The Irish holocaust -- An droch shaol
A purgatory of starvation
The man directly responsible for famine relief in Ireland,
Charles Edward Trevelyan, Permanent Under-Secretary to the
Treasury, was frankly racist:
``It forms no part of the functions of government to provide
supplies of food or to increase the productive powers of the
land. In the great institution of the business of society, it
falls to the share of government to protect the merchant and the
agriculturist in the free exercise of their respective
employments, but not to carry on those employments... In Ireland
the habit has proverbally been to follow a precisely opposite
course...
``A remedy has been already applied to that portion of the
maladies of Ireland which was traceable to political causes, and
the morbid habits which still to a cetain extent survive are
gradually giving way to a more healthy action. The deep and
inveterate root of social evil remains, the cure has been applied
by the direct stroke of an all-wise providence in a manner as
unexpected and unthought of as it is likely to be effectual. God
grant that we may rightly perform our part and not turn into a
curse what was intended for a blessing.''
other senior civil servant who controlled the purse strings
during the famine, Chancellor of the Exchequer, Charles Wood
said:
``Except through a purgatory of misery and starvation, I cannot
see how Ireland is to emerge into a state of anything approaching
to quiet or prosperity.''
Lord John Russell, leader of the Whigs was to become British
prime minster, with the support of the majority of Irish MPs,
just as the second crop was failing in June 1846 said of the
famine later:
``The great difficulty this year respecting Ireland is one which
does not spring from Trevelyan or Charles Wood but lies deep in
the breasts of the British people. It is this - we have granted,
lent, subscribed, worked, visited, clothed the Irish; millions of
pounds worth of money, years of debate etc - the only return is
calumny and rebellion - let us not grant, clothe etc. etc. any
more and see what they will do.''
The Economist went further, saying that paying Irish people a
living wage would ``stimulate every man to marry and populate as
fast as he could, like a rabbit in a warren''. The Times said:
``We help all those who help themselves but we do not like
throwing money into a ditch''.
Following the death of Lord Bessborough, Britain's new Lord
Lieutenant, June 1847, was the Earl of Clarendon. While
Bessborough had been opposed to the export of food from Ireland,
Clarendon, who described his appointment as akin to being thrown
into an `Irish bog' openly stated that:
``I am convinced that the failure of the potatoes and the
establishment of the Poor Law will eventually be the salvation of
the country - the first will prevent the land being used as it
hitherto has been.''
His experiences in Ireland changed him so that he was attacking
the prime minister openly two years later.
``What is to be done with these `hordes? Improve them of the face
of the earth, you will say, let them die... but there is a
certain amount of responsiblity attaching to it''.
Or again later:
``Surely this is a state of things to justify you asking the House
of Commons for an advance, for I don't think there is another
legislature in Europe that would disregard such suffering as now
exists in the west of Ireland, or coldly persist in a policy fo
extermination.''
Though some of Britain's Establishment came around to the view
that intervention or relief was needed on a greater scale,
providence overtook them with the ending of that series of crop
failures in 1850.
While the legislature and Establishment are criticised for doing
too little too late, the attitude and priorities of Lord
Londonderry reflects the majority of Ireland's and England's
Ascendancy towards the starving millions.
He made a contribution of £20 to famine relief and his wife
donated a whole £10, while at the same time spending £15,000
renovating their house in Mount Stewart in 1848.
The head of the British Empire, Queen Victoria's £2,000 (not £5
as popularly believed) should be compared to £2,000 spent on her
trip to Ireland in 1849; or, the £200,000 raised and spent by the
Society of Friends, the Quakers, on famine relief.
![[An Phoblacht]](http://republican-news.org/graphics/title_gifs/aprn.gif)