How the Irish famine impacted Ireland forever | Union - BBC
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- Опубликовано: 15 ноя 2023
- "The famine is an open wound in Ireland." In 1846, millions of poor Irish people faced starvation. The Irish famine still has impacts today.
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The future of the Union is today at greater threat than at any time in living memory. In this ambitious four-part, landmark series David Olusoga uncovers the long history of union and disunion, tracing their origins back centuries.
The fracture lines of our current division run along the borders between the 'home nations' but we are also disunited by social class and inequality, by England's north-south divide and the historic dominance of London. Our disunity can be told through the historic rise and fall of what are today called 'left-behind towns' and the long history of our rural-urban divide.
David’s own personal experience connect him to several regions of the UK, each with their own strong identities. He grew up in a working-class community in the North East of England, a politically independent region with an antipathy towards London. And as a mixed-race child who came Britain in the 1970s, he has seen for himself how complex and nuanced the relationship between the individual and the nations of the UK can be.
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There would h been no famine if England aren’t systematically striped the Irish of all land and wealth, barred them from the professions, excluded them from education and stopped them from inheriting land. They paid rent to work the poorest land. You forgot to mention all that.
Wrong
The worst part which concerns modernity is that almost all well preserved records of famines which happened in the empire in India are of British officials themselves
And so we will never get to know what really took place on the ground other than some folk-tales and some rare accounts of common people who had to go great lengths to not have their records destroyed by the empire on charges of "terrorism"
I hope this wasn't the case in Ireland, and that the Irish can tell their own history from the accounts of Irish people
Also some Indians like me admire Ireland for the way it stands in solidarity with Palestine
❤ 🇮🇪🍀
@@user-fg8it6kp3e we can argue about intent until the cows come home, but there is nothing controversial or wrong about the above statement.
@@jamesrockett6267 Ireland had free primary education since the 1820s, there wss Catholic lawyers in the 1700s, there were Catholics attending Westminster during the famine era.
@@user-fg8it6kp3e so do I call you user, or fg8it6kp3e, you know, what do your mates call you.maybe fg8 for short, I await further clarification and possibly sources. Further to you’re list of things that don’t directly deal with the point being made. Systematic and widespread discrimination. Impoverishment to a degree that was widely noted at the time as being unusual. At best a complete lack of care, at worst prejudice to a abhorrent degree, and dehumanisation. This is accepted and documented historical fact.
Why doesn't this video tell us the fact that the British forcefully shipped food from Ireland to England under armed guard?
This!
before watching this video I already know England had something to do with starting the famine.
There is a sin when anyone takes advantage of the poor, weak and hungry ones...just because they can.
It's the BBC. I'm UK born of my Irish parents so I am a plastic but still an Irish man. I went to a Catholic grammar school in Birmingham which was 95% Irish and they never mentioned Irish history
@@user-in7hz1nu8l
Its on the curriculum at A Level. So you have to have twice chosen to study history before you get more real details.
It was genocide. Same thing Brits did in India. There was an abundance of wildlife, sea life and vegetation in Ireland that was taken from us and shipped to England.
"Genocide" is a much over used term these days.
@@Mkundera an attempt with intent to physically destroy in whole or in part a national, ethnical, racial or religious group.
The only reason it wouldn’t fall under this is that you would argue the British ruling class were apathetic and not intending to destroy.
“The real evil with which we have to contend is not the physical evil of the Famine but the moral evil of the selfish, perverse and turbulent character of the people.”
- Charles Trevelyan, December 1846.
“For our parts, we regard the potato blight as a blessing. When the Celts once cease to be potato eaters, they must become carnivorous. With the taste of meats will grow the appetite for them; with the appetite, the readiness to earn them. With this will come steadiness, regularity, and perseverance; unless, indeed, the growth of these qualities be impeded by the blindness of Irish patriotism, short-sighted indifference of petty landlords, or the random recklessness of Government benevolence.”
- The Times, September 1846.
This is a tiny section of the depraved commentary by British ruling class and press on a calamity that happened on their door step that at absolute best they were so ideologically corrupted they allowed to fester and worsen or exacerbate by the few actions they took
@@Mkundera
.and who uses it ?
