Irish potato famine (legacy)
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The Political & Cultural Impact of the Famine
In Ireland
No major party political reaction resulted from the Famine, ironically given its economic, environmental, social but above all personal impact. While Ireland in the 1820s to 1840s had been dominated by the various political movements under Daniel O'Connell, it was not until the 1880s under Charles Stewart Parnell, nearly forty years after the Famine, that a major Irish nationalist political movement, the Home Rule League (later known as the 'Parliamentary Party') appeared. (The Independent Irish Party, formed in June 1852, disintegrated within four years, but was in major decline from 1853 when tenants benefited from a recovery in agricultural prices.)
Outside the mainstream, too, reaction was slow. The 1848 Young Ireland rebellion under Thomas Davis, through occurring at the start of the Famine, was hardly impacted upon by the Famine, as much as by the clash between the 'catholic nationalism' of O'Connell and the pluralist republicanism of Davis. Another rebellion would not occur again until the 1860s under the Fenians/Irish Republican Brotherhood. Historians have speculated that, such was the culture shock on Ireland, the nation was numbed into inaction for decades afterwards; in other words, that politics mattered less to people after the traumatic experiences of the late 1840s.
Most remarkably of all, Ireland remained surprisingly attached to symbols associated with the United Kingdom. Though its electorate was small (as elsewhere), Irish voters up until the mid 1880s continued to vote for the two major British political parties, the Conservatives and the Liberals, with more votes and seats going to the latter, even though it had been the party of government during the Famine! A large body of voters continued to vote for Unionists, who wished to maintain the Union that joined Britain and Ireland right into the twentieth century. (The Dublin township of Rathmines had a unionist dominated council and unionist mayor as late as 1929!)
Even the British Royal Family avoided censure. While later generations of republicans portrayed Queen Victoria as the 'Famine Queen' (who according to myth had only donated a miserly £5 or even £0,5,0 (5 shillings) to famine relief; In fact it was the modern day equivalent of €70,000!) Victoria and her family received surprisingly warm welcomes during Irish visits in the 1850s and 1860s. Contemporary accounts report that political meetings of nationalists in Ireland as late as the 1860s finished with the singing of 'God Save the Queen' 1 while Killeen Castle in County Meath was considered as a possible Irish royal residence at the end of the century.
Irish Emigrants Abroad
If Ireland seemed surprisingly tolerant of British political parties and the monarchy, emigrants were not so. Many Irish emigrants to America quickly associated with republican groups and organisations like the Fenians, in the process often becoming more fanatical and passionate than their brethren at home.
The Famine became a major platform for emigrant anger. John Mitchel, a journalist by trade (who had written for Thomas Davis's newspaper, The Nation before leaving to set up his own paper, only to be arrested, tried for sedition and transported to the penal colony of Van Diemen's Land) proved to be a superb propagandist in the campaign against British rule in Ireland. Analysing the famine, he wrote:
- "The Almighty indeed sent the potato blight but the English created the famine . . . a million and half men, women and children were carefully, prudently and peacefully slain by the English government. They died of hunger in the midst of abundance which their own hands created."2
Though viewed as hyperbole, and rarely quoted by Irish historians as a neutral source, Mitchel's commentary expressed the anger felt by many emigrants, who saw themselves as the dispossessed, forced from Ireland by a famine they blamed on Britain. The famine became a constant issue with Irish Americans, who to an extent perhaps almost unrivalled among emigrant communities in the United States, remained emotionally attached to their native land. Leaders such as John Devoy in later decades came to play a major role in supporting Irish nationalism. It was no accident that the President of Dáil Éireann, Eamon de Valera in 1920 chose to travel to the United States, not elsewhere, in his efforts to get the Irish Republic recognised and accepted, or that when Michael Collins launched special bonds to fund the new Republic, many were sold to Irish Americans.
The Genocide claim
One issue which divides the perspective of Ireland on the history of the Famine from some attitudes among the Irish diaspora is the claim, made by some of the latter, that the Famine amounted to genocide by the British against the Irish. Few Irish historians accept such a definition, which implies a deliberate policy of extermination. While all are agreed that the British policies during the Famine, particularly those applied by the ministry of Lord John Russell, were misguided, ill-informed and frequently counter-productive, with Professor Joe Lee calling what happened a 'holocaust', 3 Irish, British and American historians of the calibre of Professors F.S.L. Lyons, John A. Murphy, Joe Lee, Roy Foster, and James S. Donnelly, Jr, as well as historians Cecil Woodham-Smith, Peter Gray, Ruth Dudley Edwards and many others have long dismissed claims of a deliberate policy of genocide.
Some American writers, however, still insist that happened was genocide, sometimes accusing the overwhelming majority of Irish historians, statisticians and researchers who state otherwise of pushing a 'British point of view', of 'revisionism' and 'rewriting history to make excuses of British imperialism'.
