Irish Potato Famine - The Corn Laws - Part 2 - Extra History

📜 Irish Potato Famine: The Corn Laws - Prime Minister Robert Peel was caught between the political pressures of the Whigs and the Tories. He repealed the corn laws in Britain to keep food prices low in Britain, with the secondary goal of famine relief for Ireland, but that bureaucratic multi-tasking would not help the Irish very much.

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#ExtraHistory #Ireland #History

[extrahistory]

Prime Minister Robert Peel was in a tough position--once the potato blight reached Ireland, he knew he had to do something, without undercutting the grain market and upsetting either the Tories or the Whigs. So naturally, he sent an agent to Boston, on a mission to buy £100, 000 worth of cornmeal and quietly ship it to Ireland...

[freekashyyyk]

Its hard to ignore the hypocrisy in the phrase "let the irish feed themselves" yet the irish were not allowes to keep their food from being exported. They could easily have fed themselves if not for the British exploitation.

[Iybraesil]

I always love how "Maybe we should feed poor people?" is a legit question politicians debate over.

[burnoutvista]

Man watching this gets you so mad at politicians. I bet they were saying stuff like, “The Irish wouldn’t be starving if they worked hard!”

[NightmareRoach]

Sword company owner named: Blunt. Criminal named: Law, and now peel.

[itac.]

The famine was so bad that people died leaving the country and their transport became known as 'corpse ships' when there were too many bodies to bury they'd just send them out to sea.

[Shatnerpossum]

"No mass death" except for y'know, the obvious mass death.

[MediumDSpeaks]

"Scurvy started CROPPING up"
I see what you did there

[MDFification]

>Trevalyn

[Screams in Irish]

I swear, the arguments in favor of the famine being a genocide are almost solely based on how much this man was proud of how he made the Irish starve.

[Bigfoot_With_Internet_Access]

I think it's funny that the prime minister during the potato famine name was his name was Peel

[johnroy]

My great grandpa fled Ireland during the famine, and the story goes when he got to the docks, they told him to just get on a boat, not knowing where it would go. He almost chose the boat to Australia, but ended up picking the one set for New York City

[Stilluetto]

Why let a little alarmism get in the way of good partisan debates?

[ItsTheFizz]

Partisan politicians dismissing dire reports as "fake news?"

MAKES YA THINK

[abdurrahmanalchoughri]

When you realize the Ottomans managed to help the Irish more than the British who were in control

[HeartOfTheEarth]

I started crying out of nowhere when the ending music started. My great grandma emigrated from Ireland during the famine, and all of a sudden it hit me how hard things must've been for her.

[timothymclean]

8:27: It's amazing how often historical politics echo our modern issues. The more things change, the more they stay the same, am I right?

[maciejmanna]

"For you stole Trevelyan's corn
So the young might see the morn,
Now a prison ship lies waiting in the bay"

[virusguy]

Jaw drops open...

Suddenly I understand why the Irish have such beef with England

[Fawstah]

"Hey there's a famine in ireland"
London "Fake news"

[LordDragon]

The best thing Peel did was to create Scotland Yard. The police are still named Bobbys in his honor