British like for Ukraine.
@@Mkunderanot really.what term would you call it ? Not famine as abundance of food ,so much so that exported food, drink and livestock to British Army in all her Empires ,mainland England and Europe and of course all the Ulster Scott planters . the denial of food, land homes, human rights, dignity ,language, Education , music,dance ,arts family and right to live, that over 2 million died from avoidable starvation and disease . What's a term acceptable for you ?
@@ko0974 Well given that the potato blight affected the whole of Europe not just Ireland and that the British public organised a huge relief effort of their own, not "genocide"
But of course if someone has such deep seated animosity towards an out group they'll say anything to irredeemably damn them won't they?
Not like the BBC to glaze over the British Treatment of Ireland, what a terrible snippet this is, no mention on why Ireland was so dependent on Potatoes in the first place, no mention on why Ireland was so poor, no mention on absentee landlords, no mention that Soap Kitchens had conditions of conversion to Protestantism, no mention evictions, no mention of the food being exported to England from Ireland etc etc
Why does it need to be raised at all? This occurred 200 years ago? It's only raised because it's part of the psychological warfare which is waged on British people as part of the wider assault on all Europeans. But Paddy is too eaten up to see that
No one forced Irish merchants to keep selling food to Britain (i.e not just England). And of course you deliberately leave out the huge public relief effort which ordinary British organised for Ireland, one of the first in the world
Exactly.
To be fair, the video is about how the famine impacted Ireland forever not about why the famine happened.
@@jcdawg8363 True. However, the editorial line needs to be careful not to downplay the factors that lead to it, so that the younger generations and those who don't read books and watch videos in RUclips and TikTok understand history at a level that truly reflect the nature of such a catastrophic event.
@@jcdawg8363 The reasons why have also impacted Ireland forever, though. Generations sitting with the knowledge of what was done to our country has had an impact on the way we look at the world.
"Supplied food"- took any grain off the Irish to ship abroad.
"Ran soup kitchens"- wouldn't feed anyone unless they denounced their belief and converted to protestants.
Poor relief during the Victorian era was hardly great in the best of times. The practice for food to convert was actually quite rare.
One of the biggest problems was the idea of food for free was seen as a near absurdity, so people who were already hungry were put to work, oft hard work. This would contribute to deaths, as they would typically be paid at the end of a month of such work. In the case of working men dying would leave their families in very poor positions.
@@tisFrancesfault you are correct when you say 'food for conversions' ('soup-takers') was rare. The real story, unfortunately, is a lot worse. The 'penal law' era went from 1658 until 1869. It was 300 years of a more populated and better resourced ethnicity grinding the Irish down generation after generation.
@@tisFrancesfaultI think specifically it was the ideology of the Whigs that was the root cause of much of the damage.
The Conservatives under Peel had enacted some forms of food aid but the British press and view was of a lazy problematic people that were taking from the English.
Laissez faire and Malthusian ideology lead the British ruling class to decide that Ireland must suffer to redeem itself
@@beaglaoich4418Except that neglects the fact that they continued importing food from Ireland to make sure the poor in England didn’t see price increases. So there was explicit bigotry in taking food away from Ireland where the poor were starving to feed the poor in England.
That was only some soup kitchens not state ones do keep up darling
You have ignored, totally, the role of the English in the years prior to 1845. Why were these tenant farmers eking out a living on ridiculously small land holdings? The Popery Act (Penal Law) of 1704. And why a single crop? The plots were so small that no crop other than the potato could provide adequate nutrition to feed a family. To focus on potato blight as the cause of this human tragedy is disingenuous. Do better!
Ulster Unionists who mainly Presbyterians where also under the Penal Laws quickly they forgot after Act of Union 1800.
You mean the same land issues which affected "the English"? The ordinary people who were forced off the common land by the same landed gentry? The people who organised a huge public relief effort for Ireland, one of the first in the world?
