Picture a nation consumed by hunger and disease, in which one doomed crop altered the direction of history forever. In 1845, a devastating disease inflicted itself upon the potato crop, upon which a third of Ireland’s population was heavily dependent on for food. Woefully, the British government stood idly by and watched as millions of Irish people starved to death. The mistreatment of the Irish people during the famine, by the hands of the British government, was a catastrophic series of events that birthed a genocide.
The ignorance of the British Government directly added fuel to the flame of the famine and made all the difference in the life or death of the Irish.  While few ships brought food to Ireland, countless more were exporting valuable goods out of the country. Goods that could have reduced the agony of the Irish people. The British government viewed the famine as an Irish problem, failing to adhere to their duty of offering assistance. Britain still wanted all the goods Ireland could export even if they knew the Irish people could barely support themselves. The British government sat by and observed, thus allowing at least a million of the Irish to die. Even though they had the resources to help them.
Furthermore, many British landlords went around evicting Irish tenants who could be discovered as good as dead on the street, with green mouths, from grass promising to fill their empty bellies. The British lacked empathy and held ignorant attitudes towards the Irish people when they were in dire need for aid. Instead of the British trying to help the Irish people, they quickly turned to their backs onto them. Evicting them and leaving them to death. The British governments blind ignorance towards the Irish people led millions to their deaths. Their priorities did not lie with the people, but with money, power, and greed.
British bystanders took advantage of the Irish’s ill times and exploited them to their benefit. The exportation of wheat, barely, and rye did absolutely nothing to help the financial status of the impoverished Irish farmers. Any exported produce was used to pay taxes and rent to British landlords, who in turn sold the farm products for a larger profit. Those profits were never re-invested back into the Irish community. It only contributed to the wealth of British landlords. The Irish farmers were forced to remain poverty stricken with only one value of possession, the potato. Families were sent to workhouses where horrifying conditions resulted in more deaths. Being sent to a workhouse was a quick way to a shallow grave. Most of the workhouses were severely overcrowded and festered with blasphemous conditions. These conditions, along with the fact many enter the workhouses with illnesses, meant disease and death spread like wildfire throughout the house. Starving, ill, and weak Irish peasants were put to work for a futile attempt to save their lives. The British took advantage of their desperation and put them to work for less than nothing. The Irish people were used and exploited to great lengths by the people around them including the British government. This is because the British saw them as subordinate.
The British actively discriminated against the Irish people and constantly reinforced negative stereotypes. Discrimination is one of the important stages of a genocide. The Irish were accused of bringing the famine upon themselves by being lazy and overpopulated. This is despite the fact that the Irish were legally obligated to not hunt or fish under the British law. They were never gifted the freedom of relying on themselves for food other than the crops on their own farms. Their options were extremely limited under the circumstances.
The British government restricted access to education for the Irish. Thus, forcing them to remain as farmers. The Irish school system withheld the required education necessary to choosing different professions and essentially forced the Irish people to remain as weak and powerless sharecropping farmers. The British directed the Irish into a position that could be compared to as serfdom with such a minimal pay and restricted rights. The British government viewed the Irish people as less than, and created a society where it would be impossible to advance and change their future. The British set the Irish up for failure with such harsh laws and unfair treatment. Restrictions such as these further escalated the genocide of the Irish people.
The British government’s malicious response to the Irish potato famine of 1845 caused millions of innocent Irish lives to be lost, and dismally resulted in what can only be called a genocide. The ignorance of the British government eventually led to the deaths of a substantial number of Irish lives. As well as the greed and discrimination that the Irish faced all throughout this hellish ordeal. This chapter of history educates us on how important it is to stand up for your rights and fight for a fairer, more compassionate society.