Very good day to you all, and a nice day it is here in Ireland, rain coming in later on maybe tonight tomorrow but it will blow away like it always does. I see Derek finished up last night with a Famine Sculpture but over here we claim there was no famine. Bear with me I am taking this some where. Yes potatoes failed and they were the main food source for the Irish people at that time yet no other vegatable was effected, just the potato. Ireland at that time was very industrious especially farming. No land went untilled save for bogland. Ireland at that time was ruled by England and much of the land was cut up into large estates with many having absentee landlords. These landlords demanded profet from their Irish estates/farmes etc, so they grew all sorts of grain, rared sheep, cattle, chickens, ducks, geese, pigs, they grew all sorts of veg. Most of this food was processed and shipped out of the country to be sold in different markets across the British Empire. Even back then they had a glut of Butter which was still shipped out and stored.Just something I have read . Ok how we doing so far.. See the Irish had small rented cottages and possibly an acre or half acre of land to grow the Potatoes , raise a pig ( but not for eating , it was for tax, and rent ) to the forementioned Landlords. Many of the Irish actually worked in these estates. It is believed long hard days for small money. The Irish were not to be trusted and they were to be kept down at all cost. Yes we Irish did cause trouble where and when ever we could. Anyway on with the story, The potato failed, meaning that for the first year of the Great Hunger most of the stored food stuff that the Irish owned and had stored was used up, Ok second year harvest of potatoes failed again. Dire times ahead. Now we have had many mini Hungers here in Ireland over the centuries and the English would step in and release much needed food, the mini hungers lasted only a year and then on with the show again. But 1845/52 and onwards were to be different. Politics and trouble with the native Irish ( who were always plotting to rid them selves of this Foreign Curse ) and win Ireland back for the Irish , caused much hatred amung these absentee landlords. So when the Hunger hit there would be no aid like before. Let the Irish look after the Irish was the cry in English Parliment, yet the Irish had nothing left, so the dying began , Men Women and Children , it mattered little they all suffered, if the hunger did not get you the disese of the cold surely would. The Irish could not pay the rent to the Landlords so they evictions started. It is believed that 250,000 evictions were carried out, ( depending on which historian you read ) While all this starving , evicting, dying , emmigrating, was going on it is believed that as much as 6/8 shiploads of food left Ireland each day , yes the grains, cattle sheep, etc etc .. Much fighting took place at the docks but sticks against well armed troops was no match,, and the dying continued. Eviction was almost a sure death sentence especially if you were starving and facing an Irish winter, You could not eat grass though many did try, and when they evicted you they knocked your little cottage just to make sure you could not break back in for a night or so. Why did they not fish the rivers, The rivers were owned by landlords and you would be shot on sight if found near a river or inside the boundaries of one of the estates... Now I paint all with the same brush but I should not. Some landlords ( not a lot ) helped the Irish and went broke/bankrupt doing so. To them we do owe ahuge thank you. To the others , well we will let God sort them out. Right I could go on all day, but I have typed enough about what many know as the Potato Famine but what we call The Great Hunger. No Famine can happen in a country Awash with food.. Thank you Laura Treacy Bentley for the photo , it gave me a soap box so I could explain to others some of what happened at that time in Ireland... ~Sean
Posted on: Tue, 19 Aug 2014 11:05:59 +0000