The potato blight affected the whole of Europe by the way. And you only drag up events from TWO HUNDRED YEARS ago to justify your own animosity
I simply adore the Irish culture. They are fighters. I just read two books about this horrific history. One was a first hand account & it hit me to my core. My husband’s family immigrated to Newfoundland at this time. It was actually like a genocide what was done to those poor souls. Very heartbreaking.
Actually pretty peaceful. Very few fight
That's because it was...love Newfoundlanders so similar listening to accents and tone and values at times could be the same place
The Irish emigration to Ireland happened earlier than the 1840s. I presume your husband's immigrant ancestors came with the rest of the Irish who came as fishermen in the 1820s and 1830s. Most of these Irish refugees from the Potato Famines came to Quebec City area or to the American ports or St John's, New Brunswick, I think.. I have Irish ancestry as well, but my immigrant ancestor, John Jeffers was Protestant and came from Rhode Island where he was born to replace the expelled Acadians in 1760. Prior to that, the family was in Ireland and probably came from the Co. Cork area. The story of Irish emigration to Newfoundland is truly interesting. Google "Irish emigration to Newfoundland" and read about the true story. This is not to say that some Irishmen didn't emigrate to Newfoundland much later. My Newfoundland boyfriend with the last name, Joyce had a grandfather who came to Newfoundland in the 19th century, i believe. My boyfriend was born in 1948 to the youngest son of his grandfather. The grandfather came on his own and not because he was part of a wave of Irish emigration.
It's actually A Genocide.
Well. they're famous for drunken violence and were mainstays of the British army and were over-represented among the imperial officialdom - if that's what you mean?
No, no genocide was committed. Unless that's just your guilty conscience about the First Nations in Canada???
You don't actually know the first thing about the Irish
There were fish in the rivers and streams and rabbits/hare and deer in the forests but they were forbidden to hunt or fish under severe penalties. Plenty of food was exported while people in Ireland starved and died of diseases brought on by the poor health due to lack of nourishment amongst other factors.
More food was imported to Ireland from 1847 onwards and of course no one forced Irish merchants to keep selling their food abroad. But that gets in the way of the tale of evil doesn't it. Not to mention the huge public relief effort which ordinary British organised for Ireland, one of the first in the world
A Relief effort after most of them died just to save face?
People are starving near death, and still forced to work for a meal, how does that make sense?
Leave it to the BBC to spin the famine in a nearly exculpatory way. In over seven minutes, just two sentences address how the English made things worse. So much of their aggressively genocidal views and policies toward the Irish are omitted here.
What is ommitted?
Well they did make it worse
@@Ceiteach.O.Duibhir Who's "they"? The tiny number of Whig politicians? Or the ordinary British people who organised one of the world's first relief efforts?
@@mitchamcommonfair9543the third biggest landlord in Ireland the Chancellor of the exchequer triple he rent when heard a famine was starting.
The only part of Europe not too have a famine of some at this, is the island of Britain.
@Tereyoc Which chancellor? Two governments (Peel & Russell) dealt with famine or didn't you know that?. And you're wrong if you think British people didn't have famine. The 1840s was known as the 'Hungry Forties' in England. Or do you think all English/British people lived in castles?
No mention of how the English exported all the vegetables for their own consumption while the Irish starved.
The wigs goverments were majority english so was the monarch @@msmissy6888
This isn't true. Grain prices went up, and in fact, the 1840s were known as 'the hungry forties' in England. Though obviously nowhere near as bad as the situation in much of Ireland
@@mitchamcommonfair9543 LOL thanks for defending the colonizers, they really need the support
@@mitchamcommonfair9543it is ,you can Google food exports from Ireland to England for that time period and it's all there in black and white .
@@ko0974 I know the exports and imports. Food exports went down after early 1847, imports overtook them, why don't you know this?
We visited the Famine Museum in Skibbereen, never forget the tragedy and the generosity of many, especially the Choctaw Nation.
Look at the famines in India during the British Raj...I'm sensing a pattern here...
The Muslim League hoarding food?
