The Legacy of the Great Famine (Irish: An Gorta Mór[1] or An Drochshaol, litt: The Bad Life) follows a period of Irish history between 1845 and 1852[2] during which time the population of Ireland was reduced by 20 to 25 percent.[3]
The famine was a watershed in the history of Ireland.[4] Its effects permanently changed the island's demographic, political and cultural landscape. For both the native Irish and those in the resulting diaspora, the famine entered folk memory[5] and became a rallying point for various nationalist movements. Modern historians regard it as a dividing line in the Irish historical narrative, referring to the preceding period of Irish history as "pre-Famine."
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Political reaction resulting from the Great Irish Famine was muted, because of the extremely limited electoral franchise that existed at the time. While Irish politics in the 1820s to 1840s had been dominated by the Catholic Emancipation and "Repeal" movements under Daniel O'Connell, it was not until the 1880s under Charles Stewart Parnell, nearly forty years after the Famine, that a major Irish nationalist political movement, the Home Rule League (later known as the 'Parliamentary Party') appeared. Parnell was also instrumental in establishing the Irish Land League, to achieve land reform. (The Independent Irish Party, formed in June 1852, disintegrated within four years, but it was in major decline from 1853 when tenants benefited from a recovery in agricultural prices.)
Outside the mainstream, too, reaction was slow. The 1848 Young Ireland rebellion under Thomas Davis, though occurring at the start of the Famine, was hardly impacted upon by the Famine, as much as by the clash between the "constitutional" nationalism and Catholicism of O'Connell and the pluralist republicanism of Davis. Another rebellion would not occur again until the 1860s under the Fenians/Irish Republican Brotherhood. Historians have speculated that, such was the economic and social impact on Ireland, the nation was numbed into inaction for decades afterwards; in other words, that politics mattered less to people than survival after the traumatic experiences of the late 1840s and early 1850s.
Though its electorate was a small part of the population (as elsewhere in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland), those Irish privileged to vote up continued until the mid-1880s to vote for the two major British political parties, the Conservatives and the Liberals, with more votes and seats going to the latter, even though it had been the party of government during the Famine. Because of the skewed franchise, a large body of voters continued to vote for Unionists, who wished to maintain the Union that joined Britain and Ireland.
The British Royal Family avoided some censure, due to their relative impotence in political affairs. Although some believed the myth that Queen Victoria (known in Ireland in later decades as the "Famine Queen") had only donated a miserly £5 to famine relief, in fact the sum was £2,000, the equivalent of £61,000 today, from her personal resources. She also was patron of a charity that fundraised. On instruction of the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland Victoria made what was largely seen as a propaganda visit of 1849. However, this visit was conducted under stringent security measures and was not free from protests or controversy. The amount of money lavished on her visit by the Dublin Castle administration was greater to her own personal contributions to famine relief (one banquet, for instance, cost over £5,000) and the official celebrations surrounding her visit were compared to the act of "illuminating a graveyard" in a newspaper editorial at the time.[6]
If the political elite in Ireland remained tolerant of British political parties and the monarchy, emigrants were not so. Many Irish emigrants to the United States quickly associated with separatist republican groups and organisations like the IRB. The political liberties and freedom of opportunity they encountered in the States confirmed for them the potential of an independent Ireland and often made them more passionate and optimistic than some of their brethren at home.
The Famine and its causes became a major platform for emigrant anger, as it was the main cause for most of them being emigrants in the first place. John Mitchel, a journalist by trade (who had written for Thomas Davis's newspaper, The Nation before leaving to set up his own paper, only to be arrested, tried for sedition and transported to the penal colony of Van Diemen's Land) proved to be a superb campaigner against British rule in Ireland. Analysing the famine, he wrote:
| “ | The Almighty indeed sent the potato blight but the English created the famine... a million and half men, women and children were carefully, prudently and peacefully slain by the English government. They died of hunger in the midst of abundance which their own hands created.[7] John Mitchel |
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Mitchel's commentary expressed the anger felt by many emigrants, who saw themselves as the dispossessed, forced from Ireland by a famine they blamed on Britain's slow reaction. The famine became a constant issue with Irish Americans, who to an extent unrivalled among other emigrant communities in the United States, remained emotionally attached to their native land. Leaders such as John Devoy in later decades came to play a major role in supporting Irish independence. It was no accident that the President of Dáil Éireann, Éamon de Valera in 1920 chose to travel to the United States, not elsewhere, in his efforts to get the Irish Republic recognised and accepted, or that when Michael Collins launched special bonds to fund the new Republic, many were sold to Irish Americans.
