what was the name of the british head of treasury blamed for worsening the potato famine

Who was to blame for the Irish Potato Famine?

The sight of tens of thousands of emaciated, diseased, half-naked Irish roaming the British countryside had infuriated members of the British Parliament. Someone had to take the blame for this incredible misfortune that had now crossed the Irish Sea and come upon the shores of Britain. The obvious choice was the landlords of Ireland.

What was the British government role in the Potato Famine?

Legacy of the Potato Famine. The exact role of the British government in the Potato Famine and its aftermath—whether it ignored the plight of Ireland’s poor out of malice, or if their collective inaction and inadequate response could be attributed to incompetence—is still being debated.

Why was the UK government blamed for the Great Famine?

The UK government was and is blamed for the Great Famine because although the potato crop failed across Europe, nowhere saw the devastation equal to this then-part of the United Kingdom (though Scotland came second in Europe for depopulation through emigration). The famine was a result of economic policies before and during the crop failure.

Was the British administration to blame for the potato disease?

The British administration were not to blame for the potato disease, but their attitude towards allowing overcrowded tiny cottier farmsteads and sublet small tenant landholdings which could only viably exist on potatoes created the conditions for famine if the potato crop failed.

Why was the Great Famine blamed on the UK?

Why did the loss of one crop cause such a disaster?

Why did Britain blame the British for the Irish blight?

What was the reason for the European Revolutions of 1848?

Why didn't the British want to interfere in the free market?

What happened after the British took control of the land?

What did the Irish allow the Irish to do?

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About this website

What did Charles Trevelyan do?

Trevelyan was not a politician: he was a career civil servant. As Assistant Secretary to the Treasury, he was the most senior official responsible for overseeing the British exchequer, taking up this post in 1840.

What was Trevelyan's corn?

The lyrics say the convict's crime is that he "stole Trevelyan's corn"; this is a reference to Charles Edward Trevelyan, a senior English civil servant in the administration of the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland in Dublin Castle. Trevelyan famously said, "the judgement of God sent the calamity to teach the Irish a lesson".

Who was the British prime minister during the Irish famine?

Sir Robert PeelGiven that a high proportion of Irish MPs were landowners, or their sons, Parliament was fully aware of the situation. Sir Robert Peel, the Prime Minister, purchased £100,000 of Indian corn (sweetcorn) in the United States and arranged for its transport to Cork.

Who was responsible for the Irish famine?

The landed proprietors in Ireland were held in Britain to have created the conditions that led to the famine. However, it was asserted that the British parliament since the Act of Union of 1800 was partly to blame.

What is Athenry famous for?

Athenry is the best preserved medieval town in Ireland, retaining the upstanding remains of most of its original high-status buildings, in addition to its medieval street pattern and even individual property boundaries, or burgage plots.

What happened Athenry?

In 1596, however, the town was captured and destroyed by Red Hugh O'Donnell during his rebellion against the English colonists (The Nine Years War). This essentially sealed the fate of Athenry, which never regained the wealth and importance that it had enjoyed in the late 13th century.

Is Fields of Athenry sectarian?

This song is sung at Celtic games and at supporters' nights every week, there's nothing sectarian about the 'Fields of Athenry'. I can assure you that Stephen is not sectarian at all." The agent of another prominent Celtic international player who was reportedly involved dismissed those reports as "complete rubbish".

10 Facts About the Great Irish Famine | History Hit

Known as An Gorta Mór (the Great Hunger) in Ireland, the Great Famine ravaged Ireland between 1845 and 1852, changing the country irreversibly.It’s thought Ireland lost around one quarter of its population in these 7 years, either to starvation, disease or emigration, and many more left Ireland subsequently, finding little left at home to keep them there.

How the British government responded to the Great Hunger in Ireland ...

As a consequence of the Act of Union of 1800, by the 1840s England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales were governed by a single parliament based in Westminster in London.

Where did potato blight spread?

The potato blight eventually spread to the Western Highlands of Scotland, causing similar destitution and deaths. In 1851, in response to that crisis, Trevelyan and Sir John McNeill founded the Highland and Island Emigration Society.

Who edited the Trevelyan papers?

In conjunction with his cousin, Sir Walter Calverley Trevelyan, he edited the Trevelyan Papers ( Camden Society 1856, 1862, 1872).

