How the British government responded to the Great Hunger in Ireland

Relief and lack of response from the crown during the Irish Famine years.

The 1849 harvest was blight-free in many parts of Ireland, and industry, especially the linen trade, was reviving. Yet in some parts of the country the recovery was slow and partial, with mortality and emigration being even higher in 1849 and 1850 than in 1847.  The deteriorating conditions in the Kilrush Union in County Clare led to an official enquiry, which found that the union had lost approximately fifty percent of its population since 1846. The Commissioners believed that the local poor had been doubly abandoned – by their landlords and by the British government.  They concluded their report by saying:

“Whether as regards the plain principles of humanity, or the literal text and admitted principle of the Poor Law of 1847, a neglect of public duty has occurred and has occasioned a state of things disgraceful to a civilized age and country, for which some authority ought to be held responsible, and would long since have been held responsible had these things occurred in any union in England.”

This report, as did the private and public comments made by English officials including Bentinck, Clarendon and Twistleton, revealed the diversity of response to the Famine within the British establishment. In the end though, it was men lacking vision and compassion who determined how the British government responded to the unfolding tragedy. The political cost of reacting in this way proved to be high, but the human cost  – which extended far beyond the numbers who died or emigrated – remains incalculable.

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Nster.com