A claim was made by a U.S. professor of law, Francis A. Boyle that the Famine was genocide by the British against the Irish, meaning that the famine was part of a deliberate policy of planned extermination. One U.S. historian, James Mullin, insists that what happened can be described as genocide, sometimes accusing other historians, statisticians and researchers who state otherwise of pushing a British point of view, or of revisionism, rewriting history to make excuses for British imperialism.[8] However more U.S., British and Irish historians, such as Professors F.S.L. Lyons, John A. Murphy, Roy Foster, and James S. Donnelly, Jr, as well as historians Cecil Woodham-Smith, Peter Gray, Ruth Dudley Edwards and Cormac Ó Gráda have denied claims of a deliberate policy of genocide. All historians generally agree that British policies during the Famine (particularly those applied by the ministry of Lord John Russell) were misguided, ill-informed and counter-productive, and that had a similar crisis occurred in England instead of Ireland then the government's response would have been very different.
"Democide", a recently coined term, has been suggested to be more appropriate — referring to a deliberate policy of negligence rather of planned extermination.[9] The famine killed one million Irish through hunger and related diseases such as cholera. A million others emigrated during the famine, with millions more following them in the following decades. The vast majority of these people were Roman Catholic, traditionally less inclined towards loyalty to the Crown.
While it could easily be said that the famine and its after-effects ended conclusively any chance of Ireland ever being a military or economic threat to Britain again, it should be also noted that the famine's long term demographic effects were less the result of deaths from starvation (which, as with most famines, affected the old, the very young and the sick disproportionately) and more the result of emigration (which affected the young population of reproductive age). It seems almost certain that economic factors alone would have caused considerable emigration from Ireland even without mass starvation, therefore it is a matter of conjecture as to what the population of Ireland would be today had there not been a famine in the 19th century.
Ireland commemorated the 150th anniversary of the Great Famine in the 1990s. It was a contrast, in many ways, with the 100th anniversary in the 1940s. Then, only a few commemorations were held—the most significant of which was a commissioned volume of Famine history edited by R. Dudley Edwards and T. Desmond Williams (though not published until 1956), and the 'Famine Survey' undertaken by the Irish Folklore Commission in 1945. It may still have been too traumatic an experience; the children of many Famine survivors were still alive, as indeed were some born during the Famine period. The 1990s marked a significant shift in attitudes towards commemorating the Famine, as hundreds of events took place in Ireland and throughout the Irish diaspora, some of which received sponsorship from the National Famine Commemoration Committee based in the Department of the Taoiseach, led by TD Avril Doyle. At the Great Famine Event held in Millstreet, a statement from British Prime Minister Tony Blair was read aloud, apologising for the failure of past British governments to adequately address the crisis.[10] A large amount of new famine studies were produced, many detailing for the first time local experiences. Historians re-examined all aspects of the Famine experience; from practical issues like the number of deaths and emigrants, to the long-term impact it had on society, sexual behaviour, land holdings, property rights and the entire Irish identity. In 2010 Britain failed to send a diplomatic representative to the opening of the National Famine Commemoration, while 14 other nations did.[11]
The Famine is also commemorated in song, both from the period and from modern times. The famous modern song on the famine is "The Fields of Athenry", by Pete St. John. Written in three verses, it deals with a fictitious but realistic story of "Michael" being deported to Botany Bay for stealing corn to feed his starving family. Performed in folk, traditional and even reggae versions, it is often sung by supporters of Glasgow's Celtic F.C., many of whom are of Irish descent. The song itself sums up the sense of despair, anger and bitterness of famine victims. The song was also covered by Boston punk rock band, the Dropkick Murphys on their 2003 Blackout album.
Luka Bloom's song 'Forgiveness' from his album Salty Heaven is sung from the point of view of an Irish Famine refugee who has relocated to Canada and who despite his suffering has chosen forgiveness over bitterness.
Luka Bloom's brother Christy Moore also has a song, written by Bloom but recorded by Moore, called 'The City of Chicago,' that chronicles the effects of the Famine and the subsequent mass emigration.
Pagan metal band Primordial also have a song about the Famine named "The Coffin Ships" on their 2005 album The Gathering Wilderness.
Another related song is "Famine" by Sinéad O'Connor, released on the Universal Mother album. The lyrics[12] emphasize the political aspect of the famine.
Ireland has been at the forefront of international famine relief. In 1985 Bob Geldof, Irish rock star and founder of Live Aid, revealed that the people of Ireland had given more to his fundraising efforts per head of population than any other nation in the world. Irish NGOs Goal, Concern, Trócaire and Gorta play a central role in helping famine victims throughout Africa. In 2000, Bono, lead singer with Irish band U2, played a central role in campaigning for debt relief for African nations in the Jubilee 2000 campaign. The Irish famine experience continues to influence many Irish people in their attitudes towards the developing world and famine victims everywhere.
Great Famine, 1845–1852 · Legacy of the Great Famine · 1879 famine
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