Historical fact : ...no issue has provoked so much anger or so embittered relations between the two countries (England and Ireland) as the indisputable fact that huge quantities of food were exported from Ireland to England throughout the period when the people of Ireland were dying of starvation. ----- Original Message ----- From: "donkelly" <ocollaugh@comcast.net> To: <irelandgenweb@rootsweb.com> Sent: Wednesday, October 01, 2008 11:05 PM Subject: Re: [Irish Genealogy] Great Famine: British Government 1845-46 -PrimeMinister Robert PEEL's Response - Corn Laws > > Historically true. Potatoes were the only crops that failed. Corn, wheat > and other crops did not fail and there was plenty of food there. It may or > may not be true that the Irish farmers sold their produce to England while > their countrymen/women/children, were starving. > > -- > don kelly > > -------------- Original message ---------------------- > From: "Dot" <dot@naturalhealth.fsbusiness.co.uk> >> I am sorry I had to laugh to myself at this a little. Hundreds of >> thousands >> of poor Irish died in the potato famine - as anyone will know who has >> visited Ireland and see the graves. I think this is an example of the >> English massaging the facts a little! What it doesnt say is - most of >> the >> food subsidies went to the Protestants (which were mainly powerful >> English >> families and Scots) and the Catholics were left to starve. >> >> Dot xx >> >> ----- Original Message ----- >> From: "Jean R." <jeanrice@cet.com> >> To: <IrelandGenWeb-L@rootsweb.com> >> Cc: <TRANSCRIPTIONS-EIRE-L@rootsweb.com> >> Sent: Monday, September 29, 2008 6:29 PM >> Subject: [Irish Genealogy] Great Famine: British Government 1845-46 - >> PrimeMinister Robert PEEL's Response - Corn Laws >> >> >> > >> > SNIPPET: "Scenes of starvation were commonplace in Ireland by the end >> > of >> > 1846, but they had been a year in the making. Actual starvation had >> > been >> > averted at first, when the British government under Prime Minister >> > Robert >> > PEEL moved aggressively to counter the potato famine in 1845. PEEL was >> > an >> > old hand on matters Irish; he had been the government's chief secretary >> > in >> > Ireland, which meant that he was responsible for implementing >> > government >> > policy on the island. One of those policies was the introduction of a >> > police force to keep watch over the rebellious Irish, and so even today >> > it >> > is not unusual to hear the police referred to as "peelers." PEEL had >> > received an early warning of the potential disaster in Ireland when >> > potatoes >> > on the Continent and in England failed several times before the blight >> > was >> > detected in Ireland. While the potato was notoriously fickle, any >> > report >> > of >> > its failure was bound to be greeted with apprehension, for even in >> > England, >> > the poor depended on the potato as a twice-a-day staple. In Ireland, >> > the >> > poor had nothing else, as everyone from prime minister to farm laborer >> > knew. >> > An Irish newspaper referred to the potato as 'the poor man's >> > property' -- >> > the only property the poor owned. William GLADSTONE, the future >> > British >> > leader, understood what might happen: "Ireland, Ireland, that cloud in >> > the >> > West, that coming storm," he wrote. When it came, its winds lashing >> > Britain's political establishment, PEEL and his Conservative Party >> > government scrambled to build makeshift shelters. They quickly ordered >> > supplies of American corn shipped to Ireland, where the food was held >> > in >> > depots for eventual sale to the Irish poor. Public works projects, >> > usually >> > consisting of road building, were devised to give employment to men, >> > women, >> > and children, many of them so weak they could barely expend the energy, >> > but >> > all so desperate that they flocked to the projects. More dramatically, >> > PEEL >> > proposed a genuinely radical and politically courageous reform. For >> > years, >> > British farmers (and, more to the point, British landowners) had >> > enjoyed >> > government sanctioned protections in the form of high taxes on imported >> > grain. The so-called Corn Laws were a linchpin of Britain's >> > agricultural >> > economy and indeed its social structure, for the land-owning >> > aristocrats >> > profited immensely from protection against foreign competition, >> > allowing >> > them to charge artificially high prices for their grain. Those landed >> > aristocrats also happened to be the core of PEEL's party. The prime >> > minister, however, decided that the Corn Laws would have to go, that >> > the >> > emergency in Ireland demanded nothing less. Free trade would lower >> > grain >> > prices and encourage shipments to Ireland, where bread and other grain >> > products could take the potato's place. PEEL told his cabinet that the >> > government could no longer in good conscience purchase corn from >> > America >> > for >> > Ireland while a set of laws kept the price of food artificially high. >> > His >> > colleagues were appalled. As reports of dreadful, though not yet >> > fatal, >> > conditions in Ireland continued to pour into London, the cabinet >> > debated, >> > revolted, and adjourned; then debated, revolted, and adjourned again >> > without >> > taking action, even as conditions in Ireland worsened. But this was no >> > act >> > of callousness, for what PEEL proposed was nothing short of >> > revolutionary. >> > So