What did Trevelyan do?

For some time he acted as guardian to the youthful Madhu Singh, the Rajah of Bhurtpore. He also worked to improve the condition of the native population. He abolished the transit duties by which the internal trade of India had long been fettered. For these and other services, he received the special thanks of the governor-general in council. Before leaving Delhi, he donated personal funds for construction of a broad street through a new suburb, then in course of erection, which thenceforth became known as Trevelyanpur.

Who shut down Peelite Relief?

This was done on 21 July 1846 by Sir Charles Wood. Trevelyan believed that if the relief continued while a new food crisis was unfolding, the poor would become permanently conditioned to having the state take care of them.

Who was the Governor of Madras in 1859?

He was cofounder in 1851, with Sir John McNeill, of the Highland and Island Emigration Society which during the Highland Clearances supported an exodus of nearly 5,000 people to Australia between 1851 and 1858. Trevelyan was Governor of Madras from 1859 to 1860, and Indian Finance Minister from 1862 to 1865.

Who was the Viceroy of India in 1864?

Charles Trevelyan, sitting second from left, with John Lawrence, Viceroy of India and other council members. c. 1864

Who was Sir Charles Trevelyan?

Sir Charles Edward Trevelyan, 1st Baronet, KCB (2 April 1807 – 19 June 1886) was a British civil servant and colonial administrator. As a young man, he worked with the colonial government in Calcutta, India; in the late 1850s and 1860s he served there in senior-level appointments.

What was the potato famine in Ireland?

Great Hunger Begins. Legacy of the Potato Famine. Irish Hunger Memorials. Sources. The Irish Potato Famine, also known as the Great Hunger, began in 1845 when a fungus-like organism called Phytophthora infestans (or P. infestans) spread rapidly throughout Ireland. The infestation ruined up to one-half ...

How did the potato famine affect Ireland?

The infestation ruined up to one-half of the potato crop that year, and about three-quarters of the crop over the next seven years. Because the tenant farmers of Ireland—then ruled as a colony of Great Britain—relied heavily on the potato as a source of food, the infestation had a catastrophic impact on Ireland and its population. Before it ended in 1852, the Potato Famine resulted in the death of roughly one million Irish from starvation and related causes, with at least another million forced to leave their homeland as refugees.

What was the legacy of the Potato Famine?

Legacy of the Potato Famine. The exact role of the British government in the Potato Famine and its aftermath—whether it ignored the plight of Ireland’s poor out of malice, or if their collective inaction and inadequate response could be attributed to incompetence— is still being debated.

How many Irish people died in the potato famine?

Although estimates vary, it is believed as many as 1 million Irish men, women and children perished during the Famine, and another 1 million emigrated from the island to escape poverty and starvation, with many landing in various cities throughout North America and Great Britain. Legacy of the Potato Famine.

What were the main commodities exported from Ireland in 1847?

In 1847 alone, records indicate that commodities such as peas, beans, rabbits, fish and honey continued to be exported from Ireland, even as the Great Hunger ravaged the countryside.

When did the Great Hunger begin?

Great Hunger Begins. When the crops began to fail in 1845, as a result of P. infestans infection, Irish leaders in Dublin petitioned Queen Victoria and Parliament to act—and, initially, they did, repealing the so-called “Corn Laws” and their tariffs on grain, which made food such as corn and bread prohibitively expensive.

Where are Irish hunger memorials?

Boston, New York City, Philadelphia and Phoenix in the United States, as well as Montreal and Toronto in Canada, have erected Irish hunger memorials, as have various cities in Ireland, Australia and Great Britain. In addition, Glasgow Celtic FC, a soccer team based in Scotland that was founded by Irish immigrants, ...

What was the potato famine?

While good for a chuckle now, the potato was a matter of life or death for millions of Irish peasants throughout the 19th century. As tenant farmers enslaved to a backward agrarian system, their fragile lives were inextricably linked to economic and political allegiances to England. When an American potato blight surfaced in Europe in 1845, it triggered the great potato famine, which persisted in all its pestilence into 1851.

Who was the prime minister of Ireland during the potato famine?

