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

by Tim Pat Coogan

During a Biblical seven years in the middle of the nineteenth century, Ireland experienced the worst disaster a nation could suffer. Fully a quarter of its citizens either perished from starvation or emigrated, with so many dying en route that it was said, "you can walk dry shod to America on their bodies." In this grand, sweeping narrative, Ireland''s best-known historian, Tim Pat Coogan, gives a fresh and comprehensive account of one of the darkest chapters in world history, arguing that Britain was in large part responsible for the extent of the national tragedy, and in fact engineered the food shortage in one of the earliest cases of ethnic cleansing. So strong was anti-Irish sentiment in the mainland that the English parliament referred to the famine as "God's lesson." Drawing on recently uncovered sources, and with the sharp eye of a seasoned historian, Coogan delivers fresh insights into the famine's causes, recounts its unspeakable events, and delves into the legacy of the "famine mentality" that followed immigrants across the Atlantic to the shores of the United States and had lasting effects on the population left behind. This is a broad, magisterial history of a tragedy that shook the nineteenth century and still impacts the worldwide Irish diaspora of nearly 80 million people today.

Genres: History, Ireland, Nonfiction, Irish Literature, Politics, Historical, Audiobook

288 pages, Hardcover

First published November 27, 2012

About the author

Timothy Patrick Coogan is an Irish historical writer, broadcaster and newspaper columnist. He served as editor of the Irish Press newspaper from 1968 to 1987. Today, he is best known for his popular and sometimes controversial books on aspects of modern Irish history, including The IRA, Ireland Since the Rising, On the Blanket, and biographies of Michael Collins and Éamon de Valera.

Reviews

[Bill Kerwin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tim Pat Coogan thinks Irish historians should show some spine and stop soft-pedaling British culpability for the famine. It is true that the British (through prime minister Blair) finally apologized for the famine fifteen years ago, and have striven to deal justly with the Northern counties since. It is also true that nobody--least of all the Republic of Ireland--wants to give any ammunition to the rabid fringe of the IRA. Still, Coogan would argue that it is high time Irish intellectuals stopped pulling their punches, particularly now, when the "serious people"--in this this case the managerial voices of the European Union--are once again proclaiming the moral virtue of austerity, demanding salutary sacrifices from the people of Ireland--and, this time around, from the people of Greece, Spain and Portugal as well.

Tim Coogan makes this comparison between the 1840's Famine and the recent European austerity crisis in his introduction, and--if my memory serve--doesn't return to it until the end, but the portrait he gives of the architect of the famine, Trevelyan, strikes many parallels with the masters of the Union today: an earnest Protestant, confirmed in his worth ethic, intolerant of those who do not share his values, and particularly contemptuous of the easygoing Catholic Celt.

Coogan argues persuasively that this 19th century imposition of "austerity" was not merely a matter of wrongheaded economic theory and poorly executed policy, but a deliberate strategy to remake Ireland by ridding the land of superfluous Irish peasants (which was most of them), by means of starvation, eviction, expulsion, and emigration. The goal: to replace the Irishman with cattle, pigs, and sheep, thereby creating estates more profitable for the landlords, and ensuring a source of cheap protein for the English people.

Genocide may be a relatively new term, but--if it applies anywhere--it applies here.

[John Mcging · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'll be brief. The traditional view of the famine is easily found and read. Coogan takes a position that due to a combination of a free market political view, a concern over money and a world view rooted in a Protestant bias against Catholics that the result in dealing with the potato crop rotting was equivalent to genocide. Frankly, I agree. I don't think the bar is that high that the deeds of Trevelyn and his Whigs don't meet and exceed it.

What I find more pernicious is in reading some of the letters from these Whig leaders. Modernize the language and you'd have Paul Ryan and Tea Party saying "Amen". And the idea that a political world view that views humans as this one does is still potent 150 years later is disappointing.

This is a good book on the famine; it'll make you think. It's a good book on the conservative world view and may make you see it's parallels and echos in the modern world, often with equivalent results.

[Colleen Browne · Rating 5 out of 5]

Coogan has given Gorta Mor (The Great Hunger) the best treatment I have read. There is a myriad of books on the "famine," but I rate this book as 5 stars because in the typical fashion of Coogan, he is unafraid to state the obvious. That is, that what occurred during those years in Ireland was genocide. If you want a complete and detailed picture, Cecil Woodham-Smith's, "The Great Hunger" is the best I have read. However, her conclusions, like those of most books on the subject, skirt the truth about motives. Coogan states it in no uncertain terms and backs it with evidence. The recent book by John Kelly on the subject provided much of the evidence but then concludes that, on a variation of the cliche, it walks like a duck and talks like a duck but isn't a duck.