@@jacobfield4848 stop making up rubbish. The British literally stopped American aid from reaching Bengal during the Bengal Famine. And there were several famines all over the country over more than a century and a half, you think all those were due to the Muslim League hoarding food? Many of those famines predate the formation of the Muslim League.
I hope you do more of these Irish history documentaries, few in England knows Irelands history.
I hope you don’t do more Irish documentaries, as you failed miserably to present a complete, unbiased description of the horrific events that killed and displaced millions. You have perpetuated a “blame the victim” narrative that does little to inform those who don’t read history, and anger those who do.
im irish and have met in my many years many brits who DO KNOW our troubled shared history in particular - an Gorta Mór, we simply cannot assume everyone in England - UK no nothing, let me also say a good number of the brits I've met don't have irish ancestry so we simply cannot assume EVERYONE in UK - England no nothing.......
and ive had english people say to my face charles trevelyan , lord russell and others were terrible ppl who made terrible decisions in the famine years and those decisions have effects to this very day 😥
plus i may add ive met many in both scotland and wales who know LITTLE of irish history so imo and others it isnt just "the english"
Why should we? I tried reading about Irish history once and it gave me a headache all the fractious clans and various political organisations
What you really want is a permanent guilt trip putting on ordinary English people for things they have no responsibility for to sate your own neuroses
It's so concerning the fact Ireland hasn't recovered its population from 1845. Many died, many left Ireland, the ones who live nowadays in Ireland, their ancestors survived the famine and not only that, they survived the famine, the Easter rising, the Irish independence war, the civil war, those who lived in Northern Ireland through the troubles.
How did the British didn't expect the Irish wouldn't do anything after losing like 20-30% of their population?
My great grandfather was born during the great famine. In a small stone cottage down a rural road (if you could call it that) in the west of the country. On the small road there were a half dozen families living in similar circumstances. In those families there were many children as was common in those days. I’ve been there many times as my family farm the land there to this day,a small modest holding. There’s nothing but heaps of stones in a field now where those houses once stood. All of those families emigrated or had to relocate as a result of living in those hard times.
I read a comment before from a foreigner living in Ireland that the history of this county is palpable. That Irish people speak of the likes of Brian Boru and other historical figures as though they were only here recently and like family of theirs. I guess we are a large clan and always have seen ourselves in that way.
The degrees of separation in this country seem and often are so small no matter where you travel in the land. It’s comforting and creates a familiarity and bond with strangers that you rarely see elsewhere.
This hits hard. Once again, we see the poor, now in Palestine trying to live on flatbread. My people were the McVeighs of County Down... became fishermen to try to stay alive. Many perished , the Irish coast is dangerous. Would appreciate information about the fishermen too.
Have you ever read about the centuries of Irish slave raids against England and Wales or the colonisation of Scotland?
Agreed. We’re learning our history which was ignored. This is indeed an open wound and there’s still a trauma present whether one lives in Ireland or left a century and half ago. Ireland was the closest colony not to mention other countries and “famines”. There remains an unspoken, quiet anger. She sent her children to all corners like dandelion in the wind. Visit the famine pits and the graveyards in such a small country.
Ireland was not a colony. A kingdom in its right and part of the United Kingdom with officials of elected to west miser
It's an open wound because you want it to be. Of course if we were to say Irish slave raids for centuries against England and Wales and the colonisation of Scotland were still open wounds the Irish would sign a rather different tune. There remains an "unspoken anger" because of the emotional disposition that the Irish are famous for - if they're not blaming Britain or England, they're blaming the Catholic church. If it's not the Catholic church, it's now immigrants
You're just too blind to see how all these issues are used as part of pscyhological warfare against European people. In America it's "slavery", in Britain "colonialism", in Germany "the Holocaust", in Scandanavia "the Vikings" and in Ireland, ironically, the history of emigration
I strongly feel the pain of these people with whom I have no relation. What a strong pain runs in them 😢.
This is truly tragic.
Not just tragic but also has far reaching political consequences even into modern age i.e sizeable Irish Catholic populations in major UK cities, Eastern USA, Australia, Canada, Mexico etc.