During the extended famine of 1845-51. British Prime Minister Robert Peel dismissed the first reports of the potato crop failure as typical Irish exaggeration. When he finally accepted the grim reality of the famine, he repealed taxes on grain imports to lower the price of bread, never understanding that those at risk of starvation in Ireland ...

How many people died from potato blight in 1845?

Conservative estimates put the number of deaths at 775,000. Respected Irish historian Joel Mokyr puts the figure at 1.9 million.

What did the famine provide the martyrs for causes with sacred oaths to drive the British from?

The thousands claimed by the famine provided the martyrs for causes with sacred oaths to drive the British from Irish soil at any cost, by any means - oaths that subsequently give rise to the Irish civil war of 1916 and, in time, the Irish Republican Army.

Why did the British import potatoes from America?

Because their cultivation required only one-third the acreage of wheat and potatoes could be easily grown and stored , the British imported the potato from America. Not long after England imposed the potato to its first colony, spuds provided three-fourths of the sustenance for nine-tenths of Ireland's laboring class.

Why did Peel's actions and the many inactions to follow make things worse?

Hundreds of thousands died needlessly because of British economic dogmas requiring minimum interference with the forces of supply and demand and insistence that government charity not undermine private initiatives nor interfere with private enterprise.

Who is Tom Walsh?

Tom Walsh, a Bangor Daily News reporter in Maine, is a graduate of Dublin City University and a lifelong student of Irish-American history. He's also a former Iowa City bureau chief for the Cedar Rapids Gazette. Comments: [email protected].

What is the most significant section of Tim Pat Coogan's book "The Famine Plot" on the?

The most significant section of Tim Pat Coogan’s book "The Famine Plot" on the Irish Famine is printing of the UN definition of genocide. Famine memorial, The Quays, Dublin.

Who published the book The Famine Plot?

“ The Famine Plot ,” published by Palgrave MacMillan, was released in America in 2012 ...

What is the Trevelyan quote?

The Trevelyan quote is, “The real evil with which we have to contend is not the physical evil of the Famine but the moral evil of the selfish, perverse and turbulent character of the people.”. Tim Pat Coogan has done an enormous service with this book. Read it and weep.

Who was the British Coastguard Inspector General?

One Trevelyan story and one quote suffice: “British Coastguard Inspector-General, Sir James Dombrain, when he saw starving paupers, ordered his subordinates to give free food handouts. For his attempts to feed the starving, Dombrain was publicly rebuked by Trevelyan…”. The Trevelyan quote is, “The real evil with which we have to contend is not ...

Who is Tim Pat Coogan?

Tim Pat Coogan has painstakingly outlined the disregard shown to the Irish. Author Tim Pat Coogan with former Irish Taoiseach (Prime Minister) Brian Cowan. Image: RollingNews.ie. It is a big charge, but Coogan is a big man, physically, intellectually, and in every sense. This makes it a very effective accusation.

Does Tim Pat Coogan have the evidence to show that the Great Hunger was an act of genocide, a result of English racism?

One, in particular, may prove an important part of the true cause of the Great Hunger.

Who was responsible for administering Irish relief policy during the famine?

A leading exponent of this providentialist perspective was Sir Charles Trevelyan, the British civil servant chiefly responsible for administering Irish relief policy throughout the famine years.

What was the food gap created by the loss of the potato in the late 1840s?

The food gap created by the loss of the potato in the late 1840s was so enormous that it could not have been filled, even if all the Irish grain exported in those years had been retained in the country.

How many seasons of famine?

In most famines in the contemporary world, only a small fraction of the population of a given country or region is exposed to the dangers of death from starvation or infectious diseases, and then typically for only one or two seasons. But in the Irish famine of the late 1840s, successive blasts of potato blight - or to give it its proper name, the fungus Phytophthora infestans - robbed more than one-third of the population of their usual means of subsistence for four or five years in a row.

What are the conditions that make it difficult or impossible to deliver adequate supplies of food to those in greatest need?

Such conditions include warfare and brigandage, remoteness from centres of wealth and relief, poor communications, and weak or corrupt administrative structures.

What ideologies held the British political elite and the middle classes in their grip and largely determined the decisions not to?

