A Death-Dealing Famine

Christine Kinealy

Description

Famine expert Christine Kinealy examines the influences that shaped the responses to the Famine of 1845-52.



The key factors she analyses include political ideologies; providentialist ideas that read the potato blight as a judgement from God; opportunistic interpretations; the role of civil servants, Irish landlords and merchants.
1. Introduction

2. The great Hunger in Ireland: Ideologies and Interpretations

3. A State of Degradation The Pre-Famine Ireland-- The Political background, Dispossession and Disunity: Union and Discord: The Pre famine Economy: Poverty, Population and Poor relief

4. Rotten Potatoes and the Politics of relief: Pre Famine Famines: Potatoes and the Coming of the blight: Peel and Politics of repeal: The Provision of relief

5. Putrefying vegetation and Queens Pay: Party Politics and the Triumph of Ideology: The 'Male Roads' and Queens Pay': Food Supplies and Food Exports: Food Shortages and Famine Elsewhere

6. Black 47: The crisis of Starvation: Soup or Starvation: Private Philanthropy

7. The Expatriation of a People: Property Supporting Poverty: The Impact of Famine: The Press and Public opinion

8. A Policy of Extermination: The prodigal Son: The Army of beggars: The flight form Ireland. Emigration: the Cost of Famine

Epilogue: The Famine Killed Everything

Sujets

• HISTORY
• Histoire
• Ireland
• International relations
• History of Europe
• Stephen Ireland
• Europe

Informations

• Publié par: Pluto Press
• Date de parution: 20 mars 1997
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781783714049
• Langue: English

Extrait

A Death-Dealing Famine
A Death-Dealing Famine
The Great Hunger in Ireland
Christine Kinealy
First published 1997 by Pluto Press
345 Archway Road, London N6 5AA
Copyright © Christine Kinealy 1997
The right of Christine Kinealy to be identified as the authors of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Kinealy, Christine.
A death-dealing famine: the great hunger
in Ireland/Christine Kinealy
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 9780745310756 Hardback
ISBN 9780745310749 Paperback
ISBN 9781783711215 PDF eBook
ISBN 9781783714056 Kindle eBook
ISBN 9781783714049 EPUB eBook
1. Famines—Ireland—History—19th century. 2. Ireland– –History—1837–1901. I. Tide. II. Title: Gorta mór.
DA950.7.K56 1997
941.508—dc21
96–49017
CIP
Impression:

