The Great Irish Famine - Impact, Ideology, and Rebellion by Christine Kinealy - Essay Example

Number] The Great Irish Famine The Great Irish Famine: Impact, Ideology, and Rebellion is written by Christine Kinealy and was published by Palgrave Macmillan in 2001. The potato famine in 1845-51 was an event which was a turning point in the development of Ireland. The crisis was a miserable one which greatly impacted all aspects of Irish life. The book focuses on the major historical events that took place at that time but it does not only give a general history of the events but also explores the aspects that have received lesser attention such as rise in crime rates, role of religion, political consequences, food export controversy, the rebellion, and the impact of the 1849 uprising. This essay will focus on Christine Kinealy’s findings on the famine, mostly related to the relationship of Britain and Ireland during the years of the famine including relationship of the famine with churches, with monarchy, and the nationalist movement. Ever since the famine occurred in 1845, there have been a number of books and literature works published on it, yet the work of Kinealy has taken the famine literature to another level. Kinealy uses many sources and research materials that were otherwise not used to evaluate the famine. With these sources, she demonstrated another aspect of the famine with the relationship of Ireland and Britain during the famine. She focused on the role of the government and also on the importance of saving lives through private charity. Another aspect which Kinealy focuses on is the food supply which no one had ever discussed before. She talked about how Ireland produced enough food even after the potato blight. It was her work which gave a new vision to the impact of the famine and the aspects which were given least attention. The book is an evaluation of Kinealy’s survey A Death Dealing Famine which she conducted in 1997. Her intention towards this book was not to give a general history, but to examine the famine through the number of different contexts and through her narrative. On her research of different contexts, there is new material presented on charity, memory, and the religious response. The interpretation of Kinealy is identical to the controversial claim in 1997 that Ireland had in reality not suffered with deficit of food and the famine was artificial. Kinealy carried out a lot of research on the famine and chose to write about her ideology. Her book was highly criticized as it gave a different yet true picture of the Irish famine after about 50 years of misinterpretation. Her view and research actually shook some of the most commonly accepted interpretations as she presented some concrete evidence to the aspect that the British government was aware of the tragedy before it had unfolded in Ireland but they chose to deliberately limit their response due to social and economic philosophy. She has used authentic sources after which she concluded that the British actually did know what was about to happen in Ireland. Kinealy contributed greatly to the re-examination of the Irish famine and how it is actually remembered in the history. Her research has impacted the scholars greatly as they criticized her to rekindle the past at a time of Peace Process. She was also questioned and criticized to challenge the work of great historians who had interpreted the famine. These historians had argued that social and demographic forces in Ireland such as overpopulation and dependence on the potato crop were the reasons that had made the catastrophe unchangeable. Kinealy also challenged the research of historians who believed that the famine was not a watershed in the modern Ireland development, instead other events such as end of Napoleon Wars was more important which lead to a boom in the agricultural exports and contributed in development of modern Ireland (Kinealy 49). The role of the British Government during the years of the famine could have been much more, as most analysts and historians today believe. The British Government had limited resources available in the 19th century, but there was much more that they could have achieved. Analysts believed that if they had installed soup kitchens earlier and continued them for a longer time, many lives would have been saved. Moreover, the government spent only £8.3 million in response to the Great Famine which amounts to about 0.5% of the annual GNP of Britain. This money was provided as loans, not as grants (Kinealy 49). The money helped the Irish relief committees but the loans were eventually written off. Ireland was part of the Great Britain at that time which had a highly advancing economy and was the most economically stable society of that time. They failed largely in preventing their citizens from starving and dying of hunger. Kinealy gives various reasons for the failure of the British to prevent the Great Famine. The British landowners stifled the plans of the Government since they had the fear of having their estates burdened with over taxation. Government ministers also believed that the landlords in Ireland were responsible for this tragedy that overpowered the nation. They wanted the Irish landlords to pay for the poverty. The British Government also strongly believed that this potato blight should be taken as an opportunity to change and reform the agriculture in Ireland. The surplus population could have been cleared away and a prosperous group of farmers could take over the agricultural industry. Hence, the British Government carried their viewpoint along the way and that resulted in deaths and hunger across Ireland (Kinealy 53). As soon as the famine broke out, the Prime Minister, Sir Robert Peel, abolished the Corn Laws that had held the prices of corn very high. Even though his own party opposed this decision, he also carried out a £100,000 indirect government purchase of maize which was to be used for Ireland. He also set up a relied commission that would encourage landlords to raise money and to employ peasants on their estates. He introduced a board of works to involve people in employment in public construction (Kinealy 93). These measures tended to be marginally successful. The worst contribution that Peel made was to appoint Charles Trevelyan as the man in charge. Peel’s measures were successful to a certain extent and did cause deaths, but it was much better than what happened later. The government of Peel was replaced in 1846 with a Liberal government which was obsessed with laissez faire policies. Trevelyan was also a free market liberal which made him much happier with the liberal government. Trevelyan and Charles Wood, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, introduced the free market lunacy in Ireland’s situation (Kinealy 102). This policy had made it clear that the potato crop is going to fail further in the years to come which would lead to an inevitable disaster. But they both continued to believe that what is