The tragedy is how much context is missing from this clip
@@maxpowerii7368 And still being used politically today i.e as part of the psychological warfare on ordinary British people in service of globalism
Living in small rural holdings because of the huge land grabs by successive British rulers.Take your land and lease it back at high rents.
The English were driven off altogether and forced to sell their labour in the towns
Mo bhrón! Mo bhrón! Mo bhrón!
This is personal. It is not something that has nothing to do with me - for it runs in my veins.
Out of remembrance, gratitude and obligation to you my most recent brave Irish ancestors (especially to you my beloved great grandparents of west and northeast County Cork of the 1840s and 50s), do I try in my own poor literary way to let the world know that we do not lay down as abandoned potato ridges or crumbling away stone cottages, no; no we survive and in our surviving are we and you been given strength to grow and flourish anew.
Bravo to you my brave ancestors!
Go raibh míle maith agaibh.
It runs in your veins because you want it to
Is the doc. cut at at the end... ? It looks like to me. If that's the case if someone can tell me please where to find it complete... Thank you ☘️
documentary ? more like a propaganda
Permanently divided Britain and Ireland... Forever..
The British armed forces had at the time 130 regiments...67 based in Ireland..Genocide committed in our country..Food moved out of the country to feed Britain & the empire...Dublin
All the land of ireland was owned by the landlords, many of them absentees who inherited their estates and put agents in charge. The poor people all had to pay rent and even in bad times most landlords still demanded the rent from starving tenants. The famine was the catalyst that caused the Irish people to fight for ownership of the land and independence.
Jeremiah O'Donovan Rossa's account covers all the economic problems of rents, agents and money lenders that made the blight truly a disaster and why he ended up bombing English cities.
Have you ever read about the centuries of Irish slave raids against England and Wales or the colonisation of Scotland?
English and Irish are legitimate children of this planet.
Metaphysician
&
Philosopher
It wasn't a famine, it was genocide.
This is how our genocide was explained to us when we were children in the 1980's American schools.
Fun fact of the day, food exports from ireland ordered by the british government increased during the time of the famine
What actually increased was food imports TO Ireland from 1847 onwards
No one forced Irish merchants to keep selling their food
My ancestors ended up in north east england after the famine
and embrace Protestant Christianity ?
The famine didn't just affect Ireland, but also Scotland.
The greatest diservice you can do to any people
Is to separate them from
Their History.
George Orwell
Author and Prophet.
Emmanuel Sweeney.
Ireland has done a very good job on the separation side.
There is no mention that Ireland was producing enough meat and grain to feed itself, but that these were being exported as cash crops by Britain to Britain. Or that the Irish were not allowed to own land, so were reduced to trying to survive on tiny plots of potatoes. There is a lot of dancing around the bush in this piece!
Incorrect, it was not a famine, if 40 plus ships left irish ports full of food each day, then it was not a Famine, it was a Genocide.
With respect to the Documentary makers, first and foremost the term 'Famine' does not apply to the devastation from 1845-51 in Ireland... There was enough Grain and Beef to feed three times the population. ( 8.5 m)
This was a planned and systematic clearing of the Land of the ' surplus population'- 3.5 m.
To understand fully may I humbly suggest the following Books in this order.....
'Welcome to the Stranger'
Annals of the Famine'
(Nicholson)
' The Graves are Walking'
' The Famine Plot'
............
thank you
Have you ever read about the centuries of Irish slave raids against England and Wales or the colonisation of Scotland? That was very much deliberate. Rather than the conspiracy theories dreamed up today
@@OnlineEnglish-wl5rp Yes , The Irish did raid Britain throughout the 5th cent..
St Patrick was one of those Slaves_ And he was a Welshman!
Not sure what the connection to The Great Hunger is though.........
@@paulmcardle9542 The connection is anyone can play the historical blame game. These articles have got nothing to do with what did or didn't happen in the past, they're part of a demonisation effort. In other European countries they use different events. That's why we never hear about the various famines which happened in Britain or the Enclosure movement or Highland clearances
The Blight killed the Potatoes, the brits killed the Irish.