According to Seamus Metress:
- "It would appear that one of the major purposes of Irish revisionism is to undermine the basis of Irish nationalism and leave Ireland without heroes or historical memory. It also plays down the British responsibility for the catastrophic aspects of the Irish experience. Though they alternately whimper or crow about their quest for detached truth, Anglo-Irish revisionists attempt to present sociopolitical propaganda under the guise of scholarly writing. They choose to forget that British rule in Ireland was guided by the rope and the bayonet. "
Few in Ireland accept such an analysis. It is been noted that such views in Ireland are held only by fringe left wing and anti-British movements, and by websites that use fringe republican organisations like Republican Sinn Féin as 'objective' sources on Irish history. While such movements have minuscule support in the Republic of Ireland, 4 with their parties overwhelming rejected in Irish elections, they have a far higher degree of support among many Irish Americans. Such parties not merely dispute the generally held analysis of the Famine, but also until recently refused to accept the legitimacy of the Irish state, its government, police force, army and decisions made by Irish voters, often dismissively referring to them as 'Free Staters' and 'West Brits'.
This division again highlights the differences between Irish people in Ireland and the broader Irish diaspora (mainly in the United States). The movement of Sinn Féin from the 'armalite' to the 'ballot box', and its acceptance of the existence and legitimacy of both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland is leading to a revision of its general analyses on Irish history topics; the Sinn Féin Lord Mayor of Belfast in 2002 laid a wreath commemorating Belfast's War dead in the British army during both world wars, while the party declined to protest at Queen Elizabeth II's golden jubilee visit to Parliament Buildings in Belfast. Its changing attitudes may impact on Irish American perspectives on Irish history and the famine.
The Famine Legacy Today
The modern Republic of Ireland commemorated the 150th anniversary of the Great Famine in the 1990s. It was a contrast, in many ways, with the 100th anniversary in the 1940s. Then, no commemorations were held. It may still have been too traumatic an experience; the children of many Famine survivors were still alive, as indeed were some born in the Famine. Only in the 1990s was the Irish state able to commemorate what was one of the most traumatic experiences in Irish history. British Prime Minister Tony Blair used the opportunity to apologise for the failings of past British governments on the issue. A large amount of new famine studies were produced, many detailing for the first time local experiences. Historians re-examined all aspects of the Famine experience; from practical issues like the number of deaths and emigrants, to the longterm impact it had on society, sexual behaviour, land holdings, property rights and the entire Irish identity. One irony struck observers. In the immediate aftermath of the Famine, two things changed; sexual behaviour underwent a conservative revolution, while the Roman Catholic Church underwent a revival. In the 1990s, as its commemorated the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the Famine, Roman Catholicism through a series of scandals went into massive decline in Ireland, while the sexual mores adopted by the Irish underwent a new more liberal revolution more akin to the pre-famine era.
The Famine in Song
The Famine is also commemorated in song, both from the period and from modern times. The most famous modern song on the famine is The Fields of Athenry, by Pete St. John. Written in three verses, it deals with a fictitious but realistic story of 'Michael' being deported to Botany Bay for stealing corn. Performed in folk, traditional and even reggae versions, its used as a chant by supporters of the catholic Celtic F.C. soccer team. The song itself sums up the sense of despair, anger and bitterness of famine victims. The song was also covered by Boston punk rock band, the Dropkick Murphys on their 2003 "Blackout" album.
Ireland and Modern Famine Relief
Internationally, Ireland has been at the forefront of international famine relief. In 1985, Irish rock star and founder of Live Aid, Bob Geldof revealed that the people of Ireland had given more to his fundraising efforts per head of population than any other nation on earth. Irish famine relief charities, Goal, Concern, Trócaire and Gorta play a central role in helping famine victims throughout Africa. In 2000, Bono, lead singer with Irish band U2, played a central role in campaigning for debt relief for African nations in the Jubilee 2000 campaign, while Mary Robinson as president visited Rwanda to highlight injustices, before becoming the United Nations Commissioner on Human Rights. Though no longer subscribing to the belief that the famine was a purely deliberate act by Britain (the John Mitchel thesis still popular in the US), the Irish famine experience continues to shape Ireland and Irish people in their attitudes towards the third world and famine victims everywhere.
Footnotes
- Note 1: James H. Murphy, Abject Loyalty: Nationalism and Monarchy in Ireland During the Reign of Queen Victoria
- Note 2: John Mitchel, The Last Conquest of Ireland
- Note 3: Lee, op.cit. p.3.
- Note 4: Of the 166 seats in Dáil Éireann and the 60 seats in Irish Senate (total: 226) Sinn Féin have 5, Republican Sinn Féin 0, Socialist Party 1, Socialist Workers Party 0, Communist Party of Ireland 0.
Additional Reading
- Joseph Lee, The Modernisation of Irish Society (ISBN 0717105679) (Gill and Macmillan)
- F.S.L. Lyons, Ireland Since the Famine (ISBN 0006860052)
- James H. Murphy, Abject Loyalty: Nationalism and Monarchy in Ireland During the Reign of Queen Victoria (ISBN 1859183344) (Cork University Press, 2001)