after 1845 ireland began to starve due to the blight hitting the potato crop
in this video we're going to look at the reaction of the government to this suffering and we're also
going to analyze some of the suffering endured by the poor irish people during our darkest hour
we will be looking at the reaction of the government rialtas government now it's important
to know that the government at the time was not in any way democratic or representative of the people
undemocratic neamhdhaonlathach undemocratic ireland did not have a parliament in dublin or belfast
we were ruled at the time from the westminster parliament in london due to the acht an aontais
the act of union acht an aontais which came into effect in 1801 this act united ireland and britain
as one country An Ríocht Aontaithe the united kingdom most irish were catholics and the
british didn't allow the poor catholics to vote so the westminster parliament was mostly made up
of wealthy and elite protestant landowners and they couldn't care less about ireland
even the members of parliament that represented ireland were from the anglo-irish fraternity
angla éireannach anglo-irish the acht an aontais was brought in to increase smacht
is control smacht it was brought in to increase control due to a series of failed rebellions at
the end of the 1700s so when we look at what the government did in relation to the famine
remember i'm referring to a british government sitting in westminster not an irish government
sitting in dublin or belfast as ireland starved the government did not want to interfere in what
they saw as economic and divine destiny this approach was known as laissez faire
they strongly believed in the free market saormhargadh the free market saormhargadh so
basically that meant
at this time the irish people did not need lessons in free market economics they needed help to
prevent them from starving to death the government did import maize otherwise known as indian corn
because native american indians were the first to discover and use corn in an effective way
this was imported but most irish people didn't know how to cook this as it was
completely unfamiliar to them the government did introduce a series of public works oibreacha poiblí
public works as a way to offer employment to people so that they could pay for food
to feed themselves and their families but much of this work was back-breaking incredibly hard work
and in some cases utterly pointless for example the building of roads to nowhere pointless fánach
a road to nowhere nIl i ndán dóibh ach teip
a lot of people were just too weak to work
in any way effectively lag is weak and rólag is too weak
there were many reports of people literally just
dropping dead during the public works and on route evictions were all too common during
the famine as poor irish farmers struggled to pay their rent due to crop failure to evict is díbir
they were put out on the side of the road forcefully
and people would literally be wandering the roadside
taobh an bhóthair by the roadside with many living and dying
in ditches díog is a ditch díog another feature of the famine was the workhouse
the workhouse otherwise known as the poor house - teach na mbocht
bocht means poor and pauper is bochtán people would normally go to the workhouse when they were truly
desperate bhí siad beo bocht they were truly desperate
in the workhouse you would get basic meals and discipline was strictly enforced
families were split up with differing sections for men women and children it was only ever meant
as a last resort and was built and maintained to be deliberately unattractive
this means as a last resort or literally when the reasoning goes too close to the bone
as the famine wore on soup kitchens became more available but sometimes this involved trading your
faith for food as some protestant organizations offered food on the basis that recipients renounce
their roman catholicism and become protestant the irish for a soup kitchen is teach anraith
those who availed of this exchange of faith for food were known as soupers or in other words
a traitor fealltóir a traitor felt it's often said that during An Gorta Mór there were three stages
to the suffering the first stage was uabhar which is pride where the irish people who were suffering
would deliberately not seek help or refuse it the second stage was éadóchas despair
this was when reality began to set in as fever dysentery and death became more common
fiabhras is fever fiabhras dinnireacht is dysentery dinnireacht and bás is death
the 3rd stage was glacadh acceptance glacadh where irish people just accepted their fate cinniúint
as i make this video a century and three quarters on from our darkest hour i find
it truly astonishing that a green and fertile land which was at that time
an integral part of the wealthiest and most powerful empire in the world saw millions
of its citizens starve suffer and emigrate but it did happen and we must never ever forget it
join me for my next video where i'll be looking at the journey that so many emmigrants faced
on the atlantic ocean aboard famine ships and we'll discover why america not the uk
was truly a land of opportunity for the irish
slán go fóill agus ná déan dearmad (bye for now and don't forget)