Tory Mp Irish famine

[Barill22]

Andrew Griffith is al over the news for appearing to make a derogoratory remark about the Irish famine.

Any thoughts? I cant seem to link an article, but if you google his name youll see it

Maybe do a bit of reading.

Him being tory or labour makes no difference at all to me

Its the comment that we are talking about

It's not exactly difficult to find people on social media who are offended by every little thing nor is it hard to find Irish people eager to engage in a spot of Brit-bashing, even better if a Tory is involved

I'ts the British media that are bashing him...actually.

It's on all the UK news websites.

I agree. My relatives moved from Co. Mayo because they were dying in the famine and I think this is being blown out of all proportion to score cheap political points.

I was referring to your comment about Irish people on social media who are apparently offended.

British/Irish history is definitely taught in schools. I did it for O and A level history and our son did it for A level history 3 ago.

Did they teach about the famine. And if so, what did they say about it?

How soon is too soon?

From memory it was caused by land being taken from the Irish, blight, starvation, mass death and migration of the population.

Also Home rule, easter 1916, eamon de valera, fianna fail etc etc

Hear hear. The British colonial government in India did the same thing there.

Maybe you have heard of "Trevelyan's Corn"? Here's a bit of background to the British approach to the Famine by one of its Senior civil servants at the time who was in charge (inter alia) of famine relief based on minimal exposure of the British Exchequer to this.

First and foremost, Trevelyan saw his role as essentially limiting the financial exposure of the British exchequer to funding relief for the Irish poor whose lives were devastated by the failure of the potato crop over successive years after 1846.

https://www.rte.ie/history/the-great-irish-famine/2020/0902/1162846-the-truth-about-trevelyan/

There was loads of food grown in Ireland during the 1840s so it wasn't a famine. The people had no access to it so when their own potato crop failed they were starved whilst huge amounts of food were exported.

This but most people will be unaware tbh.

British/Irish history is definitely taught in schools.

How come so few understand the Troubles?

I'm not asking you to say, but I wonder if British policy at the time was mentioned as a factor in both the Famine, and the trajectory of Irish history through the ages up to and including the Good Friday Agreement, and to a lesser extent Brexit policy as a manifestation of post colonial crisis.

I suppose the same questions could be asked about any other country in the former British Empire.

Well I did political and constitutional history o and a level so I expect it would have been mentioned although my curriculum ended in the early 1950s.
I don't know re my sons curriculum but he learned political history much more up to the present day as well.

Because it's really complicated with villains and hero's on all sides !!!

Oh we all know only too well what the little bollix means. Let's just ignore him shall we.

It's the sort of facetious remark that I can imagine being made on Have I Got News For You. Doubt the reaction would have been the same if Ian Hislop said it.

Its not complicated. There's a timeline of events

A lot happened in world war two.that was more complicated. We all know about that timeline

It wasn’t just an isolated incident that happened 200 years ago.

The British brought about the circumstances leading up to the famine, and those circumstances continued on until you had the signing of the GFA which only happened in 1998

For me, it’s comparable with a German MP making a thinly veiled holocaust joke

I wasn’t taught about Irish history at school.
I taught myself.

I highly recommend anyone watching “once upon a time in Northern Ireland” to understand more about the Troubles
Other resources are available.

People would be in uproar if a British MP made a little joke about, say, the slave trade

Exactly!

Remember when priti patel said something that caused offense during brexit negotiations.

Someone said that a no deal brexit could cause food shortages in ireland.

This is not word for word but Priti patel said something like" we should push that point home, to get ireland to drop the backstop"

There was famine comparisons and outrage.

She said her comments were 'taken out of context"

@Barill22 If you had to choose, based on limited time in the school curriculum, what historically important topics resulting in the starvation, death or murder of people would you want taught?

Choose three (remember, there isn't room to teach any more)

The Great Famine (Ireland), 1845-1852
The Black Death (Everywhere), 1348-51
The Highland Clearances (Scotland, rural people),18th-19th Century
The English Enclosures (England, rural people), 13th-17th Century
The Holocaust, 1941-45 (Europe, Jewish populations)
The Rwandan genocide (Rwanda, Tutsi populations), 1994
The Yugoslav Wars (Balkan states), 1991-2001
The Harrying of the North (Northern England), 11th Century.

Did you base your selection on numbers killed, ethnicity of those affected, the perpetrators, how long ago it was, or something else?

Who might be offended by your list?
Would someone in future disagree with you?

Thing is, wherever you look in history, there are examples of people doing terrible things to other people.