Gorta Mor was the seminal event in modern Irish history; perhaps in all of Irish history. The percentage of people who died or emigrated is unheard of and the response of the British government, and Trevelyn in particular, is laced with prejudice, cold-hearted calculation, wrong-headed economic ideas, and the failure of the British government to deal with the crisis in any way that approximates effectiveness. If anyone has any doubt about the motives of those in charge of affairs in Ireland, one need look no further than their own statements:
Nassau Senior, an economic consultant for the government, expressed his fear that existing policies "will not kill more than one million Irish in 1848 and that will scarcely be enough to do much good."
When asked why there was no end to the catastrophe, Trevelyn replied: "We must not complain of what we really want to obtain.
The Irish land system, created by the British in their quest to control Ireland and use its resources for their own benefit was insane and by the time of the famine had gotten so out of control with subdivisions, that it was a ticking time bomb. The British government knew that the land-system had created the mess and had commissioned studies on it which stated it clearly but nothing was done. Trevelyn and his ilk argued that it was providential. It was God's revenge on an evil and wicked people. Moreover, the blight was seen as the solution to the land problem. It would clear the land, so they wouldn't have to. Given the smallness of the plots that native Irish had to pay rent for, the only viable crop was the potato. It was ideally suited for the land, some of which was not suited for other crops, and required only a small amount of land. It also comprised a very healthy diet, surprisingly. Potatoes and a glass of buttermilk made the Irish more healthy than most of their European counterparts. Seems like the perfect solution to the horrible land system but for one thing: Blight struck the potato periodically and caused starvation in pockets of Ireland. Moreover, each year, when the previous year's potato crop had been consumed, there was a period of about 2 months when the people went hungry. When the blight struck all over the country, the result was catastrophic. Most people died before the hunger could kill them. As in most wars, diseases caused by the lack of nutrition ravaged the country and killed untold thousands.

The fact that different forms of the blight had struck previously, in this case as recently as about 10 years before the outbreak in 1845, proves that the British overlords knew that this kind of a disaster could happen. As Coogan states early in the book, if the Irish had been in control of their own country, this never would have happened. Quoting Mitchell, he argues that God may have sent the blight, but the British sent the famine.

About a year or two ago, I listened to an RTE One radio broadcast in which the famine was discussed. Along with Coogan, there were others with knowledge of the famine. A descendant of Trevelyn was amongst the guests. She defended her ancestor and his actions. I was astounded that, given the public record, anyone could actually defend him. Needless to say, I was not convinced. This is a subject that I have had a great deal of interest in because of my own Irish ancestory and connections to Ireland, and because I studied Irish history in college. I am very glad to have decided to read this book and would recommend it to anyone with an interest on the subject or on the broader subject of the ills of colonialism.

[David Eppenstein · Rating 4 out of 5]

The most haunting quote cited in this book is "God brought the blight but the English brought the famine". Based on other reading I've done I have to say that England's history as a colonial power is ugly, very, very, ugly. This book merely adds to that history. It is unfortunate that while many people know there was a potato famine they know almost nothing about what really happened. This famine is to the Irish what the Holocaust is to the Jews and, proportionally, the famine was probably more devastating to the Irish than the Holocaust was to the Jews of the world. That the Famine doesn't resonate with the public like the Holocaust is sad because England deserves the same guilt and shame heaped on the Germans and the English leaders, especially Charles Trevlyan, deserve to sit on the same demonic dais alongside Hitler's henchmen. I admit that until reading this book I too knew very little of the Famine's history. My reading of other books on British history made passing references to the Famine but it was fiction that sparked my need for specific information. I read Mary Pat Kelly's "Galway Bay" ( a fiction set in Ireland and Chicago during the Famine) two years ago and recently attended a signing for her sequel to "Galway Bay". It was during this signing that I learned that the Famine is actually referred to as "The Starvation" by the Irish because that is what it actually was. The author of this book makes an intentionally strong case that this tragic event was genocide perpetrated by the English government on the Irish Catholic peasantry in order to remove them from the land. Hiding behind moralistic nonsense and popular economic theory the English government gave vent to their bigotry, arrogance, and greed to the point of writing in a memo that if a million died it wouldn't be enough. When the Nazis murdered European Jews at least they were upfront about it. The English, apparently not wanting to get their hands dirty, hid their intentions and efforts behind fiscal policy and social needs but the result was to starve men, women, children, and the elderly in a country with an abundance of food. For many this book might a tough read because of the subject matter. For others it may be tough because it is rather a dry read typical of the efforts of many historians, lots of details, facts, figures, dates etc. In many ways the book reads like a journalistic expose but without the drama. After reading this book it is much easier to understand why the Irish harbor such hatred for the English and why their rebellion in later decades was so bloody. Thanks to my grandparents I have dual citizenship with the Republic of Ireland. I think I may need to bone-up on the history of the land of half my ancestors.

