The great famine was an ecological accident that became a human tradegy. Yhis was due to the level of poverty in rural ireland and not due to the failure of relief. discuss

The potato blight entered Ireland in 1845, “The great accident of nature that struck beginning in 1845 was a raging epidemic of the fungal disease ‘phytopthora infestans’, commonly known as potato blight or potato murrain”. From the very beginning this posed a huge threat to Irish agriculture and was of course a huge worry for the Irish people. As mentioned earlier the potato crop catered for almost two thirds of the population acting as their main staple food. A threat to this crop ultimately meant a threat to thousands of lives. The Irish were ignorant as to where the fungus came from with numerous theories circling the country. According to Donnelly one such theory was that the disease came on a ship from South America, which brought potatoes from Peru to Ireland, which also had fertiliser on board. Although the exact source of the disease is unknown, on entering the country the disease spread rapidly wiping out approximately half of the potato crop in Ireland in the first year. “In 1847 it was believed that due to the potato blight, the size of the potato crop in Ireland was only approximately 284,000 acres compared to the some 2,516,000 acres of the potato crop in 1845”. It was evident that the ecological accident was quickly becoming a huge disaster. “Fields which had been healthy and luxuriant one day, a mass of diseased plants the next”. Although ‘Phytopthora Infestans’ infected thousands of potato crops, resulting in their failure, it did not cause a Famine.  “Natural factors cause crop failures, but human beings cause Famines”. Therefore the Famine was an ecological accident that became a human tragedy, the remainder of this essay is devoted to a look at how this was not solely due to the level of poverty in rural Ireland at the time but due to the failure of relief.

It is quite clear that the limitations of relief given to Ireland at a time when the country was in dire straits were the main reasons for such a human tragedy. To put it in simple terms, in 1845 Ireland was a very weak, destitute country that relied enormously on the potato crop on a daily basis for food. Therefore when this crop was virtually taken away from them they were left extremely economically vulnerable with little food leading to a starving population. A population, whose ordinary food is wheat and beef, can do without it in periods of scarcity and resort to cheaper kinds of food such as potatoes, barley and oats. But those who are entirely dependant on potatoes live upon the extreme verge of human subsistence and when they are deprived of their staple food there is nothing cheaper to resort to. This was the case in Ireland, which led to beggary and starvation in many cases. Due to the Act of Union, Britain and Ireland had strong political ties. Under the Act it was Britain’s   duty to help Ireland especially in such circumstances. Britain was one of the richest countries in the world at the time, there was no doubt that the British government was in a good position to offer financial aid. Unfortunately this aid was embarrassingly limited; there was a lack of quick thinking and decisive action on behalf of the British government. The extent of the Famine could have been prohibited if the correct measures were taken by the British government, food supplies should have been delivered without delay and relief work should have been taken more seriously. The next paragraph portrays the relief given by the British government under Peel’s rule.

Britain always believed that it was superior to Ireland, thus fuelling Britain’s down grading perception of the Irish and of Ireland. They looked upon the Irish as being lazy and fond of over-breeding. However due to the Act of Union the British government were responsible for the Irish people in their time of need.  The relief given can be considered in four phases, the first phase under Prime Minister Peel and the following three under Prime Minister Russell. Peel was slow to react as he felt that the Irish might be exaggerating their poor conditions. “Peel apparently believed that all reports from the executive in Ireland needed careful scrutiny because a haze of exaggeration covered Dublin Castle like a fog”. Eventually he took action and despite the Corn Laws and import duties he quietly purchased a quantity of Indian corn from the United States, “Among the earliest measures was the secret purchase of 100,000 worth of Indian corn and meal in the United States through the agency of Baring Bro’s and Co.”. The corn was then sold to the Irish at a cheap rate and only in cases of severe hardship was it dole out free. Although this was a great move on Peel’s behalf the corn supplies were inadequate, especially in remote parts of western Ireland. And where it was plentiful, there was a shortage of money to purchase it. Peel also tried to give the Irish people relief through the Public Works Act. Through this he hoped to employ the poor, allowing them to buy food with their earnings. “Public Works was undertaken to provide employment and thus to furnish the money that the destitute need to buy food”. The work carried out by the labourers was very hands on with them developing harbours and piers, and working on roads. The relief worked well with approximately 140,000 people given work at some stage. Some British government officials felt that Peel was spending too much on the Irish and in 1846 Peel went out off office. Peel innocently believed that few if any people died of starvation during his management of the crisis. Although he made many efforts to help the Irish people he did not do enough, more corn was needed and at a much faster rate than was possible. Also food aid was too expensive for many families resulting from them not benefiting from the relief at all. Russell was next to administer the famine relief, however things weren’t looking good. Russell became Prime Minister in 1846. Soon afterwards the potato blight reappeared; there was a complete failure of the potato crop leaving Russell with little time to implement a plan. He decided that he wasn’t going to get involved with the grain markets at this led to too many complications in relation to tariffs. Russell believed that the only way forward for the Irish people was for them to receive employment thus allowing them to earn money. He did so by introducing the Renewed Public works Act.  Many felt that this was a bad decision on Russell’s behalf as continuing Peel’s policy of supplying food to the destitute would have been a more intelligent option. “Superficially a more active government food policy would appear to have offered a better solution”. Russell also expected Irish landlords to pay for Irish relief, “Irish property must support Irish poverty”. Although the public Works system generated a lot of employment for the poor, many died as a result of starvation and exhaustion. It was by no means the correct form of action, people were starving and food was their main concern. Disappointedly Russell didn’t agree with hand-outs, he thought that the Irish people should work for their bread.

