An American's view of 'The Troubles'

[Duke of Gloucester]

Know what, I did. There was even a link to that in my last post.

Maybe we ought to reclassify the potato famine as the first Katrina (natural disaster) - magnified by 1,000 times.

I think the comparison with Katrina is helpful in understanding the nature of the potato famine. Both were natural disasters the actual causes of which could not be controlled. Both had a worse affect because of existing structural problems. In the case of Katrina these were much easier to see and put right before disaster struck. In both cases nothing was done. The government responses were inadequate caused more death and suffering and fueled resentment in the victims (if victims is an appropriate word). For both disasters the reasons for the poor response by Government included callousness, incompetence and prejudice. In the potato famine the prejudice was a far more important element than in New Orleans.

However all the legal penalties applied to Catholics had already been removed in 1829 (except the bar to graduating at Oxford or Cambridge - which also applied to Methodists, Presbyterians and other non-conformists - and marrying the heir to the throne). The legal framework under which the Catholic poor in Ireland were treated was the same as the framework under which they would have been treated in Islington. The problem was that when it became clear that framework could not cope with a disaster of that scale the Irish Sea and the idea that God was punishing Catholics for having the wrong religion (this view was held by some but not all in authority) made is too easy for people to deny that change was required.

Aethelstan never thought of a united British collective group. Simply an overlordship of the Islands of Britain. Same with Longshanks.

I agree, but I think James Stuart was the same.