The Irish Famine

Roman Catholicism

• Penal Laws

Act of Union 1800/1801

• Unified parliament
• Catholic emancipation?
• Daniel O'Connell
• Catholic Association
• Catholic Emancipation 1829
• 1840s--Home Rule agitation

Landlord-tenant relations

• Cultural differences
• Absenteeism
• Value of improvements
• Security of tenure

Population Growth

• The potato
• Sub-division of property (cf . enclosure)
• Eviction

Poverty

• Philanthropy
• Poor law

Famine

Robert Peel 1845-46

• Local relief
• Public works
• Corn depots
• Repeal of Corn Laws

Whigs 1846-

Lord John Russell

Corn Depots

• Peel's brimstone

Soup Kitchens

• Alexis Soyer

Hospitals

Workhouses

• Gregory Clause (1/4 acre, no relief)

1848

• Immigration
• Death
• Quakers

1848: Robert Peel and the Chartists

Genocide or despair?

Why was the British government unable to deal with the famine in an effective way?

Was the bitterness directed at the British government by many people in Ireland and elsewhere justified?