The Irish Holocaust ( An Gorta Mór )

The Great Hunger was a genocide in Ireland which started in 1845, lasted, depending on the region, until 1849 or even 1852 and which led to the death of approximately one million people through starvation and disease; a further million are thought to have emigrated as a result of the famine. Some scholars estimate that the population of Ireland was reduced by 20 to 25 percent. It is not known how many people died during the period of the Famine, although it is believed more died from diseases than from starvation. State registration of births, marriages or deaths had not yet begun, and records kept by the Roman Catholic Church are incomplete. Eye witness accounts have helped medical historians identify both the ailments and effects of famine, and have been used to evaluate and explain in greater detail features of the famine. In Mayo, English Quaker William Bennett wrote of " three children huddled together, lying there because they were too weak to rise, pale and ghastly, their little limbs ... perfectly emaciated, eyes sunk, voice gone, and evidently in the last stages of actual starvation." Revd Dr Traill Hall, a Church of Ireland rector in Schull, described " the aged, who, with the young — are almost without exception swollen and ripening for the grave." Marasmic children also left a permanent image on Quaker Joseph Crosfield who in 1846 witnessed a " heart—rending scene [of] poor wretches in the last stages of famine imploring to be received into the [work]house...Some of the children were worn to skeletons, their features sharpened with hunger, and their limbs wasted almost to the bone... " William Forster wrote in Carrick-on-Shannon that " the children exhibit the effects of famine in a remarkable degree, their faces looking wan and haggard with hunger, and seeming like old men and women."

Category:

Education

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• Irish
• Holocaust
• Great
• Hunger
• An
• Gorta
• Mór
• genocide
• by
• starvation

[phoenix1916]

Disease caused the potato blight, the British caused the Famine......Britains Shame!!

[WolfArden44]

IrishHolocaust

DOT

ORG

Truth.

[DecencyPOLICE]

its true the Great hunger was not a natural disaster at the time Ireland was producing enough food to sustain sixteen million people over five million were forced to die from starveation the food was taken under armed escort to be sold for profit by the elitist imperial racists

[frogman249]

haha this clas man thought i saved this but didnt must of fumd it up it like you learning and listenen with the music at same time nice man

[ImagesByDavid]

As the Nazis used starvation to kill the Jewish People.

The English implied the same tactic.

[Andulsi]

Laissez faire economics is what is operating right now with devastating consequences for people in Africa, South America and huge parts of Asia. The same systems operate to this day for the benefit of the few and the detriment of the many. It s the exact same system. Ireland was the victim then. Now it s a different victim. this type of rampant capitalism simply doesn' t work for the majority of the people.

[blunt1984]

@edwardtarr1 If you go by the original inhabitants of Britain, then yes you are correct on that. The Welsh are the descendents of Celtic Britons, who ruled what is now know as England, before the Anglo-Saxons arrived and pushed them west to Wales and Cornwall.

But I think by "British" he is referring to being loyal to the English (and after the Acts of Union 1707, British) government.

[restoresoundmoney]

@mollyfurie And what to make of the Scots who willingly participated in the theft of land from the Irish--descendents of whom now still there willing under the rule of the historic government that--as you say--gave the Scots and Welsh "terrible times"? Selling their souls to become "plantation" owners of Irish land--"Connaught or hell". Those "citizens" of Northern "Ireland" should be ashamed of themselves.

[restoresoundmoney]

@mollyfurie Hello. The statement, "Part of the problem was England's adherence to Laissez Faire economic principles." How does an individual or a state "adhere" to a thing (in this case, state-sponsored murder) when that thing is not what it is? A policy of theft and murder "laissez faire"? Nothing other than propaganda, & I suppose we can forgive the English masses their by-proxy participation in this because--after all--their bellies were being filled & who cared how? Not many, as we see.

[mollyfurie]

BTW, Scotland and Wales both had terrible times under British rule during their history. Also, the words British and Britain were the names the Romans gave the isles, predating the Anglo Saxon invasion. So England, not Britain, is the problem ,-p

[mollyfurie]

@restoresoundmoney Well there's no doubt in my mind that the powers-that-be in England were eager to see Ireland depopulated. There was sympathy among the English people for Ireland, but there was a constant campaign in England, also, to demonize the Irish (see the work of Punch, particularly John Tenniel, who illustrated Alice in Wonderland.) But many in the English establishment cited 'free market principles' to justify exporting food from Ireland, and yes, the called it Laissez Faire.

[restoresoundmoney]

@adrienrain What? Are you freakin' kidding? Laissez faire economic principles? Did you watch this freakin' video? This was state-sponsored murder. What don't you get here? Jesus Christ!