Was the Great Famine Just Like Modern Famines?

Abstract

In Ireland, drawing analogies between the Great Famine of the 1840s and modern ‘famines that kill’ has become commonplace. Sometimes the analogies are prescriptive, and are concerned with raising Third World consciousness in Ireland. Sometimes they are historical, linking Irish generosity towards famine relief to Irish memories of the past. In truth, the historical links are less strong than some of us might like to think; publicity and campaigning have transformed them into a kind of invented tradition. There is no harm in this — on the contrary. Yet history never quite repeats itself, and the contexts of Ireland’s famine and modern, mainly African, famines are quite different. Superficially, of course, all famines are alike. But some of the differences are worth reflecting on.KeywordsExcess MortalityEconomic HistorySupply ShockMale MortalityPotato PriceThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.