Ruined cottage on the site of a famine eviction, Connemara, Galway © What, then, were the ideologies that held the British political élite and the middle classes in their grip, and largely determined the decisions not to adopt the possible relief measures outlined above? There were three in particular-the economic doctrines of laissez-faire, the Protestant evangelical belief in divine Providence, and the deep-dyed ethnic prejudice against the Catholic Irish to which historians have recently given the name of 'moralism'.

What were the two decisions that the Whigs made in 1847?

The influence of the doctrine of laissez-faire may also be seen in two other decisions. The first was the decision to terminate the soup-kitchen scheme in September 1847 after only six months of operation. The idea of feeding directly a large proportion of the Irish population violated all of the Whigs' cherished notions of how government and society should function. The other decision was the refusal of the government to undertake any large scheme of assisted emigration . The Irish viceroy actually proposed in this fashion to sweep the western province of Connacht clean of as many as 400,000 pauper smallholders too poor to emigrate on their own. But the majority of Whig cabinet ministers saw little need to spend public money accelerating a process that was already going on 'privately' at a great rate.

How long was the soup kitchen scheme in effect?

Second, the government could have continued its so-called soup-kitchen scheme for a much longer time. It was in effect for only about six months, from March to September 1847. As many as three million people were fed daily at the peak of this scheme in July 1847. The scheme was remarkably inexpensive and effective.

How did the potato famine affect the poor?

In 1845, the blight was felt hardest by those who lived in the poorest areas and on marginal lands, such as those in the upland areas. The blight decimated the food supply of the poorest of the poor and those who were least able to bear the loss of their precious potato crop. However, not all areas of the country experienced a disastrous potato harvest and some farmers managed to retrieve at least a portion of the harvest. This is evident from the different death rates across the country, in the period 1845-1850. Some 24% of the population emigrated or died in Connacht and 23% in the province of Munster. This compares to 12% in Ulster and 16% in Leinster [19].

Why did the poor suffer the most during the famine?

The poor, because they were engaged in a monoculture, were unable to secure enough food for themselves and their families.

What caused the famine in Ireland?

Famine was not new to Ireland. Every few years, there was a partial failure of the potato crop or some natural disaster resulted in a famine. In the 1740’s, an unseasonable frost destroyed the crops in the fields [3]. This led to widespread hunger and epidemics and by the end of the famine, some 10% of the population died over a two- year period. There were also small and localized food crises in Ireland in the 1820’s and the 1830’s. However, the famine in the period 1845-1850 was to be an unprecedented one and was to change Irish history.

What was the last famine in Europe?

The Great Irish Potato Famine. The Irish Potato Famine, or the ‘Great Hunger’, was the last great famine in Western Europe and one of the most catastrophic recorded in that region. It led to the death of up to a million people and the emigration of two million people from the island of Ireland.

What was the potato blight?

The blight was a novelty to many of the Irish peasants. Potato diseases were not unknown and they have caused partial failures in recent decades. The blight was beyond the experience of Irish farmers. They were amazed to find their potato blacked and inedible when they took dug out of the ground. Because of the great poverty of the poorest elements in society, many tenant farmers simply did not have any food reserves. Typically, when the harvest was gathered, people began to eat the potato immediately, this was because the supplies from the last harvest had already been eaten. Upon discovering the potato crop was ruined, many knew that they would starve. A large number of tenant farmers and laborers also did not have the financial surplus to help them over the crisis. The economy of many poorer areas of the country was based on a barter system and little money actually circulated in these areas and this meant that they could not purchase the available food. Those that did have some money were forced to make a decision whether to pay their rent to the landlord or buy food. The potato blight was a disaster for many families. This meant that when the potatoes failed that they did not have enough to eat and they and their families were at risk of losing their land and their livelihood. Many people immediately began to seek relief from their local community, it was traditional in Irish society to help those who were in distress, especially family members, and neighbours. At first, the Irish poor would share their resources and this helped many throughout the hard winter of 1854-1846. However, soon, people began to hoard their own supplies, as they began to run out of food. This mean that the traditional support networks, that had helped people in previous famines collapsed and this meant that many more people began to starve. People bemoaned the fact that traditional charity and neighbourliness had ended and people were even turning on each other like ‘wolves’ [14]. Some people became so desperate for food that they made the fateful decision to eat their seed potatoes. They were needed to plant next season’s potato harvest. When people ate their seed potatoes, then they would not have any potato harvest next season and they would be condemned to starvation. Within months of the first appearance of blight, it was clear that the situation for many of Ireland’s poor was disastrous [15]. At this time, it was very common for families to eat grass and nettles. The hungry often boiled nettles and ate them as a broth and this became very common during the Famine.

