In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

Lessons from the Great Irish Famine [1845–1850] The Causes of Starvation The Great Irish Famine, as it is often called, is so deeply imbedded in Irish history—and that of North America—that extensive research into it and the resulting debates and controversies continue today. Entire university departments , centers, and institutes are devoted to its study. The result is a variety of interpretations and analyses. There are the traditional Irish nationalist accounts ; the Marxist, Sen, and Malthusian readings; the imperialist, feminist, anti-English, and even the anti-Catholic versions. Not surprisingly, debate about some important and unanswered questions persists: What were the principal predisposing causes of the Famine? Those who study the events in Ireland between 1845 and 1850 (and beyond) disagree about what triggered a nationwide starvation that by 1846 was killing widely across a weakened and impoverished Irish population. Was the Great Famine simply “a tragic ecological accident” or “Ireland’s destiny”? Or were the Irish “desperately unlucky”?1 Was this indeed a famine? Our definition appears to fit these circumstances: long-term suffering from chronic hunger collapsing into starvation (food shortages and intensity) in a specific geographic area (scale) and resulting in large numbers of dead (the endpoint). Moreover, the Great Irish Famine fits Scrimshaw’s additional definition, that famine is “also an economic and social phenomenon that can occur when food supplies are adequate to prevent it.”2 History provides many examples of famines that took more lives than the Great Irish Famine. In the twentieth century alone there was starvation in Ukraine (1932–1933; 9–13 million dead), Bengal, India (1943–1944; 3–10 million), China (1959–1960; perhaps as many as 25 million).3 Estimates for Ireland from 1845 to 1850, by comparison, range between 500,000 and 2 million Irish dead from starvation-related causes. Yet, “the Great Hunger,” as it is also called, has gained a broader and more lasting fame than many other famines, perhaps because millions of Irish fled it to Europe and North America, creating a vibrant diaspora. By 1855, for example, more than one in every four people in New York City was Irish, and the Irish soon made up almost half (44.5 percent) of all immigrants living in that city.4 “The disaster,” two historians write, “which saw the destruction of one Ireland helped to create another Ireland which was not confined within the shores of one small island, for the North American Irish in 42 [] platform of understanding particular were destined to make a remarkable contribution to the shaping of modern Irish history.”5 The Great Irish Famine became a legendary backdrop for songs, plays, films, and books that even today re-awaken strong feelings among a vast scattering of Irish across Canada and the United States. More than a dozen U.S. states now include the Great Irish Famine in their high school curricula. Montreal’s flag still has a shamrock in one corner. On March 17 (St. Patrick’s Day) at least seven countries celebrate the Irish among them, including Montserrat, South Korea, and Japan. On this day, many of the people of North America identify themselves as Irish-American: at least twenty-three U.S. and Canadian cities hold St. Patrick’s Day parades, Celtic fests, and Irish fiddle contests; some even illuminate buildings with green lights and images of leprechauns.6 The Irish Famine also remains a popular case study of Malthusian theory. The Famine is cited as an example of the price paid by the Irish poor for their high rate of reproduction and large families, and, not incidentally, for their Catholicism. (Malthus, after all, was a parish priest in the Church of England.) More recently, however, Amartya Sen (and others) redirected our analysis of the underlying causes of this famine to the poverty of the Irish peasants and their inability to access food available in the markets around them. The Great Irish Famine further serves as a central support beam in the construction of the nationalist version of Irish history. It is seen, and taught, as “the historical wrong that sealed the fate of the unhappy Union between Britain and Ireland: a partner so uncaring in time of need deserved no loyalty from Irishmen.”7 The Famine continues to shore up the anti-English version of this history: “The Almighty sent the potato blight, but the English created the Famine.”8 The Irish Famine is also presented as a symbol of the indifference of freemarket or laissez-faire...

Share