99

98

97

5

4

3

2
Designed and produced for Pluto Press by
Chase Production Services, Chadlington, OX7 3LN
Typeset from disk by Stanford DTP Services, Milton Keynes
Printed on Demand in the European Union by
CPI Antony Rowe, Eastbourne, UK
Contents
Acknowledgements
1
The Great Hunger in Ireland. Ideologies and Interpretations
2
‘A State of Degradation’. Pre-Famine Ireland
The Political Background: Dispossession and Disunity
Union and Discord
The Pre-Famine Economy
Poverty, Population and Poor Relief
3
Rotten Potatoes and the Politics of Relief
Pre-Famine Famines
Potatoes and the Coming of Blight
Peel and the Politics of Repeal
The Provision of Relief
4
Putrefying Vegetation and ‘Queen’s Pay’
Party Politics and the Triumph of Ideology
The ‘Male’ Roads and ‘Queen’s Pay’
Food Supplies and Food Exports
Food Shortages and Famine Elsewhere
5
‘Black ’47’
The Crisis of Starvation
Soup or Starvation?
Private Philanthropy
6
‘The Expatriation of a People’
Property Supporting Poverty
The Impact of Famine
The Press and British Public Opinion
7
‘A Policy of Extermination’
The Prodigal Son
‘An Army of Beggars’. The Rate-in-Aid Issue
The Flight from Ireland: Emigration
The Cost of the Famine
Epilogue    ‘The Famine Killed Everything’
Note on Further Reading
Notes
Index
For Kieran, Siobhán and Arthur
Acknowledgements
The research and writing of this book has been made easier and more stimulating thanks to the support and encouragement of a number of people.
I am particularly grateful to Eileen Black, Seán Egan and Diana Newton for reading the text and offering valuable insights. Opinions, interpretations and mistakes are, however, my own.
Special mention is due to Don Mullan of Cait , whose knowledge and experience of contemporary famines has offered a special insight into Ireland’s Great Hunger. Thanks are owed also to Gary White Deer of the Choctaw Nation and Gabriel Byrne for their creative inspiration and their company and sensitivity during the annual AFRI Famine ‘walk’ in Louisburgh.
I have benefited from discussions regarding the Famine with Patricia Brandwood, James Donnelly, Peter Gray, Patrick Hickey, Eamon Kirwan, Brian Lacey, Gerard MacAtasney, Frank Neal, Cormac Ó Gráda, Sean Sexton, Patrick O’Sullivan, Trevor Parkhill, David Sheehy and Roger van Zwanenberg.
The staff and archivists of the various record offices and libraries in Ireland, England and America have shown unfailing courtesy. The staff of the Maritime Archive in Liverpool and the National Library in Dublin deserve special mention.
Hugo Flinn kindly financed part of the research for this book. I am also grateful to the current Earl of Clarendon for permission to cite from the papers of his ancestor.
A number of close friends have played a valuable role in bullying, cajoling and encouraging me. They are Bernadette Barrington, Angela Farrell, Rita Rhodes, Rita Egan, Linda Christiansen and Val Smith. Additional support has come from John Archer, Cormac Behan, John Brandwood, Jenny Buelvas, Morag Egan, Laurie Feehan, Richie Gentry, Tina Hadlow, Bev Harrison, Jo Jones, Pat Jones, Geoffrey Keating, James Kelly, Noel Kissane, Stephen Lalor, Josie McCann, Chris Parker, Jean Parker, Ruth Peel, Christine Tant and Christine Yates.
My research has also brought me into contact with a number of of ‘faminists’ in America and I have been encouraged and enthused by Angela Power, Owen Rodgers, Eileen Crimmins, Aine Grealy, David Burke, James Gallagher, Patrick Campbell, James Mullin, Charlie Laverty, Stuart Healy, Rita Mullan and Father Sean McManus.
To my family a special debt is owed: to my Irish grandparents who never had a chance to be buried in the country of their birth, and to my parents, Andrew and Mabel, who first taught me to love Ireland. Thanks also to Patricia, Bob, Jane, John, Margaret, Carol and Michael.
Finally, but most importantly, I wish to acknowledge my gratitude to those who have lived with me during the writing of this book. My beloved Wicklow collie, Trot, has been my constant companion, listened to all my concerns, and agreed with all my conclusions. Siobhán and Kieran continue to make everything worthwhile. And Arthur, as ever, for his encouragement, insights and Belfast wit.
CHAPTER 1
The Great Hunger in Ireland. Ideologies and Interpretations
The Irish Famine of 1845–52 was a defining event in the history of modern Ireland. Yet until recently it has been the subject of relatively little scholarly research, despite a rich resource of contemporary evidence. Documentary evidence relating to the Famine years is abundant and this has led some historians to identify a historiographical silence from the 1930s to the 1970s. 1 It is only in recent years that researchers have started to access these sources and, as a consequence, more has been written to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the Great Famine than was written in the whole period since 1850. Despite this, the folk memory of the Famine and popular interest have remained strong.
The relative absence of academic research arose partly from ideological struggles concerning the nature and purpose of Irish historical research during the period from 1845 to the present. Even the designation of the Famine has been an area of debate. In popular understanding ‘The Great Famine’ has become the most common sobriquet for the years of devastation and destruction in Ireland. Yet, ‘The Great Hunger’, ‘The Great Starvation’, ‘The Bad Times’, ‘God’s Visitation’, ‘The Great Calamity’, ‘The Irish Holocaust’ and the Irish phrases ‘An Gorta Mór’, ‘An Droch-Shaoghal’ and ‘Bliain an Ghorta’ are all ways of describing the same event, and indicate differences of interpretation and emphasis. Canon O’Rourke, in his early account of the Famine published in 1874, noted that during the course of the Famine, relief committees and government officials avoided using the term ‘famine’, substituting instead ‘distress’, ‘destitution’, ‘dearth of provisions, ‘severe destitution’, ‘calamity’, ‘extreme misery’, and so on. 2 The Irish phrase ‘An Gorta Mór’, meaning ‘The Great Hunger’, is regarded by some as being an accurate description of years of hunger, which were not simply caused by food shortages. For the same reason, the use of the term ‘famine’ is disliked by a number of nationalist commentators on the grounds that between 1845 and 1852, large volumes of food were exported from Ireland as thousands died of starvation. For others, the word ‘holocaust ‘ is too emotive and ascribes too much culpability to the British government. The word is also closely associated with the extermination of the Jews by the Nazis in the twentieth century, although it was used by a number of nineteenth-century commentators when describing the Famine – Michael Davitt, for example, refers to it as ‘the holocaust of humanity’. 3
The historiographical silence and the language of denial employed both during and after the Famine are remarkable in view of the scale of losses suffered by the Irish people during the Famine years. Between 1846 and 1851, at least one million people died out of a base population of over eight million people. To this can be added the high mortality amongst emigrants, which may have accounted for a further 100,000 deaths. Furthermore, many of the survivors of the Famine years experienced shortened lifespans as a consequence of successive years of privation. Overall, the high population losses make the Irish Famine one of the most lethal in modern world history. 4 Even 150 years later, Ireland has not recovered demographically from the consequences of the Famine, and within Europe, Ireland is the only country to have a smaller population than it had in 1840. Psychologically, it is only beginning to be recognised that the scars left by this tragedy have been deep. It is only now, as Ireland emerges with a distinctive and positive identity within Europe, that Irish people throughout the world have been able to come to terms with the impact of these years and define what it means for their culture and history. 5
In view of the enormity of the Famine and the significance of its legacy, the dearth of research until recently is even more surprising. Moreover, since the 1930s, and more overtly since the 1960s, scholarly research has been dominated by what is collectively referred to as a ‘revisionist’ interpretation of Irish history. At its heart this reinterpretation of Irish history aimed at being totally research-driven, objective and value-free. In regard to the Famine though, revisionism explicitly set itself in contrast to a ‘nationalist’ interpretation, which it viewed as politically inspired or judgemental, the antithesis of what the revisionists were trying to achieve. 6 In its more extreme form revisionism has gone down an overtly antinationalist path in its own values. These claims in regard to revisionist interpretation