Odd thing about Irish identity - the moves to strenghthen it happened in the late 19th century- roughly at the time when most Irish people had started speaking English.
There was no deliberate decision to cause the Famine by the British government but there is little doubt that ideologically driven economic policies grossly agravated it.
Perhaps England's perception of the Irish as different made it easy to stick to the ideology despite the suffering.
One has to say that Stalin adopted a dangerous and castrastphocically wrong economic approach and millions died. The British state insisted on a certain ideology and millions died in Ireland.
Also on a Demographic basis it is worth looking at the long term consequences. I think Ireland's population was much higher in 1840 than now- it is hard to think of many other parts of my continent where that can be said.
There was no deliberate decision to cause the Famine by the British government but there is little doubt that ideologically driven economic policies grossly agravated it.
Perhaps England's perception of the Irish as different made it easy to stick to the ideology despite the suffering.
One has to say that Stalin adopted a dangerous and castrastphocically wrong economic approach and millions died. The British state insisted on a certain ideology and millions died in Ireland.
Also on a Demographic basis it is worth looking at the long term consequences. I think Ireland's population was much higher in 1840 than now- it is hard to think of many other parts of my continent where that can be said.