WHEN GENOCIDE BECAME "FAMINE" : IRELAND, 1845 - 1850

the truth has to be told

Have an interest in thie history of this horrible tragedy and I am from Irish decent from NL,Canada

what England did in Ireland and to the Irish people, was nothing short of genocide. The good thing to come out of this was the rest of the English speaking world were enriched by the millions of Irish immigrants.

My personal opinion is that the brutal Penal Laws of 1695 were the beginning of Irish Genocide : " Professor Lecky a British Protestant and ardent British sympathizer, said in his "History of Ireland in the 18th Century" that the object of the Penal Laws was threefold:

"To deprive Catholics of all civil life; to reduce them to a condition of extreme, brutal ignorance; and, to disassociate them from the soil. "
The Catholic Church forbidden to keep church registers.
The Irish Catholic was forbidden the exercise of his religion.
He was forbidden to receive education.
He was forbidden to enter a profession.
He was forbidden to hold public office.
He was forbidden to engage in trade or commerce.
He was forbidden to live in a corporate town or within five miles thereof.
He was forbidden to own a horse of greater value than five pounds.
He was forbidden to own land.
He was forbidden to lease land.
He was forbidden to accept a mortgage on land in security for a loan.
He was forbidden to vote.
He was forbidden to keep any arms for his protection.
He was forbidden to hold a life annuity.
He was forbidden to buy land from a Protestant.
He was forbidden to receive a gift of land from a Protestant.
He was forbidden to inherit land from a Protestant.
He was forbidden to inherit anything from a Protestant.
He was forbidden to rent any land that was worth more than 30 shillings a year.
He was forbidden to reap from his land any profit exceeding a third of the rent.
He could not be guardian to a child.
He could not, when dying, leave his infant children under Catholic guardianship.
He could not attend Catholic worship.
He was compelled by law to attend Protestant worship.
He could not himself educate his child.
He could not send his child to a Catholic teacher.
He could not employ a Catholic teacher to come to his child.
He could not send his child abroad to receive education

While I'm pleased to be born in the USA, my father's family came from County Mayo during the Great Hunger. They were not afforded the opportunities of their homeland as I've been since, likely, they had few chances in life and maybe were even starving. Oppression, even benign neglect, of indigenous peoples needs to be recognized so it's not repeated.

Because the truth must be known...the Brits were more than ruthless, they deliberately starved the Irish People... Till this day we can't trust them! They need to Get out of Ireland once and for all....

I did know some of the facts about the famine, but not all. My mother being born in Eire it was spoken or sang about on a regular basis. I've always thought that the word "Famine" was to mild a word to be used for the atrocities that occurred during the great hunge . That is 1 of the reasons I chose to sign this petition.

I signed because I thought that it was a good Idea to change the name, as it is more fitting.

In memory of the dead as they cannot speak!

Allowing people to go hungry in mid-19th century Ireland and today throughout the world was and is a result of governmental and political decisions and not based on the availability of food. It is important to me that this truth be understood by as many people as possible.

Because it was not a famine, it was just a lack of one staple food, people were not helped, especially by their closest neighbour. I always called it the Great Hunger or An Gort mor.......

Read. "the Great Hunger" by Cecil Woodham Smith. It details the actions taken by the British government. Parliament applauded when told of the deaths. British landlords wanted to clear their lands of tenants and graze cattle instead. The actions of the government intensified the misery of the people. Highly recommend this book.

#1: Swifty -  

 

#726: -  

 Everything England did to Ireland was DELIBERATE!From Elizabeth 1 Cromwell Plantation eviction murder Act of Union England only wanted the land and despised the native Irish owners of the land All this was the cause of the hunger because it caused the Irish to be put off their own land and have only miserable homes and land to live on- with only the potato to eat.

The British government in those days was more or less criminal, cfr. the Bodoe affair in Norway.

I believe the truth should.be known.
God sent the potatoe blight and england brought the holocaust that followed.

#1: Swifty -  

 

I signed this petition because it is important to record history correctly for future generations to be able to understand their present situation.

Because it's true...

I'm signing because I believe that unless we have a correct handle on our history we fail to adequately understand and to accurately frame our future. Ireland has such a rich and powerful role that she played in the history of western civilization. That she was brought to her knees and that her people were dispersed by a people of less scholarship and culture needs to be known and understood by the people of Ireland first and secondly by the world. "Dignity" needs to be restored/ through knowledge and scholarship not by violence.

Because it's time the truth came out about the great hunger....no more lies

I am part-Irish and my grandparents talked about how this affected our culture and killed many of our ancestors. They starved, when their assets were being sent all over the world. This is tragic! Greed played a HUGE role and it must NEVER happen again!

my grandparents paternal and maternal were irish and came to scotland for a better life as they were Irish catholics. I'd always known the British left them to die as the country was "Overpopulated" catholics didn't have the right to go to school. I only found out in the year 2000 that I was Irish origin, but I always felt something for Ireland.

It was genocide