The Great Hunger was a modern event, shaped by the belief that the poor are the authors of their own misery and that the market must be obeyed at all costs.

An exploration of the causes of the Irish Potato Famine, and how the British blindspots in the attitudes of their aristocracy failed to recognize, then failed to solve, a deadly famine and depopulation in their own geographical yard.

It is easy to draw parallels to today’s US Washington elite attitudes towards homelessness, rural struggles, and environmental stress can unravel things before anyone at the top realizes what’s happening.

New Yorker article, archived version

  • ZombiFrancis
    4·
    4 days ago

    The profoundly uncomfortable truth is that Ireland started to become modern when its poorest people were wiped out or sent into exile

    True, but I wouldn’t discount the Fenian uprisings, Young Ireland movement, 1848 revolutions, or the Land Wars having an impact on Ireland’s modernity.