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

The idea that there was a famine in Ireland in 1845-1850 is something that originated under British rule. It was a convenient means by which British historians could facilitate the abrogation of the state's responsibility for the catastrophe. There was a crop failure but the the prevailing free market and anti-Catholic ideology that dictated the state's response and the associated military actions in protecting food exports at the time made what began as a natural disaster into a genocidal event. It is one of the most formative events in our nation's history and it is time that the Irish - now an independent nation - began to correct this British-inspired narrative. We owe it to a past generation which was almost wiped out by the event, we own it to our current generation which has been kept in ignorance by this British narrative, and we owe it to future generations who need to know why their ancestors suffered in the way they did.