In the spring of 1847 the British government decided to establish a system of free soup kitchens. From the beginning approximately 944, 372 impoverished people were relieved from starvation by receiving free soup daily.  The destitute got soup for free and those earning were allowed to purchase it. The soup kitchens were only slowly established due to bureaucratic regulations . However after a few months the scheme proved to be making progress with thousands of lives being saved. The scheme did have its negative effects. It was usually of poor nutritious value and of poor quality. In some cases the soup was contaminated. This highlights the lack of funds that were pumped into the scheme; thousands of more lives could have been saved if the soup kitchens were more widespread ad if the scheme wasn’t abandoned so abruptly. “Many additional thousands should have been fed, and all should have been fed more generously”. The soup kitchens had huge potential but typically the scheme wasn’t utilised to its greatest advantage.

In 1847 the British government decided to transfer responsibility for relief to the poor law system. Under the poor law system the Workhouse system was introduced. However the workhouses were only designed to cater for a relatively small proportion of the population and if it was to cope with the crisis an expansion of the service was needed. The workhouses provided employment and supplied a small amount of food for the poor. The ‘Gregory Clause’ restricted those owning more than a quarter of an acre of land ineligible for any relief, naturally this had merciless repercussions as many people who needed relief were forced to give up their lands. It was known as a “Death Dealing Instrument”, mass starvation was rising and more and more people were dieing. The system was irritated by a serious fever epidemic in early 1847 with mortality rates increasing. Demand for entry into the workhouse far exceeded their capacity, there was substantial overcrowding and disease was widespread. The work was quite intensive with the pay being very low. The workhouse system emphasises how Russell again believed that the only way to help the Famine sufferers was to provide a source of employment for them rather than food aid.  He put far too much stress on the Irish landlords, expecting them to supply a considerable amount of the capital.  The British government was determined to keep outdoor relief to  a minimum as otherwise it would be too costly, unions would go bankrupt and in a worst case scenario the government would be forced to finance food relief again.  In 1852 all outdoor relief had virtually vanished. The general consensus in Britain was that the “The burden of maintaining the Irish poor should be borne by Ireland alone and would not be shared by the British taxpayer”. This alone speaks volumes as to The British stance, they were obliged to supply some sort of relief to Ireland due to the Act of Union, however their relief was calculated. They were more interested in their own economy and keeping it in good shape than they were with supporting Ireland. “The British government and parliament had scandalously abdicated their responsibility for meeting a major share of the costs of famine and relief”.

This essay supports the notion that the Great famine was an ecological accident that became a human tragedy. However it wasn’t solely due to the level of poverty in rural Ireland at the time. It was the enormous failure of the British government to supply adequate amounts of relief that resulted in the famine becoming a human tragedy.  According to Donnelly, the British government gave about 7 million pounds in costs to the famine relief with Ireland ironically giving approximately 7.3 million pounds. One million people lost their lives during the Famine, with a large number of people forced to emigrate due to the lack of support. To sum up, a quote by Joel Mokyr puts things in perspective “Britain spent no less than 969.3 million on an utterly futile adventure in Crimea in 1854-1856 and if half that sum was spent in Ireland in the critical years of 1846-1849 hundreds of thousands of lives would have been saved”.

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