In the 1500's, England took control of Ireland, after a few hundred years of holding scattered areas of land across the country. King Henry VIII began the persecution of the Roman Catholics, which mostly all Irish people were. The Penal Laws, a group of laws restricting the freedom of the Roman Catholics attempted

After the effects of the famine could no longer be avoided, Britain did set up various soup kitchens in addition to setting up public work projects such as road building to provide some employment, but the payment from these jobs was barely enough to support one person, let alone a family with children. Charities also set up relief works and collected money, including the Quakers, who constantly kept the British well informed with reports of the crisis in Ireland. Although these efforts were respectable, they were nowhere near the support the Ireland needed.

to pressure them into converting, but only succeeded in straining the lives of the Irish people. When the Penal Laws were put into effect, the Irish were stripped of their rights, including the right to vote, hold any public office, or own land. After the land was taken from the Roman Catholics, Britain it gave to wealthy English and Scottish Protestants. Although the majority of its people could not hold office, Ireland still had its own parliament up until the 1801. At that time the Act of Union was passed and Ireland merged with Great Britain to form the United Kingdom, thus dissolving Ireland=s parliament.

It is impossible given all this information not to believe Britain was responsible for the struggles, suffering, immigration, and death of over two million Irish people. By intentionally waiting until it was too late to offer any service to people they alone had complete power over, they underhandedly aided in the demise of so many. Their undeniable negligence therefore is nothing less than genocide. Furthermore, it was not till 1997, 150 years later, that British Prime Minister Tony Blair formally acknowledged Britain=s lack of support during the famine during a speech commemorating the famine. He recognized the failure of Athose who governed in London at the time... through standing by while a crop failure turned into a massive human tragedy.@ Mr. Blair also mentioned AWe must not forget such a dreadful event.@ (qtd. In Donnelly) He is absolutely correct. Though disgraceful to Britain, all people should still remember how little compassion or concern Ireland received in order to learn from this grave mistake for the future.

By 1848, the blight started to go away, and by 1850 the potato crop was suitable, but the desolation would not recede so quickly. Ireland was left with social and economical disaster, but also with a resentment for the British, rooted in the survivors of the famine and passed on to their new generation. Also, death and disease rates along with immigration rates were still high in the years following. By the time Ireland won its independence from Britain in 1921, its population was less than half of what it had been before the famine.

Some common words found in the essay are:
America Phyophthora, England Europe, Taylor Sramek, York Boston, John Russell, England Irish, Tony Blair, Peel British, AJP Taylor, Gavan Duffy, irish people, potato famine, roman catholics, sir charles, prime minister, lord john, lord john russell, john russell, rely own resources, ireland rely own, relief efforts, british prime, irish potato, irish people penal, irish potato famine,
Approximate Word count = 2262
Approximate Pages = 9 (250 words per page double spaced)