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0 points_Codemonkeyism9y ago0 comments

You are right of course.

One might think though if the famine happened to Britain and not to the "inferior" Irish "race" [see other comments], wether the government would be "letting land owners export food from [Britain] in large quantities to make money".

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JetSetWilly9y ago

I think you are right to some extent, the Irish were definitely "racialised" in 19th century britain and considered essentially subhuman.

There was a potato famine in the Highlands of Scotland as well as Ireland, so it did hit Britain:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Highland_Potato_Famine

And we can see that "prompt and major charitable efforts by the rest of the United Kingdom ensured that there was relatively little starvation" - but that similar to in Ireland, "The terms on which charitable relief was given, however, led to destitution and malnutrition amongst its recipients".

I guess in the mainland UK the scale was far smaller, but it didn't stop an extremely laissez faire and heartless response from government authorities.

_CodemonkeyismOP9y ago

Major point of the Wikipedia article too me looks like most of the help came from Scotland itself,

"The Free Church of Scotland, strong in the affected areas, was prompt in raising the alarm and in organising relief, being the only body actively doing so in late 1846 and early 1847; relief was given regardless of denomination. In February 1847 the (non-governmental) Central Board of Management for Highland Relief, supported by Relief Committees in Edinburgh and Glasgow, took over from the Free Church ; by the end of 1847 the Relief Committees had raised about £210,000 to support relief work."

Looks like your quote from the abstract of "prompt [...] charitable efforts by the rest of the United Kingdom" is contradicted by the "being the only body actively doing so in late 1846 and early 1847" of the main body of the Wikipedia article.

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