| What economic features in Ireland caused the Famine to be so terrible? |
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| Following the famine - Ireland |
The Irish Economy in 1847 Ireland in 1847 was an agricultural country that exported food to industrializing England, Scotland, and Wales. Most of the country was divided up into huge estates run by landlords who were mainly Protestant and sometimes “absentee” (lived in England), although their bailiffs, agents and rent collectors were usually Irish. So were the local police who enforced the laws and the merchants, hauliers, dockers and shipping agents who transported food for export. Small tenant farmers rented land on the estates of the landlords. The Irish often fattened cows, grew crops, or pigs to pay the rent and grew potatoes to feed their families. The population explosion of the 18th-19th centuries created a “land hunger” so that rents were pushed high. This land system was not efficient. Many of the estates were deeply in debt before the Famine, and the tenant landholdings were too small to support a family properly. Food was exported from Ireland throughout the Famine years including 1847. The Irish poor could not afford to buy this food before the Famine. Eviction (throwing tenants off the land for not paying rent) put about half a million people on the roads, and meant that even fewer people could afford to buy food. There were no methods and no desire in those days to give poor people themselves enough money to buy Irish food or imported food.  Poor Relief (help) was paid by local, not by national British taxes. The starving areas were supposed to raise the money themselves to feed their poor. British charities and churches, in contrast to the British government, gave massive relief. The economic ideology (viewpoint) of the time opposed using national tax money even if people were starving. In fact, most people felt that sellers of food had a right to make profits out of high prices. Local landlords had to pay the increased Poor Relief yet were also receiving far less in rents from their starving tenants. The British press at the time blamed starvation on the greedy landlords not on a negligent British government. Some landlords did all they could but estates in debt before the Famine, went bankrupt during the Famine. Both large estates and very small tenant farms were victims of the Famine. The number of farms decreased but the size of the average farm increased to become an economically more efficient unit. A major problem was the way Poor Relief was given. It was not efficient and sometimes caused more problems than it solved. At first, the poor had to go to workhouses and abandon their farms. Workhouses were swamped. It took the government several years to allow soup kitchens to take the food to the poor. Governments were worried that they would encourage the poor to be dependent on Poor Relief and tried “make work” projects. However, these “public work projects” were often pointless and carried out in winter, which led to the deaths of many attempting to keep their jobs.  International aid poured in to add to the money raised in Ireland and Britain. Prints in the London Illustrated News showed pictures of the Famine throughout the world. The new print media had generated what were probably the first global efforts at Famine relief. Yet, not enough money was raised and not enough help was given to stop the tragedy. The long drawn-out years of Famine also produced the first recorded examples of “compassion fatigue” and “donor fatigue.” Even the Quakers, who had done so much to bring economic aid to Ireland, could not maintain their economic level of support. As with today’s famines in Africa, people seem to tire of the media coverage. There is a debate about the economic help given by the British government. The idea of society was very different then. Essentially, God not people was supposed to have established the economic framework of society. The government had a policy of laissez faire, let the market decide the prices. However, unemployed men, let alone sick and starving women and children, could not pay the market price demanded for food in the Ireland of 1847. The British state failed to create a government structure capable of dealing with the starvation of its citizens. It also failed to change its economic thinking in the face of spectacular starvation. Most important of all, the government failed to import sufficient food to feed the 30-40% of the population put at risk because the blight had destroyed their food source.  In the long run, the Famine helped to create land reform, a new class of farmer owners, and raised the wages of those labourers left to farm. Demographically (population numbers), Ireland did not recover from the Famine. Early marriages were discouraged and family sizes fell. Marriages were often used to bring land holdings together rather than the traditional marriage for love. We see many songs from the time of sweethearts unable to marry and one or other young person forced to emigrate. Ireland continued to suffer from mass emigration as there were few opportunities for the sons and daughters who would not inherit the family farm. This in turn helped to create a political impact. The Famine fueled a Fenian movement, and Irish nationalism at home and abroad. Memories of 1847 were used as a weapon against the British presence in Ireland and help explain the success by the 1920’s of the “Home Rule” movement (Irish independence). |