houses; This resentment resulted in widespread looting and murders during the famine years and after.

Origins

The Potatoe Blight, a disease which affected potatoes in an almost encroaching manner (Potatoes were normal immediately after they were dug up - the Blight affected them in that they would deteroriate hours later after they had cultivated) hit the Irish subsistence farmer terribly. Although the disease first appeared in the South of England, it later spread to Ireland and had a much more disastrous effect there as there was little divergence in terms of crops grown throughout the Irish countryside.

Differences of opinion on the nature and severity of the potatoe crop dominated debates in Westminster as Peel looked to repeal the Corn laws, and events in Ireland persuaded him to act at once. The Irish Famine quickly became a political fiasco in the House of Commons - members of Peel's own Whig Party who were avid protectionists seized on every favourable report concerning the Irish famine and denounced the rest as exaggerations. Westminster's growing impotence in relation to dealing with the problem in their western province was slowly mobilising an anti-English attitude in the Irish countryside - paving the way for the 1848 Young Ireland rebellion and creating a whole new breed of Irish political activist - the Fenian.

Reaction of the government

Peel did not let party interests stem his desire to prevent widespread death as a result of the famine. In early November 1845 he organised the purchase of one hundred thousand pounds worth of Indian corn in the United States to be shipped to Ireland in order to supplement the rapidly decreasing food supply. He did not wish to hand out this food for nothing but believed that by selling it cheaply he could cut out extorianate prices charged due to the lack of food in the country and prevent opportunistic profiteering. He placed his main reliance however on private charity of the local gentry and professional classes and a relief commission set up to establish local committee's, which would raise funds and distribute food.

At the same time a board of works would embark on a massive new road construction programme to provide employment for the rural poor - this eventually culminated in the much dispised 'famine walls' built up throughout the country, but particularly in the hills and mountains of the west of Ireland where walls were built solely to provide work to peasants in return for food. More often than not these stone walls provided no economic or infrastructural basis, but were built anyway.

Another aspect of the relief programme was the development of the workhouses. Although not prevalent in the early part of the Famine, the workhouses became notorious later on as the government lost its grip on controlling the famine and preventing starvation. The workhouses contained whole families, many of which were split up and rarely met each other again during their stay in what some people regarded to be nothing more than sanitoriums. Disease was rampant due to poor hygiene and overcrowding and a rigid discipline structure was implemented as thousands died in these landlord-promoted workhouses throughout the country.

Nevertheless, during the first season of the famine from Autumn 1845 - Summer 1846 the governments measures were succesful in that little to no-one died of starvation in Ireland. As the famine progressed, these early successes would turn out to be nothing more than a brief respite of the apalling spread of disease and malnutrition throughout the country which was prevalent for the remaining famine years.

The Blight struck again in August 1846; and this was when despair became absolute. The weather had been warm in the months preceding the harvest and hopes were high both in Ireland and in Westminster that the Blight had run its course and that the Potatoe would be saved. This was not so, and the former Prime Minister Peel - strongly in favour of direct help to the Irish people - had been ousted by the new Prime Minister Lord John Russell. The politics of the era was that of a Laissez Faire government policy - that is, that the government was not well placed and neither should it be well placed to offer disaster relief. Relief operations which were profitable to enterprising individuals were not interfered with by government forces and this hampered efforts to truly solve some of the problems in the Irish countryside. Drainage and reclamation of farmland were but two possible solutions to the crisis - solutions that the government had no intention of persuing. Russel wrote in October 1846:

It must be understood... That we cannot feed the people

Economic realities in Rural Ireland

This government impotence, although partly driven by a capitalist based ideology was also fueled by an ignorance in the economic makeup of the Irish countryside. The Irish tenant farmer rarely handled money - he paid for his rent through his labour. He rarely used money in the purchase of food and whatsmore, being paid a money wage in public works programmes was useless unless supplemented by a retail food distribution system for him to pay money for his food which was sorely lacking in the Irish countryside.

Another economic reality was that the Landlords simply could not cope with the large amount of starving peasants on their lands. Some landlords capitalised on this by wholesale evictions of tenants. In many cases, the Landlords lived outside their means - their were routinely paying large mortgages, with their incomes regularly spent on interest repayments. They too relied on the tenant farmer to work their lands and pay them crops for resale - without them they were running the risk of being bankrupted due to the tenants inability to pay rents. The landlords as a whole supported using British taxpayers money for famine relief, insisting that if Ireland was to be considered an intengral part of the British Empire, it should be relieved by the citizens of the British empire, not the Protestant Ascendancy.

The governments ineptitude and the Landlords inability to help resulted in widespread religious charity. Protestant groups especially set up soup kitchens for the Irish tenants - the Quakers were particularly well regarded in this role, although Methodists and other well meaning Protestant denominations provided relief. The Catholic Church has long been criticised for its (lack of) aid to the troubled Irish peasantry during the famine, recounted in works of fiction and non fiction throughout the age . The Quakers did some extraordinary relief work, helping raise awareness in Britain about the plight of the Irish tenant farmer, and thus helping and persuading enlightened individuals throughout the Empire to raise funds and set up organisations to help the tenants. For many years after the famine, families which had accepted help from the Quakers were often called 'Soupers' and regarded as traitors of the Catholic faith