AHC/WI: The Irish Potato Famine is negated/averted.

Say that the British government was more expedient in providing aid and relief that succeeds in avoiding the mass death and the kick-off of emigration in Ireland. How does it effect the rest of British and Irish history? What state of development is Ireland like today (I figured that if Great Britain and Ireland today had the same ratio of people it did in 1840, roughly 18/8, the modern population of Ireland would be 28 million, right between the population of Romania and Poland), and is it an independent nation or still a part of the UK?
 

GdwnsnHo

Banned
Probably the best way to prevent the famine, is a change to the sheer number of disinterested landlords - if the landlords are based in Ireland rather than London - then they'd be more willing to prioritise local sales over exports (horrifyingly, there was more than enough food grown, it was exported abroad).

Alternatively, Ireland could be placed under temporary export limits, or even better -> The Crown buys the food and sells it to the Irish at a loss. Maintains their precious changes to law, prevents people starving, etc.

Plus, the costs won't be as drastic, as in the long-term, Ireland remains in the Empire, and reforms to be less vulnerable to crop-disasters.

The emigration may still be a problem (one that might be encouraged by the government to save on food purchases) but less people will die.
 
Support for the Union was already weakening in the 1830s when Daniel O'Connell was leading a mass movement for Repeal. I've never been convinced that the Famine was the decisive event in whether Ireland stayed in the UK or not - arguably it even temporarily strengthed the Union by easing the pressure on the land situation.

Ultimately avoiding the Act of Union altogether might be the best way to mitigate things, not entirely, but somewhat. The proportion of resident landholders would at least increase if the Irish House of Lords remained in Dublin.
 
i think the Irish never forgot that the english sold them as slaves.
(if you think the african slaves were treated bad, read up on the irish slavetrade, stomach churning bad.)
 

GdwnsnHo

Banned
Support for the Union was already weakening in the 1830s when Daniel O'Connell was leading a mass movement for Repeal. I've never been convinced that the Famine was the decisive event in whether Ireland stayed in the UK or not - arguably it even temporarily strengthed the Union by easing the pressure on the land situation.

Ultimately avoiding the Act of Union altogether might be the best way to mitigate things, not entirely, but somewhat. The proportion of resident landholders would at least increase if the Irish House of Lords remained in Dublin.

But the Repeal Association fundamentally failed and were then replaced by the Young Irelanders who rebelled at the peak of the Famine - if the British government is actively ensuring that the Irish people are being fed - I can't see that being anything but good for improving the relations between the British Government and the Irish people.

If the young Irelanders are around, they may find that land reform is a more popular angle to take, which may bring forward land reforms by more than a few decades.

Admittedly, I think those reforms would be a very good idea sooner, in fact, if the need for famine relief was used as an incentive to reform the land to ensure that tenant farmers could feed themselves and their families more reliably (and perhaps diversify their crops) it could head off more issues. Then again, I only think this would work if the Young Irelanders (or other political group) really pushes for it, in the middle of Irish emigration, which would make redistribution of land to the tenant farmers easier.

Or you really just need some better politicians.
 
But the Repeal Association fundamentally failed and were then replaced by the Young Irelanders who rebelled at the peak of the Famine - if the British government is actively ensuring that the Irish people are being fed - I can't see that being anything but good for improving the relations between the British Government and the Irish people.

Repeal (the party) failed largely thanks to the Famine, though certainly O'Connell's failure of nerve in 1843 (or more charitably ill health) helped. Mass political movements were not sustainable during the trenches of the Famine, or for many years afterwards.

As for improved relations, the OTL example of the Land Acts strongly suggests a patronising program of killing Home Rule with kindness is not an effective antidote to a demand for self rule.

If the young Irelanders are around, they may find that land reform is a more popular angle to take, which may bring forward land reforms by more than a few decades.

Admittedly, I think those reforms would be a very good idea sooner, in fact, if the need for famine relief was used as an incentive to reform the land to ensure that tenant farmers could feed themselves and their families more reliably (and perhaps diversify their crops) it could head off more issues. Then again, I only think this would work if the Young Irelanders (or other political group) really pushes for it, in the middle of Irish emigration, which would make redistribution of land to the tenant farmers easier.

Very hard to see these happening in the 1840s or earlier. Palmerstone was one of the biggest Irish landlords!

Or you really just need some better politicians.

Heh, if only. :D

The problem was not that the politicians were bad (though of course many were) but that the reforms needed would have been breathtakingly radical for the time period and required a crisis to persuade Westminster to push them through, as they did in real life.
 
The Irish language would probably be at least slightly stronger, as the famine effected the parts of Ireland where Irish was a majority very badly. I could see it doing as well as Welsh.
 
My family stays in County Donegal. Boston and NYC are different places. The South does a little better during Pickett's charge because there is no longer an Irish brigade.
 
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