[Kressel Housman · Rating 3 out of 5]

There's a phrase that appears throughout this book that sums up its thesis: "G-d sent the [potato] blight, but the British brought the famine." The book makes the case that Britain's neglect of the starving Irish was nothing short of genocide. Indeed, the descriptions of conditions in the workhouses, the place impoverished tenant farmers were evicted to en masse, reminded me of what I've read about the Nazi concentration camps with the rampant death by starvation and typhus. The only difference was that in Ireland, there were no gas chambers or crematoria.

Some relief efforts did help, but they were too small-scale, so they missed thousands of people. The Quakers receive the most credit for their non-proselytizing soup kitchens. Other Protestant sects imitated them, but with one big difference: they insisted on converting the people they served. Whatever tensions existed between Protestants and Catholics before then were surely exacerbated and gave birth to resentments that lasted generations and even played a role in what the Irish called "the Troubles" in the 20th century.

The Protestant attitude in all this was the most appalling misinterpretation of Divine Providence I've ever heard: it's G-d's will, so we need not do anything. The British leadership also embraced the political equivalent of this with a dogmatic interpretation of Adam Smith in which the death toll was seen as a market correction for poor agricultural and economic habits. Of course, this very thinking informs much of the Republican party in the U.S. today, but to me it's ironic if not shocking that Irish Americans Paul Ryan (a Catholic!) and Mitch McConnell are at the vanguard of it.

As a book, I must say it was a tough read, and not just because of the subject. The style just didn't grab me, though the fault may be mine. I fear that I had so little background in Irish history going in that I didn't get everything out of this book that the author intended. It is probably not meant to be an introduction to this subject, but more of a polemic to be read after the reader knows a fair bit about it. Since it effectively was my introduction, though, I have to say that I consider myself more informed as a result of it, but probably not enough. The book does cite other sources for readers to look into, but whether or not I make use of them remains to be seen.

[Dee Miller · Rating 4 out of 5]

Audible sale (#23 of 40) 11 hours 13 min. Narrated by Roger Clark (A)

I have known vaguely of the famine that Ireland experienced and the great migration of many Irish to America, and no more. This book is an essential tool in understanding The Great Famine that hit Ireland in 1846 because of a virulent air borne bacteria that hit potatoes. Ireland was a part of Great Britain but not on the same footing as Scotland and Wales. The main diet of the poor was the potato although as workers on great landholdings, they grew other crops, especially oats.

The British parliament and the cabinet treated the Irish callously by preventing foodstuffs especially oats from being kept in Ireland and used to feed its own people. In this well-balanced and well-argued book, the author issues an indictment accusing Britain of guilt of the genocide of millions of Irish either by allowing starvation or by procuring transportatioon of ignorant, sick people on death ships bound for Canada and America.

David Eppenstein wrote a proper review of this book posted on Goodreads July 2015.

I wish I had read this subject earlier in life so that I would have had a better understanding of the background for Irish-English relationships.

[Christina Gagliano · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read a book about the Great Famine in Ireland to Liam's 2nd grade class right before St. Patrick's Day, figuring they all knew about leprechauns and pots of gold, and that it's high time they learned what life in Ireland was really like. One of the kids in the class asked why the British didn't do more to help the Irish, if Ireland was supposed to be part of the British Empire. An outstanding question! I answered that, while a few British people and organizations did try to help, the government overall would not or did not, and decided I needed to find out more about why, other than the obvious religious intolerance. There are a lot of excellent observations, heartbreaking stories, and examples of callousness in this book.

From a historical perspective, it's interesting to compare what was happening in Ireland under the British with what was happening in the American south with slavery at the time, to anyone who might be tempted to be too shocked about the behavior of much of the British population and government.

[Luthien · Rating 4 out of 5]

When I picked this book up at the library, I was looking for something a bit more broad—more of a survey, really—since even as a history student in college, Irish history is rarely mentioned, much less explored in-depth. I was a bit dubious at first. Genocide? Really? While I was more than willing to believe the British government had done serious wrong by the people of Ireland, that seemed like a rather extreme argument.

But Coogan is an excellent historian; at the time, I had never been introduced to the finer details of nineteenth-century British politics (i.e., the Corn Laws) upon which his argument hinges, but his writing is concise and engaging; his evidence, plentiful and convincing.

