The Famine Plot: England's Role in Ireland's Greatest Tragedy

by Tim Pat Coogan

Overview

During a Biblical seven years in the middle of the nineteenth century, fully a quarter of Ireland's citizens either perished from starvation or emigrated in what came to be known as Gorta Mor, the Great Hunger. Waves of hungry peasants fled across the Atlantic to the United States, with so many dying en route that it was said, "you could walk dry shod to America on their bodies." In this sweeping history Ireland's best-known historian, Tim Pat Coogan, tackles the dark history of the Irish Famine and argues that it constituted one of the first acts of genocide. In what The Boston Globe calls "his greatest achievement," Coogan shows how the British government hid behind the smoke screen of laissez faire economics, the invocation of Divine Providence and a carefully orchestrated publicity campaign, allowing more than a million people to die agonizing deaths and driving a further million into emigration. Unflinching in depicting the evidence, Coogan presents a vivid and horrifying picture of a catastrophe that that shook the nineteenth century and finally calls to account those responsible.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781137278838
Publisher:	St. Martin's Publishing Group
Publication date:	09/24/2013
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	304
Sales rank:	266,825
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.10(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Tim Pat Coogan is Ireland's best known historian and the author of numerous important works on Irish history, including Michael Collins and The IRA, published to wide acclaim. The former editor of The Irish Press, he lives in Dublin, Ireland.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments vii

Chronology of the Famine ix

Introduction 1

1 Setting the Scene 9

2 Born to Filth 19

3 A Million Deaths of No Use 31

4 Five Actors and the Orchards of Hell 43

5 Meal Use 65

6 Evictions 87

7 The Work Schemes 101

8 The Workhouse 117

9 Soup and Souperism 137

10 The Poor Law Cometh 163

11 Landlords Targeted 179

12 Emigration: Escape by Coffin Ship 189

13 The Propaganda of Famine 213

Epilogue 233

Appendix 1 236

Appendix 2 247

Editorial Reviews

Many intriguing points [are] made in this book…Coogan's pages spark and sputter with a deep, lingering, well-cherished rage.” —Peter Behrens, The Washington Post

“To many, Mr. Coogan… [is the] voice of modern Irish history… makes a compelling case for why we should revisit our current understanding of [the famine].” —The Economist

“Coogan's insistent examining of the moral dimensions of that nation's policies, and how they fueled the horrors on the ground, represents his greatest contribution to the voluminous scholarship on the Irish famine, and is this book's greatest strength.” —The Boston Globe

“In disturbingly graphic images and compelling language based on true stories from the Famine archives and peppered with his own perspective, Coogan captures the utter devastation wrought by Ireland's greatest ecological disaster which reduced the population by one fourth.” —Irish Edition

“The best part is that it did such a good job at keeping me interested that I'm eager to read on and learn more.” —Fingers and Prose

“Coogan makes no bones about accusing the government of the day of "a genocidal intent" ... His writing on Ireland's past is intelligent and accessible to a large readership.” —BBC History Magazine

From the Publisher

[Coogan] sounds like the witness who saw the crime…[his] pages spark and sputter with a deep, lingering, well-cherished rage at the British government and laissez-faire attitudes and policies adopted by Prime Minister Lord John Russell and civil servant Sir Charles Trevelyan.

The Washington Post - Peter Behrens

Coogan (former editor, Irish Press; The IRA) is known for his colorful, anecdotal histories with a strong bias in favor of the Irish and against the English. His previous work has found a place in the canon by presenting original narratives from event participants connected to the IRA or to the Irish political scene, but here, he reproduces the same famine history told dozens of times since the mid-19th century. The book is a rehash of work done by other historians, such as Cecil Woodham-Smith (The Great Hunger) as well as his own previous work (Wherever Green Is Worn). He adds in his own family stories and observations of the current Irish situation to make the book seem fresh and relevant. VERDICT Readers who enjoyed Coogan's earlier, better work or those with a particular interest in the famine may wish to read this for the sake of completeness. Others would be well advised to skip it in favor of Woodham-Smith's work or Christine Kinealy's A Death-Dealing Famine.—Hanna Clutterbuck, Harvard Univ. Medical Sch. Lib., Boston

Library Journal

Acclaimed Irish historian Coogan (Ireland in the Twentieth Century, 2004, etc.) opens up the truth about the Irish potato famine, and it's uglier than you thought. The potato was not just the staple of the poor Irish diet; it was all they had. For seven years beginning in 1845, Phytophthora infestans wreaked havoc on the potato crop in Ireland. Prime Minister Robert Peel made some effort to assuage the problem, however misguided, allowing the purchase of Indian maize from America, which the Irish couldn't properly grind and which made them sick. Coogan points out the many other problems to English aid--e.g., to obtain relief, you had to sign over your land, many soup kitchens would only give soup to those who converted to Protestantism, and no relief could be given outside the workhouse. Evictions, emigration and a policy of laissez faire were the British answers to the crisis. The author is hellbent on setting the record straight. He boldly condemns Irish historians, most educated by the English, who downplayed the horror and evaded the issue of British decision-makers' responsibility. They completely ignored the hate creation of the English press and the landlords who despised the human misery along the roadsides and in the filthy workhouses. The admission by Prime Minister Tony Blair of the failure of the English government to support a country that was part of the richest and most powerful nation in the world has set a good beginning to get at the truth. The Irish grew up with tales of the Great Hunger, but the full story is just now unfolding. This book is a great start.

Kirkus Reviews