I was just wondering what everyone's reactions are to the Irish potato famine. I felt like I should know more about it since my family emigrated to America during the famine, and I'd like to share it with the class. I personally wouldn't necessarily call the famine a genocide, but it definitely plays into what we've been talking about in class regarding upstanders, bystanders, and perpetrators. Obviously in this case you could say that England was a bystander, therefore contributing to the massive death toll in Ireland.
Here is a site claiming that the potato famine was an act of genocide. It has some pretty interesting claims that you should check out
http://www.nde.state.ne.us/ss/irish/irish_pf.html
And here's an overview of the famine
http://www.answers.com/topic/irish-potato-famine-1
How could the Irish potato famine be classified as a genocide?
How is the famine similar, in ways, to what is going on in Darfur?
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Oops, I gave the wrong link. Here's the link claiming that the famine was a genocide
http://www.aepizeta.org/~codine/famine/index.html
The other link is a brief history of Ireland that mentions the famine as a genocide
i don't think that the potato famine could be classified as a genocide... i think it was a famine (hence the name).
the famine wasn't on purpose, and it certainly wasn't intended to wipe out a whole population of people. (even though... it did.)
the english government, i suppose, was a bystander... but it wasn't as though it could make potatoes grow. it could have given food, but not giving food can't be considered genocide.
anyway, that's my two cents. if anyone can come up with a way to connect darfur and the potato famine... that would definitely be something. :)
-coe
Well, I did some more reading, and I found that the English had more of a part in the famine than I thought.
The main factors being:
- much land in Ireland was owned by the English, who evicted many Irish citizens forcing them into homelessness
- the Irish were economically forced to export food and crops to England, while its people starved
Here is a startling quote from the website I just listed:
"The Penal Laws, first passed in 1695. were strictly enforced. These laws made it illegal for Catholics (Irish) to own land, and required the transfer of property from Catholics to Protestants; to have access to an education, and eliminated Gaelic as a language while preventing the development of an educated class; to enter professions, forcing the Irish to remain as sharecropping farmers; or to practice their religion. In addition, Catholics (Irish) could not vote, hold an office, purchase land, join the army, or engage in commerce. Simply put, the British turned the Irish into nothing better than slaves, subsisting on their small rented farms."
Seems somewhat genocidal to me; The systematic elimination of a group of people. Those people being the Irish Catholics.
I've definetely heard a bit about this topic before. I see how one would assume that a famine could not be considered genocide because it was not on purpose. But what I know and have learned about the Irish Potato famine is that, like Conor said, there was a certain group targeted by taking away their land, but also I'm pretty sure the resources were there and that they were being held for a certain group of people. I can see how this case could be considered a genocide, or at least in terms of its current definition.
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