This may not be the end-all, be-all study of the Great Famine, but it is more than a little thought-provoking (to say nothing of how horror-struck I was upon finishing it). To those complaining of the “dryness” or dullness of Coogan’s prose, consider that this is a professional historian writing a historical monograph. If it seems dry or technical to you, it is not a fault of his, or of his remarkable book’s.

[Tamsin Ramone · Rating 2 out of 5]

I can’t say I read all of this book because it was a bit of a snooze fest but I read most of it and parts of every chapter. The information in it is interesting enough but I just found it difficult to understand and follow which was disappointing because I was hoping to learn more than I did. It probably didn’t help that my library copy had been written all over so it was hard to read some parts but I did take from it that the Quaker’s are awesome and the English parliament is a shower of bastards.

[Orla · Rating 4 out of 5]

The English are going to hate me at parties after this

[Julie Mickens · Rating 4 out of 5]

In 1845 and '46, you could call it incompetence -- a colonial government who just didn't get it. But by 1847, it was on purpose. After '47, the British government's starvation of Ireland's small farmers was willful and deliberate. (And remember that Britain WAS Ireland's government in the 1840s; Ireland was by law part of the UK.)

The Irish famine was one of the early disasters of classical liberalism, with the British rulers cloaking themselves in Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations as an ideological fig leaf for peasant "clearance" via starvation, eviction and emigration -- the last one more accurately described as a panicked flight of refugees.

As Sinead O'Connor wrote and sang in the '90s (as far as I can tell, just months ahead of Tony Blair's historic apology): When we "talk about the 'famine,'" we must talk about "the fact that there never really was one."

Grain, meat and dairy were exported from Ireland every year of the starvation -- under armed guard. Yes, there were several potato crop failures. But it was an economic crisis, not merely an agricultural one, that caused Ireland to lose 25 percent of its population. (That population, in fact, has to this day never recovered, especially in rural areas.)

By the way, the fact that disease outbreaks were the most proximate killer for many -- rather than outright strict starvation -- is a technicality. Being weak from hunger and evicted to the elements of course brings disease.

The rhetoric of the English elite's original 19thC economic liberals is scarcely different from what you might hear from today's free-market fundamentalists. And, as Jared Diamond points out in his book Collapse, with much of the global population's calories coming from only a few different cultivars of our major grains, sugars and, yes, potatoes, we have no reason to believe that a catastrophe like the Great Hunger couldn't touch us today.

As an aside, before I read Coogan's book I read Cecil Woodham-Smith's earlier, pioneering history, The Great Hunger. Coogan's is briefer, easier going and also includes a chapter on anti-Irish propaganda in the contemporary press. However, if you love history or have a particular interest in this subject, I do recommend reading Woodham-Smith's book first, because her telling is beautifully written, more detailed and includes more background. On that foundation, she confidently lets the reader draw the horrifying conclusions on their own. On the other hand, if you want a quicker read, and don't mind accepting a strong point of view from the start, you can jump straight to Coogan.

[Steve Smits · Rating 3 out of 5]

Tim Pat Coogan writes of the famine mainly in terms of the policy response of the English government. His premise is that, if analyzed in light of today's sensibility, that response could be considered an act of genocide -- hence, the title "The Famine Plot". I'm not sure I completely agree that the willfulness and intent that is a requisite of genocide completely pertains here, but there's no doubt that the callous and utterly lacking reaction by England to the Irish tragedy contributed in a major way to the suffering and deaths experienced by the Irish peasantry during this horrific time.

Coogan makes several thematic points: 1) the failure of the potato crop was widely held by English thinking to be an act of "providence" that was brought on by the fecklessness of the Irish themselves (hence deserved); 2) England's entirely inadequate response was motivated, at least implicitly, by the hope it would solve the land problem, i.e. diminish (through evictions, emigration and population decline) the multiplicity of small farm holdings and bring about more efficient land use; and, 3) the moral imperative of allowing above all a laisse faire, market driven approach to deal with the problem.

He makes these points well and if you don't buy the notion of overt genocide you cannot deny the mind-boggling callous and imperial arrogance of the British. He maintains, and I completely agree, that the English attitude toward Ireland was in the main that of a colonial master over an inferior people.

His description of "souperism" is fascinating and galling. Souperism refers to a strategy by Protestant figures to link access to famine relief with conversion by Catholics to their faith.

The book suffers a little from occasional meandering, but that's a minor criticism. I would say, though, that the essential history of the famine is Cecil Woodham Smith's classic book "The Great Hunger, now fifty years-old, but a must-read.