happening in Ireland is solely because of their dependence on the government. This meant that the government led their hands off Ireland and left them without even the limited help that was initiated by Peel. The new government closed all food depots that were given, the public works should be paid in the local Ireland rates, and the exports from Ireland were not to be changed or hampered in any way. This led to food being produced and exported in large number while people were dying of hunger. Religion was also a great influence in the tragedy of the Great Irish Famine. The religious aspect is one which cannot be denied or ignored. Some of the most important policy makers were influenced strongly by the Protestant Evangelicalism. They strongly believed that the Potato famine was a way in which God was rooting out the Catholic moral and social evils. Historians have also talked about the influence of a specific strain of Protestant evangelicalism on policy makers. In this strain, the horrors of the Great Famine were interpreted as God’s terrible and unquestionable providence to root out the moral and social evils (Kinealy 169). The Great Irish Famine had attracted a large number of international donations and fundraising activities for the first time. These donations cut through the traditional discrimination of religion, class, and nationality. However, Kinealy discusses in her book that none of the Irish people actually asked for charity throughout the famine period. In fact, it was England that sought charity and donations on behalf of Ireland. All the charities and donations were collected and received by England, and they were also responsible to administer it. The British Press also marked that Ireland came to England for help and begged for help from all other nations. But this was untrue as no one from Ireland ever asked for any favours from England or anyone else. England became the agent that collected the charity throughout and also enjoyed the profit of it (Kinealy 74). Donations came in great numbers from various nations. The first came from Calcutta, India where Irish soldiers were employed and serving the East India Company. Other Irish Quakers raised money from outside Ireland and contributed greatly in providing relief. Their funds were worth about £200,000 throughout the country which made a huge difference. Other many international fundraising groups were formed including the British Relief Association (Kinealy 72). Private individuals made charities but for a small amount of time as they got dried up. But these individual charities contributed to the relief and saved the lives of many. Queen Victoria is known as ‘The Famine Queen’ as she donated £2,000 in 1847 to the British Relief Association. She was the largest single donor at that time and her involvement was greatly criticized. Another private charity was made by the Sultan of Turkey who donated £1,000. Pope Pius IX, the head of the Roman Catholic Church of Rome, also supported the Irish poor greatly (Kinealy 78). One of the key arguments made by Kinealy was on the production of sufficient food in the famine years and that food being exported resulting in mass starvation. Kinealy makes her argument in chapter four of her book focusing on the failure to secure food stocks in the markets. The availability of food and production of food which was exported was simply the sign of the starvation gap that existed (Kinealy 99). Kinealy was criticized for not proving her point in this part of the book. She lacks government statistics, a detailed economic analysis, and adequate data that would have explained her point clearer. The government policies were simply politically-motivated to support the merchant class of Ireland in the election year. This political ideology was a policy of the British to get an easy way out of the complexity. Kinealy supported her point with the help of data and shipping manifests that had not been examined before. She researched and found out that ships loaded with grains had been continued as exports from all ports of Ireland to Britain. The free market regulations had created havoc and weakened the flow of goods from both directions. The issue of food exports show that the political ideology has played a major role than financial motivations which have been underestimated. This led to the neglected role of both Irish merchants and farmers (Kinealy 111). Kinealy argued in her book that historians believe that the increase in food exports in the years of the famine clearly showed that the Irish were themselves responsible for the famine and they were principally to be blamed. However, she argues that the poverty, dependence on one potato crop, and the government policies were all imposed by the British. It is re-examined to be the greatest tragedy in the history of Ireland merely because it was largely preventable. It is popularly believed that the Irish people did not show resistance towards the extreme government measures and policies or the continued export of food stocks by the ruling class. Kinealy mentions that protests, assassinations, and demonstrations were usual at the years of famine as the Irish people resisted to the extreme measures (Kinealy 192). There were frequent protests being carried out at markets where food was exported and often they would explode into riots. There were also times when tenants actually attacked their landlords. Because of these protests, the food exports were mostly accompanied with military protection. However, it is true that such resistance was never strong enough to actually develop into a movement and stop the measures and policies that were making the famine worse. Ireland, at the time, was supporting the growing population of the English cities, because of which the solutions to problems were rather dependant on political and economic solutions instead of local protests (Kinealy 183). These protests existed but they were no good to the condition of the famine. By 1851, the Irish population was broken as they suffered the tragic famine and severe deaths. However, these protests did further come about in 1870s against the British landlords and over a course of several years; it resulted in the Irish independence. Conclusively, Kinealy is an insightful author and researcher who has focused on all the aspects of the Irish famine and actually conclude some of the most shocking interpretations. Her work gives insight to some of the most unknown facts and events in the Irish history. With this intensive research, Kinealy reopens the chapter of the Irish history and re-examines it giving a new way to look at it. With her ideology and narrative, she uses primary sources to make conclusions on the Great Famine and how it shaped the modern Ireland. According to her, Britain had played a major role in spreading the famine and being unable of preventing hundreds of deaths. Work Cited Kinealy Christine. The Great Irish Famine: Impact, Ideology, and Rebellion. UK: Palgrave Macmillan. Print. Read More