How did Irish society shape the world?

Irish society was shaped by the system of landownership. Land was the main source of wealth in the country prior to the Famine and continued to do so after it ended. The land was largely rented by Protestant landlords to Catholic tenants. Their holdings were often very small and it was not unusual for the tenant farmers to have only two or three acres of land. One in four Irish tenants had farms that were only 1.5-2 hectares in size. This group and their families made up the majority of the population, by some measurements over one-half of the nation, were subsistence farmers. Any chance event could reduce a tenant farmer and his family to penury and starvation. Another issue in Ireland was that often when a tenant died, they divided their lands, among all their children. This was an age-old Gaelic tradition. However, this practice of sub-division meant that over time, the holdings of the Irish cottiers was reduced in size each generation. There was not enough land for them to produce anything else than potatoes. This meant that they could not produce food for the market and their farms were used simply to provide for their food supply for the year- if they were lucky. Such was the hunger for land that more and more marginal land came into use, as in hilly and upland areas. At this time many of the islands off the west coast, such as the Arran Islands, became densely populated, as people desperately sought land. Before the famine, an official British government report indicated that poverty was endemic that some one-third of all Irish small farmers could not support their families after paying their rent. The majority of the poor lived in one or two roomed cabins. Despite this and other reports, there was nothing done to change the situation and the Irish poor continued to live in the shadow of famine and in wretched poverty [5]. Visitors to Ireland remarked that poverty was universal in rural districts as Skibberrean, County Cork especially in the hill areas, where one journalist witnessed the ‘the most dreadful privations’ in the early 1840s, even before the Famine [6]

Where was the famine in 1846?

Areas such as Skibbereen in Country Cork became by-words for suffering In the winter of 1846 and early 1847, conditions in Skibberrean and the surrounding district deteriorated. In the townland of Drimelogue, ‘one in four died that winter [20] .The continuing lack of food, meant that one Cork doctor declared that ‘not one in five will recover’ In these regions the tenants’ farms were generally small and that more poor and marginal land was in use and as a result the local inhabitants were more likely to suffer from any disruption to their food supply. Some areas of the country such as East Ulster did not suffer much at first, this was because it was more industrialized than the rest of Ireland. However, as the Famine persisted and the blight continued to attack the potato crop, those areas that initially did not suffer greatly, began to show real signs of distress and mass hunger became evident. By 1847 the Famine had spread to almost every area of the country. Even those areas in Leinster and Ulster that had been spared the worst of the disaster now were ravaged by Famine. The year 1847 is often referred to as the ‘Black 1847’ this was the year when the greatest number of people died, directly and indirectly from the Famine. Urban areas, especially Dublin, saw a massive spike in the death rate, especially in the vast slums. After 1847, some parts of the country began to recover. For example, many parts of Kerry and Cork, which had been the epicentre of the Famine, began to see signs of improvement in 1848. However, some areas of the country still saw mass starvation, such as Limerick, as late as 1850, a year when many historians believed that the famine had ended.

Why was the British government at fault for the famine?

The thing is, the British continued exporting food. They also gave very little aid to the Irish, and followed the “Laissez-faire policy”. This was to basically ignore the whole situation and keep going like nothing had happened. This is the reason the people starved to death , hence why the British government are the ones at fault when it comes to the famine.

Why do Irish people not blame the English people for the famine?

The Irish do not blame the English people for the famine, more the establishment of England (Britain in general really). The only manner in which Irish people ever get annoyed with British people regarding the matter in the current times is when they have the ability to learn about the famine rather than spew lies about it & choose to do the latter. The British of the time made the situation that was bad, ten million times worse. The potato crop failing was no one’s fault, it was so much bigger than Ireland, it was when British landlords snd the British elite CHOSE to still export everything e

Why do Irish people not blame the English?