[Brayden Raymond · Rating 4 out of 5]

some of the closing words are likely to be what sticks with most readers. I'm paraphrasing but the blight was brought by God but the genocide(famine) was committed by the British Empire. a very succinct way to put it.

I appreciate the breadth of this book, covering many facets of the blight and subsequent famine, as well as the politics surrounding it. I look forward to reading more Coogan.

[Kat V · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love books that take a strong stance on a piece of history. This is an incredibly sad and depressing book, but it is excellent. I definitely recommend it. 4.3 stars

[Bobby Daugherty · Rating 3 out of 5]

Depressing, but well written and a tribute to the perseverance of the Irish people.

[Mark Hebden · Rating 5 out of 5]

In 1841 the Irish census registered 8,175,124 people in the whole of Ireland. The true figure was probably much larger. There was a lack of infrastructure, particularly westward coupled with very primitive peasant housing which made accurate record keeping all but impossible. Overcrowded slums of the cities would have been equally challenging to a state bureaucracy. Historiographical problems notwithstanding, it is generally accepted that during the Famine period Ireland’s population fell to some six and a half million. The total given in the 1851 census was 6,552,365 – at the very least some 1.6million people died or migrated (forced and voluntary) during what we know as the Potato Famine.

This book however is not principally concerned with numbers. There are detailed accounts of the figures elsewhere, broken down into county and town and village, across different landlords and smallholdings. Tim Pat Coogan is about explaining why the famine happened, and who was to blame for those excess deaths. He argues convincingly that the famine was no accident; or rather the prolongation of the effects were no accident but active government policy of the United Kingdom, of which Ireland was of course a part at the time, if not an equal part.

While there are many failings on the part of British politicians to alleviate the effects of the famine, the key event was the election of Lord John Russell in 1847 which condemned the souls of so many Irishmen, women and children. The previous Prime Minister, Robert Peel, while by no means a lover of philanthropy and charity, did set up through his Tory administration a number of programs of assistance which demonstrably kept people alive through the first part of the years of blight. Upon the arrival of Russell’s Whig administration, such programs were abandoned, abolished or deliberately undermined. For those who believe the Whiggish propaganda about them being a more liberal administration than the Tories, they would do well to read this book for they all worshipped at the fountain of political economy, specifically the Malthusian element of laissez faire, going so far as to equate the law of the market with the law of God; the Famine was merely divine providence as far as the Whig government were concerned and a golden opportunity for the expansion of captial.

Much of the blame is placed squarely at the door of Sir Charles Trevelyan; a mere civil servant but in reality the man who pulled the purse strings of the government. He was an ardent free-marketeer and is still revered in Whitehall today as a great reformer who cut his teeth in the Indian Civil Service before bringing his ideas to the “Mother of Parliaments”. To the author, he is a genocidal maniac responsible for almost every poor decision that exacerbated the effects of the Famine. The case against him is compelling and he is very much cast successfully into the role of a Victorian Oliver Cromwell; destroying the Catholic surplus population under the will of God. One example which would be difficult for even the most ardent liberal to defend would be the halting of grain ships which were supplying food to the impoverished, but this is what Trevelyan did purely out of ideological malignancy saying to the Chancellor and Prime Minister “Whatever may be done hereafter these things should be stopped now, or you run the risk of paralysing all private enterprise and having this country on you for an indefinite number of years.” It’s fair to say that not only was this cruel, it was also wrong; otherwise England would have had very little to do with Ireland once the Famine was over, and I don’t think it’s too controversial to suggest there have been some involvement and entanglement in the previous 170 years. Also note the description of Ireland as a “country” here and not a full partner in the economic union of the UK; a colonial subject.

There are first hand accounts here of what happened in Ireland, with the Quakers playing a key role in distributing relief; even they became critical of the British government as the latter made all possible efforts to stifle the former in their activities. There are some darkly comic moments that wouldn’t be believed in a fictional narrative, for example the Deputy Commissioner of the official government relief agency was called Sir Edward Pine-Coffin; even Dickens wouldn’t have gotten away with that. The tales of woe and destitution and death are heartbreaking in the extreme, as are the stories of forced evictions and eventually migrations, be they forced or voluntary and whether to the violence of the Five Points area of New York, Boston or the misery and racism of the slums of Liverpool.

