Showing posts with label Irish Famine. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Irish Famine. Show all posts
Chris Fogarty ✒ Words of the President of Ireland are reported (Irish Times; May 17, 2021) with the banner headline; “British ‘policy of non-intervention’ was a key factor in Irish Famine.”

Britain’s contemporaneous (1845 through 1850) hand-written WO 379/7, “Disposition of the Army” records (photocopies in my possession) refute President Higgins. They show that, far from a policy of “non-intervention,” Britain massively intervened in Ireland throughout 1845-1850; that it took more than half (67 regiments) of Britain’s empire army (of 126 regiments and two sub-regimental brigades) to enforce the removal of Ireland’s abundant foods to the ports for export.

The commander-in-chief of the sixty-seven food removal regiments throughout those six years was General Sir Edward Blakeney. In 1849, as General Blakeney and his troops neared successful completion of mission, Queen Victoria conferred on Blakeney an Order of the Bath.

Are the Irish government unique on Earth in concealing a genocide of their own people?

⏩ Chris Fogarty is author of Ireland 1845-1850: the Perfect Holocaust, and Who Kept it ‘Perfect’.

Concealing A Genocide

Chris Fogarty ✒ News Letter readers suggest that I reply to its publication of Dr. Birnie’s comments on the article that began: “Joe Biden: ‘My ancestors left Ireland because of what the Brits had been doing.’”

Dr. Birnie imputes error to President Biden, he repeats the “famine” story we were all taught in school, and writes “… more should have been done.” 

A question: More what? Ireland was starved by 67 named British army regiments; ought 77 have been deployed? Davitt, et al. reported it as “Holocaust.” Starting on May 4, 1846 until November 19, 1855 the Cork (now Irish) Examiner newspaper reported it as “Holocaust.” (“Genocide”was coined post-WW2.)

From the start of 1845 to the end of 1850 the British government ordered into Ireland more than half (67 regiments) of its 128-regiment empire army. Their mission was the removal of Ireland’s abundant food crops to the ports for export. Commander-in-Chief of mission from start to finish was General Sir Edward Blakeney on whom, in 1849, Queen Victoria conferred an Order of the Bath. 

The quantity of forcibly removed edibles is readily ascertainable in that era’s editions of The (London) Times, the Limerick Intelligencer, etc. The volume of non-potato foods produced by the Irish are indicated by the following processors: 1,935 grain mills, 1,984 grain kilns, 555 flour mills, 136 grain-using breweries, 74 grain-using distilleries, 62 threshers (though flails were more common), 948 livestock pounds, 45 woollen mills (mutton and lamb), 43 windmills, butter markets, and “shambles” (butcheries), etc. (Precise location of each available upon request.)

During those years, and until 1900-1920, Ireland was owned by English landlords. The Irish were their tenants-at-will. The army was deployed only where the English-led constabulary and landlords’ militias encountered resistance to the food removal. Though, for example, the 68th of Foot was deployed briefly as far north as Ballycastle, the constabulary and landlords’ militias usually managed to extract the food crops in what is today’s Northern Ireland. During the first quarter of 1847 (numbers are approximate):

Antrim: Its 604-strong (520 pvts.) militia was HQ’d in Belfast. Commander; the Marquis of Donegal residing in London. Adjutant Col. Carrothers.

Armagh: its 640-strong (520 pvts.) was HQ’d in Markethill. Commander; the Marquis Acheson residing in Gosford Castle, Markethill. Adjutant Biford Woodhouse.

Derry: its 755-strong (650 pvts.) County Londonderry militia was HQ’d at Londonderry. Commander; Sir R.A. Ferguson, Bar’t, residing at The Farm, Londonderry. Adjutant __ McClintock.

Down: its 453-strong (390 pvts.) The Royal South Downshire was HQ’d at Hillsborough. Commander; The Marquis of Downshire, residing at Hillsborough. Adjutant __ Hodgson.

Fermanagh: its 453-strong (390 pvts.) Co. Fermanagh militia was HQ’d at Enniskillen. Commander; the Earl of Enniskillen residing at Florence Court Demesne, Florencecourt. Adjutant Wm. Corry.

Tyrone: its 755-strong (650 pvts.) Royal Tyrone militia was HQ’d at Caledon, near the post town of Caledon, Co. Tyrone. Adjutant; William Lundie.

⏩ Chris Fogarty is author of Ireland 1845-1850: the Perfect Holocaust, and Who Kept it ‘Perfect’.

More What?

UnHerd ✈ The restrained and conservative nature of the country was a response to the trauma.

Michael Duggan  

The 175th anniversary of the Great Famine in Ireland is upon us. The disaster had no definitive start or end, but it was in September 1845 that the tragedy was first reported, and on the 13th of that month it fell to The Gardeners’ Chronicle — of all publications — to report: “We stop the Press with very great regret to announce that the potato Murrain has unequivocally declared itself in Ireland.”

Within five years, the outbreak of “Murrain”, or potato blight, had led to around one million deaths from disease, hunger and fever. A million more emigrated, and the death rate on some of the “coffin ships” to America was more than 50%.

For those who remained, the decades following the famine saw the percentage of Irish people who never married climb dramatically. With age at marriage also going up, the imprints left on the country’s demographics were multiple.

Today Ireland is the only country on earth with fewer people than it had in 1840, indeed it is still well over a million short of that total; for comparison, the population of England and Wales has grown four-fold.

Continue reading @ UnHerd.

How The Great Famine Made Catholic Ireland

Christopher and Mary Fogarty hits out at how the 1840s starvation in Ireland continues to be described in media and academic circles as a famine. 


Bearing Honest Witness

Mick Hall provides a taster of a recent debate on the Irish Famine Plot in which the author Tim Pat Coogan discussed the claims made in his book on the topic.

The Famine Plot