much of what his colleagues held dear was intertwined with the Corn >> > Laws. >> > Their social, political, and economic dominance was held in place by >> > the >> > artificial prosperity of government-guaranteed profits from the land. >> > Just >> > before Christmas in 1845, PEEL paid the ultimate political price for >> > his >> > courage. With his own cabinet against him, he resigned. QUEEN >> > VICTORIA >> > asked the opposition leader, John RUSSELL, to form a Whig government, >> > but >> > he >> > could not do so because his own party, though pledged to reform the >> > Corn >> > Laws, also was divided on the issue. PEEL once again became prime >> > minister >> > (even though a parliamentary colleague declared that he ought to die an >> > unnatural death) and found himself forced to work with the Whigs to win >> > reforms -- all in the name of saving the Irish poor. He won the battle >> > in >> > June 1846, and shortly thereafter his enemies in both parties combined >> > to >> > oust him once and for all from the prime minister's office. His career >> > was >> > ruined, a casualty of the Irish Famine. Under PEEL, nobody died of >> > starvation in Ireland, though many suffered. With the change of >> > administration in London, however, the situation in Ireland would >> > change, >> > too. In early July 1846, a shipload of American corn was turned away >> > from >> > Ireland on orders of the man PEEL had appointed to oversee relief >> > operations >> > in Ireland. Charles TREVELYAN was a devoutly religious and hardworking >> > young man in his late thirties, and while he owed his assignment to >> > PEEL's >> > patronage, he strongly disagreed with his approach to easing the >> > crisis. >> > In >> > TREVELYAN's eyes, the Famine quite literally was a God-sent opportunity >> > to >> > reorder Irish society. With PEEL out of office, TREVELYAN began to put >> > his >> > own stamp on Britain's response to Ireland's misery. He and the new >> > prime >> > minister, John RUSSELL, were much more compatible. As the new potato >> > crop >> > neared harvest in late July 1846, all seemed well, and it appeared as >> > though >> > the suffering would soon be at an end. TREVELYAN began shutting down >> > relief >> > operations in anticipation of an abundant harvest. Like so many of his >> > peers, TREVELYAN believed that government should not meddle with the >> > marketplace, for the market was nothing less than a reflection of God's >> > will. As TREVELYAN closed up the food depots, he argued that it was >> > "the >> > only way to prevent people from becoming habitually dependent on >> > government." Almost overnight, in early August, the promised harvest, >> > the >> > anticipated salvation, was ruined. The potatoes of Ireland turned >> > black >> > and >> > rancid, and the fields smelled of death itself. Disaster had returned, >> > and >> > now the suffering would be fatal thousands of times of over. A police >> > official wrote: 'A stranger would wonder how these wretched beings >> > find >> > food ... They sleep in their rags and have pawned their bedding.' >> > Landlords >> > began evicting their tenants, sending families into the countryside >> > with >> > nothing save the rags they wore on their backs. The eviction process >> > was >> > stark in its brutality: An eviction party, usually accompanied by >> > constables, arrived to serve notice and, to underscore the point, pull >> > down >> > the roof of the tenant's cottage. The Irish countryside was filled >> > with >> > scenes of families, desperate and weeping, scrambling to retrieve what >> > they >> > could as the eviction party proceeded with its work. After the cottage >> > was >> > razed, most had nowhere else to go. And it was just beginning. The >> > bureaucrats and politicians in London, charged as they were with seeing >> > to >> > it that the Irish people did not become dependent on government >> > assistance, >> > took a decidedly unemotional view of the suffering. TREVELYAN >> > continued >> > with the work he had begun in midsummer, when the potato crop had held >> > such >> > promise. He continued to shut down government-run food depots and >> > public >> > works projects ...." -- Excerpts, "The Irish In America," Coffey & >> > Golway >> > (1997). >> > >> > Check out the Ireland GenWeb website at: http://www.irelandgenweb.com/ >> > It is a good place to get help with your family research. >> > Help wanted: County Coordinators >> > ------------------------------- >> > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to >> > IRELANDGENWEB-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without >> > the >> > quotes in the subject and the body of the message >> > >> > >> >> >> >> Check out the Ireland GenWeb website at: http://www.irelandgenweb.com/ >> It is a good place to get help with your family research. >> Help wanted: County Coordinators >> ------------------------------- >> To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to >> IRELANDGENWEB-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without >> the >> quotes in the subject and the body of the message > > Check out the Ireland GenWeb website at: http://www.irelandgenweb.com/ > It is a good place to get help with your family research. > Help wanted: County Coordinators > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to > IRELANDGENWEB-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the > quotes in the subject and the body of the message > >