Much can be understood about the British colonial attitude from reading this book. The way the British viewed the Irish; white people, European and from very similar if not the same ancestral stock as us, were nought but fodder for the imperial capitalist machine. Charles Kingsley; cuddly writer of children’s fiction said of the Irish “I am daunted by the human chimpanzees I saw along that hundred miles of horrible country. I don’t believe they are our fault. I believe that there are not only many more of them than of old, but that they are happier, better and more comfortably fed and lodged under our rules than they ever were. But to see white chimpanzees is dreadful; if they were black, one would not feel it so much, but their skins, except where tanned by exposure, are as white as ours.” While Thomas Carlyle, doughty defender of liberty put it “Ireland is a starved rat that crosses the path of an elephant: what is the elephant to do? Squelch it, by heaven! Squelch it!” Apparently not convinced that the squelching process would be sufficient, Carlyle also suggested that the best course for England in dealing with the Irish was to “lead them and put them over with the ni**ers.” - these extracts are taken from an excellent chapter on the media and propaganda, lead by the London Times which remains the British “paper of record” despite being on the wrong side of history on most large historical debates.

Tim Pat Coogan puts his case expertly and passionately. The Irish Famine began out of sheer bad luck, but its continuation was a result of British government policy. He ends by quoting the UN definition of Genocide and concludes “Certainly in the years 1846–1851 responsible Whig decision makers were complicit in genocide and did direct public incitement, as the columns of The Times sadly confirm only too well, toward furthering that end. Just as there are those who still attempt to deny man’s role in global warming, there are those who would still attempt to defend the Whigs’ role on the grounds that the UN Convention on Genocide stems from 1948, not 1848. To them I end by saying there is another, even older command on which the UN declaration draws, and it is not disputed: Thou shalt not kill.” The final word should go perhaps to John Mitchell who was transported to Van Diemen’s Land due to his political beliefs “The Almighty indeed sent the potato blight, but the English created the Famine”.

[S · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book gives a pretty good overview of the Irish Famine. It's main aim though is to spell out how big a part England played in the lead up to it and how little they did to help during it. It says as much on the front cover so it shouldn't be a surprise that it's heavily critical of England and it's government of the time.

Sadly there are a lot of similarities to situations still happening around the world, the chapter about propaganda in the media in particular stood out in light of what's happening in Gaza at the moment. I've seen some seriously dodgy reporting from various outlets and it's a bit of a shock to learn that this is not a modern phenomenon.

As an Irish person who is reasonably well educated on our own history there wasn't a lot that came as a surprise to me. If all you know about the Famine is that we ate lots of potatoes and then there were no potatoes so we all died than some of the things in here will probably come as a horrible shock to you.

I'm not 100% sure what the writers motivation was in writing this. Personally I feel we must always remember our past but we can't dwell on it or allow it to influence the relationships we have with various countries today. I will say though that the same various other countries could do with reading this book and more like it and becoming better educated on their own histories.

[Ashley · Rating 3 out of 5]

this is a really interesting read with a berth of evidence to support its argument. however, it’s definitely not an introductory text, and i think more background on 19th-century ireland and british politics could be useful for the reader. i also found coogan’s writing style extremely dry, which made getting through this very difficult, even if i found the content intriguing.

[Chris · Rating 5 out of 5]

This impeccably researched and well-written book is long overdue. Tim Pat Coogan lays out the case that the British government through policy and simple inaction exacerbated and lengthened the horrific impacts of the famine. Coolant further makes the argument that this amounts to nothing short of an intended genocide against the Irish driven by racism and financial gain for British land and wealth holders. While these have been long held views of the Irish diaspora, they have not been acknowledged as widely by Irish historians.

Regardless of your interest in assigning blame, in making his case, Coogan lays out a compelling detailed narrative of the course of events and pulls together contemporary documents and accounts to add greatly to what is known about this important and tragic event in Irish history. It is hard to believe that a more humane approach from London wouldn’t have saved lives.

[Jordan · Rating 4 out of 5]

God sent the blight, but the English created the Famine.

[David Tyler · Rating 4 out of 5]

7.2/10

[Elliot Gates · Rating 4 out of 5]

Articulate and tragic.

[Elia Princess of Starfall · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Great Famine or An Gorta Mor in Irish was a time of widespread starvation, disease and emigration in Ireland with the population being effectively halved by 1851-61. In 1845, the population of Ireland stood around nine million and for the Irish poor, with there being very little employment or money available, a plot of land to grow potatoes for food was the only way to survive. The diet for the Irish poor often consisted solely of potatoes, with any extra crops or pigs sold to pay the rent, the Irish peasantry lived in abject poverty and hardship with visitors from England and beyond appalled by the degeneration they witnessed. The coming of the Blight to Ireland and the poor, insufficient and often moralizing measures of the British government for famine relief spelled disaster and despair for Ireland and her people.