The Irish do not blame the English people for the famine, more the establishment of England (Britain in general really). The only manner in which Irish people ever get annoyed with British people regarding the matter in the current times is when they have the ability to learn about the famine rather than spew lies about it & choose to do the latter. The British of the time made the situation that was bad, ten million times worse. The potato crop failing was no one’s fault, it was so much bigger than Ireland, it was when British landlords snd the British elite CHOSE to still export everything else, raise the rents & state the Irish were lazy, that's why they were dying, nothing of how the fed the hunger, so to speak.

How many gallons of butter were shipped in 1847?

Butter was shipped in firkins, each one holding 9 imperial gallons; 41 litres. In the first nine months of 1847, 56,557 firkins (509,010 imperial gallons; 2,314,000 litres) were exported from Ireland to Bristol, and 34,852 firkins (313,670 imperial gallons; 1,426,000 litres) were shipped to Liverpool, which correlates with 822,681 imperial gallons (3,739,980 litres) of butter exported to England from Ireland during nine months of the worst year of the Famine.

Why did the Irish vote for a merger in 1800?

didn’t object to the Dublin parliament voting for a merger in 1800, to enable the Irish ruling classes to draw on the British Empires exchequer, and markets, rather than have to raise funds amongst themselves; primarily through selling the produce of their tenant farmers to their peers, and the British Army, minus profit sapping import duties. Not forgetting failing to impose immigration controls to stop the Irish country bumpkins relocating to Westminster, for the associated English social, and recreational advantages, over Dublin, ignoring the snobbish mockery; leaving local commissioned thugs as rent collectors, and land agents.

When did the Irish start quarantining?

not using their numbers, in the UK parliament, to impose biosecurity laws on Ireland, and quarantining all Irish trade, if not all Irish travel with the United States, from the early 1843 outbreak of the Potato harvest killing Phytophthora infestans, in Philadelphia.

Who bought out the landlords and made the tenants the owners of their land?

The structural causes of all this were eventually resolved by Gladstone and Balfour's Land Acts from 1882-1903 which bought out the landlords and made the tenants the owners of their land.

Why was the Great Famine blamed on the UK?

The UK government was and is blamed for the Great Famine because although the potato crop failed across Europe, nowhere saw the devastation equal to this then-part of the United Kingdom ( though Scotland came second in Europe for depopulation through emigration).

Why did the loss of one crop cause such a disaster?

Longer term, the fact that the loss of one crop caused such a disaster was due to the English/British interference in Ireland, the legal system it imposed, and the resultant pattern of landholding.

Why did Britain blame the British for the Irish blight?

Although the whole of Britain and Europe was severely hit by the blight the effect on Ireland was devastating and in the end the British government failed to prevent the devastation. The reason for the failure is perhaps another question and was partly the result of things that had happened in the past and were not the fault of the governments of the time. In the nineteenth century it was normal for land to be owned by great aristocratic families and farmed by tenant farmers and this was the case in Ireland also. However in Ireland for historical reasons the land was owned by Anglo-Irish families who often lived away from their estates in England. These were the Absentees. If you want to understand The Absentee read Maria Edgeworth's novel of the same name. These absentee landlords had little interest in their estates other than extorting rents from their tenants. Although in fact much of Ireland did have modern efficient farms a lot of the south and west was farmed by subsistence peasant farmers almost totally dependent on the potato. The tenants of the land would sub let land to people who would sublet land to people who paid their labourers by letting them grow potatoes on a small patch of land. The land was so productive and the potatoes so plentiful that four million people were supported that way (half the population of Ireland and 15% of the population of the UK). Until the blight struck. Then suddenly four million people were starving and destitute.

What was the reason for the European Revolutions of 1848?

The famine was one of the reasons for the European Revolutions of 1848.

Why didn't the British want to interfere in the free market?

The British authorities simply didn’t care and didn’t want to interfere in the ‘free market’ as it might cause a reduction in market prices for the landlords exports. Naturally many of the landlords were politicians themselves and owned vast estates in Ireland and lived a lavish lifestyle.

What happened after the British took control of the land?

After the British took control of the land they needed labour to work it.

What did the Irish allow the Irish to do?

They allowed the Irish peasants to build a small cottage on a tiny plot of the land (the landlord would OWN the cottage) and plant potatoes to fee themselves beside the cottage. They would then have to labour on the land in return for these privilege's.

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