We've stopped calling it the famine here and now it's "the great hunger".

Ireland was producing more than enough to feed itself but the British landlords were forcing the export of non-potatoes and leaving us to die.

The queen at the time politically shamed the Turks into reducing their aid to us because it was higher than hers.

What's up, Turkey? We haven't forgotten your generosity.

Massive, massive shout out to our Choctaw brothers and sisters in America who gave what they didn't have after the trail of tears.

For those not familiar, we have never, ever forgotten that one.

Sculpture in Cork called "kindred spirits":

The Irish potato famine wasn't exclusive to Ireland. It actually first appeared in the US and spread to Europe.

The issue was, unlike other nations, the Irish ONLY had potatoes as all other crops were cash crops for tax.

The British government could have 100% minimized the damage. But they didn't.

Good Job PM Peel. You fucked up.

A large contributor to Irish suffering were the British corn laws, a tariff that kept the price of barley, wheat, and oats artificially high. So when potato crops failed, the poor Irish couldn't afford substitutes. Ironically, American maze was exempt from the corn laws, so much of that was imported to Ireland.

Tariffs: never any externalities or unintended consequences; you will certainly not regret imposing tariffs.

I'm just coming off a severe staph infection that could have cost me my right leg below the knee, so can relate to devastating bacteria. Was hospitalized for a couple days to rehydrate and get iv antibiotics that appear to have knocked it out now. If you develop a skin infection that seems to be spreading fast, don't jack around and have it checked

Aren't the Brits more viral historically? Go, inject themselves into another organism and force it to produce more brits.

Random observation, I had no idea how many languages are spoken in the British isles...

LanguagesEnglish, Welsh, Cornish, Irish, Manx, Scots, Scottish Gaelic, French, Guernésiais, Jèrriais, Sercquiais, Shelta, Ulster-Scots, Angloromani, British Sign Language, Irish Sign Language

The laugh this gave me was appreciated

Wait the Brits? Not the English? Ireland is part of the British Isles, doesn't that make them Brits too?

The British didn't cause the famine, they "just" made it worse.

And really it's not even "the british" that are to blame. It was the rich land owners that continued to export the food grown in Ireland in order to make profit and the conservative (well, whig, but they are the spiritual predecessor to the modern conservatives and where politically conservative at the time) government that stopped and aid and refused to ban exporting food out of Ireland as they believed the famine was divine providence.