In Tim Pat Coogan's The Famine Plot, the author proposes that the famine was a deliberate and particularly cruel plan by the Whig British government to decimate the Irish poor population by means of starvation, forced emigration to the English colonies and by evicting the small Irish farmers to make way for "high farming", arable and the grazing of cattle and sheep. They may not have intentionally sent the blight to wreak havoc among the Irish poor but upon noticing the impact it was having upon what they considered a lazy and immoral way of life - potato dependence, early marriage, a barter economy and gradual reduction in farm sizes - they soon thought of it as an act of Providence i.e that God had sent the blight to Ireland to punish the Irish for the unchristian ways.

Its a controversial thesis to argue for as Coogan acknowledges; who wants their country accused of genocide? Its a dark and horrible conclusion to reach but I feel that Coogan has shown that the idea of holding the English government for the ravages of famine and its aftermath to a greater extent then normally permissible has merit and reason behind it. Ireland was after all in the hands of the English government and the management or mismanagement of famine relief should in theory be laid at their door and their sacrosanct belief in political economy or leave the market to private forces.



This a well-thought out, carefully written and intriguing book on the great famine and England's role in the calamity. This is not an objective book; Coogan goes in with one aim to hold the British accountable for the severity of the famine and to challenge the perception that the British did all they could within an outlook of political economy and Moralist tendencies. There is a palpable sense of anger and resentment within the pages of the Famine Plot. This is a subject which Coogan has great passion and enthusiasm for.

At times though he can be a bit ham-handed and deceptive in his analysis over the Irish Famine. At one point in the Famine Plot he quoted a scene from the Big Wind, a novel set in famine times written by his mother; IMHO a history non-fiction is cheapened by such an inclusion. I mean come on, are there not enough contemporary writings on the famine as there is?

All in all, I would highly recommend the Famine Plot as an engaging and informative book. I leave it though to the reader to decide if the charge of genocide is warranted n the case of the famine.

[Madison · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was so good, I’m so excited to read his other books on the IRA and the troubles now. A very thorough, well researched, and persuasive book which makes the case that “God sent the blight, but the English created the famine.” It’s SO devastating and sometimes dense and/or graphic, but especially towards the end as the author really drives home his argument, it’s so compelling. I mostly listened to it and the audiobook is great, but I liked it so much I will probably be buying this book. If you (like me) struggle with nonfiction that isn’t really a narrative, I’d definitely recommend listening.

[Andy Park · Rating 4 out of 5]

So what on God's Green Earth got me to read this book?

Back in July/Aug of 2023, my vacation took me to Ireland, and to County Cavan (town of Cavan)- sister county of my home here in Western NY. While we were there, we were given tickets to go see the musical; "In the Midst of Plenty", which was... rough (in my opinion). The following day, one of our hosts as myself and one of my friends what we thought of the musical. I said that while it wasn't necessarily my cup of tea, it did inspire me to learn more about the Famine in Ireland. In the United States, we don't hear about the political background of the famine.

As I read this book, it almost reminded me of how the COVID-19 pandemic was handled in the US (except opposite order). When it began, the PM was trying to help and counter the famine. Then, another PM came in, and the individual in charge of trying to respond to the famine screwed it up. I wonder if this would have happened had PM Peel stayed in his position and kept working to help Ireland.

The failure of the British Government to help the Irish is astonishing, as is the negative view of the Irish during that time frame. I think Coogan sums things up well when he stated; "There was not a snowball's chance in hell of securing a meaningful humane response to the Irish Famine from the English Cabinet." Based on the facts he presents in his book, he isn't wrong. I also found the comparison to this being considered Genocide based on how many Irish passed during the time of the famine.

One of the other interesting things, is that landlords would start paying for their tenants to emigrate to the United States, Liverpool, and Canada. One of the great things about being in Ireland- is learning that this also has led to a great national pride. Not necessarily just about home, but pride about that no matter where someone goes- you'll meet someone from Ireland.

I encourage anyone who is curious about history about outside the United States to read this. It's very interesting, while difficult subject matter. And go to Ireland- beautiful country, and the people are amazing. It was great just to talk with everyone and get to know people.

[Shane Hill · Rating 4 out of 5]

Powerful read on the Irish famine...disturbing to say the least but I do not agree with the Author's thesis that this was a deliberate Genocide by the British Govt and nor do most scholars of the Famine!

[Gail Francis · Rating 3 out of 5]

Tim Pat Coogan asserts that the famine was a case of genocide. He quotes another public figure often in saying "God caused the potato blight, England caused the famine." And he makes a pretty compelling case.

Two things in particular struck me. First, the famine was happening so close to the time that Adam Smith's theories had taken told and just prior to the ideas of Marx and Engels coming into circulation. So you had all these people in London viewing the famine in terms of waiting for the "invisible hand" to use the famine to make Ireland a better place. Many viewed it as a sort of laboratory in economic theory.

