Ireland In The Aftermath "Part IV"

The potato famine came to an end in 1851 and during its six years of horror came the flight of more than one million people from its country. However, the flight to leave Ireland did not end with the potato famine. In the years which followed, two and one half million more people left Ireland between the years 1851 to 1900. Add this total to the death count of more than four and one half million from the famine and you have a fifty percent loss of people in Ireland by 1900. As the United States population increased dramatically, Ireland's population declined.

According to a census count, the population in Ireland decreased in every county but Dublin. One third of the population in the Western part of Ireland were gone. Those who did not emigrate married later in life and had fewer children if any. The economy in Ireland was ruined and recovery was slow. Political upheaval occurred as the Irish decided it was time to governor themselves. In 1905, the political party Sinn Fein was formed. In 1915, the Irish Republican Brotherhood and the Irish Republican Army were formed with the sole purpose of forcing Britain to give up control over Ireland. In 1922, The Irish in three provinces (all Catholics) were granted the ability to establish their own government. By 1948, these three provinces became a fully independent nation. Today, Northern Ireland ( mostly protestants) is still under British control.

The Irish Question as presented to the British Parliament during the Potato Famine in 1846;
"What to do with and for the millions starving in Ireland"? "Some hotly debated by English politicians, saw it as God's will coming down upon the impure and undeserving Irish hordes: that would eliminate Britain's responsibility to its colony."

In later years, some Irish would view these and other types of similar statements as a form of genocide against the Irish. It is also a known fact that as thousands of people died from starvation and subsequence disease, thousands of ships full of food was exported from Ireland to England. It is also a known fact that though Ireland did receive some help from the British during the famine, when the blight became overwhelming, the British stopped "abruptly" all aid to Ireland. It would not be until Tony Blair was in office that a formal apology would be issued to the Irish for Britain's part in the famine.

(tomorrow, The Story Of Bride Sheain)