The Irish Famine Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

The Irish Famine - Essay Example The famine, which is also referred to as The Great Hunger, and The Bad Life, and its impact was terrible in terms of demographic decline, triggering off the mass emigration. From a prominent exporter of food, Ireland was reduced to the most unenviable position with its people, leaving the homeland, dying under deplorable conditions on the way to England, Scotland or America or any country that they could find a way to. Ograda writes the book with the intention of providing 'fresh perspectives by an explicitly interdisciplinary and comparative approach comparing the Irish famine with the Third World Famines'. He says one of the main differences between the two is while Irish famine killed people in a large scale and other famines did not, at least not to that extent, though all famines produce individual tragedies. Unlike today's famines that usually happen in the impoverished areas, Irish famine was in the prosperous hub, which Prince Albert called 'the workshop of the world'. (p.5). The pleas for help were treated with the philosophical context, when the Economist answered the requests with a curt "It is no man's business to provide for another.' (p. 6). It was also treated as a natural retribution that the Irish should suffer as a penance. "Many people in high places in both London and Dublin in the 1840s believed that the famine was nature's response to Irish demographic irresponsibility, and t oo much public kindness would obscure that message" (p.6). Potato had been cultivated more as a garden crop in Ireland and an average yield of approximately 6 tons per acre was recorded just before the famine. It was believed that Ireland was highly suitable for potato cultivation due to its acidic soil, damp, temperate climate. When the famine happened, the country was unprepared to a calamity of that scale, and landlords most of them living in England, belonging to the noble cause, could not, or did not do enough to help their farmers. Even though this is the popular conception, Ograda argues that most landlords themselves were insolvent and they were not in a position to help their tenants. During the famine, a large number of landlords lost their ownership of the land. There were other problems like over-cultivation of a rage of potato varieties, adverse consequences of industrial revolution, confiscation of the land in the earlier centuries that left the ownership in the hands of British landlords etc. When famine started and the early deaths were reported, the official reaction was to call for the verification of deaths. An enormous crisis was simmering and by late 1840s 'famine symptoms of wandering beggars, roadside deaths, rising crime rates, poorly attended burials, widespread panic about contagion, and mass evictions were commonplace throughout most of the country'. The situation raged for another five years, unabated and Ograda says that the long-lasting nature of the famine led to compassion fatigue and charitable donations dropped steadily while land clearance and emigration reached a massive scale. Prevention strategies included initially identifying the most vulnerable poor and help them through the relief committees established by the Poor Relief (Ireland) Act of 1838. Admission into the workhouses rose ominously; but the representatives of Board of Guardians refused more money for relief measures. Relief Commissioners and