The second thing is just how similar so much of the language used by the British was to language used today to describe welfare recipients or people without healthcare. There was mass starvation and suffering beyond measure, but time and again those in England--the very ones responsible for designing and distributing relief schemes--referred to the crisis as first and foremost a moral crisis on the part of the Irish. The Irish, they believed, were lazy, immoral, and superstitious, and this, according to this line of thought, is why they could not figure out how to eat. The physical reality of the potato blight and the policy of continued exports of what little food remained were not the actual causes of starvation, according to this theory. And, following this logic, the administrators were careful to make sure aid only went to those who were "truly poor." The lengths that starving people had to go through just for the privilege of entering a workhouse (where they would perform meaningless work in exchange for gruel) is really sick. And this mentality foretold much of how the United States would parcel out welfare in the next century.

I will say that I wish Tim Pat Coogan had a better editor. The writing is not really as organized as it could be and gets pretty bogged down in places, but still I learned a lot.

[Dave · Rating 4 out of 5]

To those with even the most casual interest in history, the basic facts regarding the Irish Potato Famine are well known. A blighted (and thereby ruined) potato crop in the 1840's led to mass starvation, disease, and emigration. Most published works on this sad period in Ireland's history rarely touch upon the circumstances that the Irish people have long held in their common memory - the role played by the British government. With "The Famine Plot", Irish historian Tim Pat Coogan sheds the kid gloves and strikes graples with the notion that while the origins of the blight were of the natural world, the extent to which the Irish people suffered was purely bureaucratic in nature.

Citing damning source after damning source, Coogan exposes the role of British Whig party leaders such as Lord John Russell, Charles Wood, and the notorious Charles Trevelyan - who also, it should be noted, played a significant role in the Highland Clearances - in restricting relief efforts and promoting brutal evictions. In his account, Coogan makes clear his opinion of these men and their agents and, based upon the wealth of documentary evidence he references, sheds a long-overdue light upon the capabilities of a government run by unconscionable officials.

The most frightening aspect of the book is the obvious parallels that are drawn between the British laissez-faire leaders of the 19th century and the current conservative mouthpieces clambering ever higher in American government. Coogan only briefly hints at the comparison, but the words of Trevelyan can be heard echoing in halls of Congress today.

"The Famine Plot" is an eye-opening, accessible account of the oft-ignored perspective of this well-known Irish tragedy.

[Irishblue · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book shocked me to the core. As an Irishman I had always been aware of the English hatred of everything Irish. I never thought they would allow millions to die in this hatred. Charles Trevalyan was knighted by queen victoria for his role in managing famine relief. He allowed his hatred to colour all his policies. He believed the country was overpopulated and decided the famine was god's providence to punish the feckless Irish for their laziness and popery. He refused to recognise that any advance made by tenants was rewarded by increased rents assuring that progress became failure in fact and led to increased poverty. Landlords tricked tenants to travel on coffin ships to the colonies to escape the poverty with unfulfilled promises of food and money for the journey and arrival in the Americas. They were called coffin ships due to their high death rates and conditions worse than slavers. Workhouses were opened, underfunded, and only capable of dealing with 1% of the hunger. Rules were put in place to ensure minimum numbers gained entry to them. Work creation program's were a failure as the people were too hungry to walk to the works location. Trevalyan pressured for wages to be decreased. Queen Victoria made appeals but only gave £2,000 personally to the effort and used her influence to stop aid from unexpected sources such as Turkey. Truly it was genocide as defined by the United Nations 100 years later. This was after hundreds of years of ethnic cleansing. Ireland exported food throughout the 7 years of famine while its population declined by more than one third. There is little doubt the English have a lot to answer for!

[Argum · Rating 5 out of 5]

Deeply depressing and detailed. My history courses taught me the famine was an agricultural crisis that precipitated large numbers of Irish immigrants to America which then shaped American culture and politics. Never once did I learn that it was preventable and racist. Coogan defends the thesis that the British committed genocide and I think it is not only convincing but well documented in this book. A strong anti-Irish and anti-Catholic bias motivated decisions by the colonial power that had usurped power in their neighbor and then used and drained resources even during a time of food crisis. This book was so powerful in its choice of quotes from papers, officials, and victims that I had to put it down several times from disgust at what was done to the Irish. More than this the idea that the poor are to blame for their poverty when the system is stacked against them and come what may they deserve it is such a popular sentiment in American politics today made it even harder to read in that we have learned nothing from this massive loss of life. Powerful book that while easy to read academically is difficult to read emotionally.