They were also denied occupation in many trades and businesses, the vote, and the ability to hold public office as well as numerous other common rights and privileges. Under this status the Irish were forbidden education and were not even permitted to send their children abroad to be educated. Prior to the beginning of the Starvation in 1846 Ireland had been under the dominion of England for centuries and were regarded as a conquered people. The impact of the Starvation on Ireland was probably greater than the Holocaust was to European Jewry in the 20th century and it is no wonder why the Irish came to hate the British with such intensity. That's a population loss of just under 20% with nearly a third of that loss attributable to death from starvation and disease related to the starvation and that is what the Irish refer to this period as, The Starvation. In 1851 the population had dropped to 6,552,385 with nearly a million people having emigrated to other countries, primarily Canada and the U.S.

In 1841 the population of Ireland was reported to be 8,175,124 though that number may be inaccurate and lower than reality.

This book is far and away a much more objective and thorough review and is written in what I would term a journalistic manner which at times can be rather dry and dull but it is, nevertheless, compelling. I read a history of Ireland's Potato Famine a few years ago which gave me an insight into this enormous tragedy but in retrospect I believe the author of that work was more than slightly biased in his reporting of the events of that history. 'It has been frequently declared the the parsimony of the British Government during the famine was the main cause of the sufferings of the people, and the parsimony was certainly carried to remarkable lengths but obtuseness, short-sightedness, and ignorance probably contributed more.'Īs Sydney Smith, the celebrated writer and wit, wrote: “The moment the very name of Ireland is mentioned, the English seem to bid adieu to common feeling, common prudence and common sense, and to act with the barbarity of tyrants and the fatuity of idiots'.

The Great Hunger by Cecil Woodham-Smith