The normal Anglophobic hate from the BBC. There was a European famine from 1840 to 1870. The British exported more food in 1847 to Ireland than at any time before, sadly it got there too late. The absentee landlords were indeed to blame for many of the deaths and they should have been put on trial for this. The same % of deaths happened from the same famine in Finland shortly after as in Ireland. Ireland was "not" the only country affected and was "not" more affected than other European countries from the European famine. Just Anglophobic hate from the BBC, as usual.
I guess they didn't have helicopters or hercules planes back then. It is a very sad story.
What?
Helicopter or Hercules to do what ? to prevent the Ottoman empire from helping the people in Ireland ?
No mention of the Catholic Church increasing it s land ownership during the famine .and not forgetting more well to do irish farmers also increasing land ownership...
What caused the famine,also talk about the help of sultan abdulmajid and the ottoman empire
Or the relief effort organised by ordinary British people. Oh wait, that would get in the way of demonising them
It’s actually inaccurate, as more people left Ireland from 1911 because of poverty than in the Irish famine, but this narrative is very useful as a political deflection. The Ulster border regions were also the most heavily impacted by the Irish famine and outmigration.
If the Republic of Ireland had not suffered continuous outmigration because of poverty, its population would have recovered a long time ago, as have other populations around the world.
Why does England have a reputation for starving people 🇺🇸
This is bollocks! the Irish don't 'just eat potatoes' - they eat all kinds of food - same as any place in the UK.
...and Irish-Canadians
Irishman, never forget what they did to you.
Genocide, Same policy as the Indian Famine/Genocide
It's funny how often the word "genocide" is bandied round these days. Almost as if the people who do it have genocidal thoughts themselves. Do you have genocidal thoughts? The population of India doubled during the period of the British empire. Some genocide
Genocide*
Sir I want help sir
Help me
Hey what's wrong?
Are you okay ?
Uh no sorry guys, ask our American conservatives, they need to stop complaining and get to work!
being poor doesn't mean you don't have the capabilities to think ahead, they weren't bright enough to think, what will we do if where're unable to grow any more potatoes, for some reason I still blame the British on this.
Well yeah because the British forced them to rely on potatoes by taking all of their other crops and restricting them to ridiculously small plots where other crops simply would not have enough yield to feed everyone, they probably did think ahead but there was nothing they could do that wouldn't result in starving
Not only the penal laws make this comment utterly ridiculous but also the fact that most of Europe relied on potato at the same scale but nowhere else was as utterly devastated by blight as Ireland was because of the economic policies of the union and the lack of remorse or care by certain elements of the British ruling class-par for the course
No the fact is your not bright enough to think
Do any gullible bleeding hearts in this comment section wonder why such British giants as BP had seismological depth sampling of the VAST quantities of oil underground in the North of Ireland? It's NO coincidence why England guards the North. Drunk Paddy's don't realise that ground with oil underneath can even grow yams (sweet potato) of an edible variety. We're taught this in Australia in "Cubs" (infant to junior age boy-scouts) bushwalks. I've eaten them after washing them in creeks too. This was at an age of around 10yrs old too! Aboriginal tribal Elders showed me how to tell where oil is & knew this for THOUSANDS of years. I mean, come on.
Dude British Protestant Anglicans owned most of the land and were absentee landlords the Anglo Irish who were Irish of English descent and Ulster Scots Presbyterians in Ulster did the English bidding for their handouts.
Seáfoid, amach is amach!
People are always immigrating off that island, has nothing to do with a famine!
😂😂😂
That’s why the Irish diaspora is one of the largest relative to its population.
Most of the migration happened in the 19th century unless you’re on about poor Presbyterians that were persecuted in the union that emigrated a century before or the ex soldiers that became indentured servants sent to the Caribbean in the 16th century.
Emigration at this scale is not normal or before the famine and intrinsic part of the Irish psyche
@@beaglaoich4418 Poor Ulster-Scots Presbyterians were opressed under Penal Laws in the 18th Century after the Act of Union 1800 gradually became pro Union and identified as British due to sectarian and jealousy of the British due to sectarian and jealousy of the