Yep and Stalin committed his own geocide of the Ukrainians, the Holodomor, killed millions (A United Nations joint statement signed by 25 countries in 2003 declared that 7–10 million perished...though it's probably around 5 million) and hardly anyone, outside of people interested in the period, know anything about it....which tells you something.

Edited by Stirlingsays (14 Feb 2022 10.58pm)

The Irish famine killed no more than 500 thousand probably closer to 400. I heard that was due to the 'Great Frost' destroying the crops rather than the British deliberately killing Irish. Once the better weather returned the famine was over.

Where's the evidence that the British set out to starve the Irish?

Edited by Stirlingsays (14 Feb 2022 11.27pm)

I’m reluctant to go into detail here Sterling as I may end up providing incorrect facts, contradicting myself etc.

However, whilst there were several natural inflictions upon Irish agriculture I was very much under the impression the British still considered Ireland as its ‘bread basket’. There was far more food being exported to Britain than that which actually remained in Ireland whilst the people starved to death, hence there is sufficient evidence to suggest it was a starvation as opposed to a famine.

Again, from what I can remember (which is limited and questionable to be generous) I thought it was generally accepted that there was still a sufficient supply of food within the country to avoid a tragedy however as previously stated it did not stay there.

I was also very much under the impression the resultant loss of life was evident of complete neglect from the British as opposed to a deliberate attempt to cull a population such as which we have seen through the Holocaust, Stalin’s purges, Pol Pots despotic regime or indeed your specialist subject the Holodomor (very much a joke) let alone that seen in Africa and the America’s.

Always happy to be corrected if wrong was just my recollection of my again distant studenting days (yes I made that word up for my own amusement)

Looking into this it does appear that later British responses to the famines caused by bad weather and potato blight has some responsibility for the extent of the famine....but they didn't cause them.

Unlike the genocides, where the Germans or Russians deliberately decided to kill or starve people this was not a deliberate British plan for the Irish but was weather causing crop failure and potato blight. Once the weather and blight were over so was the famine.

While it seems to be a legitimate complaint for the Irish to have as they were part of the British empire at the time and should have been treated better, it was not a genocide of the Irish.

Edited by Stirlingsays (15 Feb 2022 12.36am)

That seems like anti British propaganda to me.

No other country in Europe relied upon the potato as much as the Irish...especially the poorer section.

If the British had wanted to starve the Irish they wouldn't have introduced the newly developed fertilizers in the 1880s....which rapidly reduced potato blight.

Anti British propaganda from Irish republicans isn't hard to find, but that doesn't mean it's balanced.