Charitable Organization Donations During Famine

Absentee Landlord System and Tenant Evictions in Ireland

Oct 14, 2009 Kathleen Airdrie

Charities attempted to alleviate starving Irish tenants' and laborers' suffering during famine, but donations were insufficient.

Absentee landlords, opportunistic middlemen, and an ineffectual British government exacerbated the crisis. The effects of the blight that developed in 1845 and continued for several years were devastating. People were starving to death.

Donations from Charities and Royalty

Charities donated large amounts of money. The first donation (14,000 pounds sterling) came from Irish soldiers and East India Company employees in Calcutta. Pope Pius IX and numerous religious and non-religious groups that included the Choctaw people in the U. S. also contributed.

Queen Victoria’s response to the Great Famine was to personally donate 2,000 pounds sterling. She was also patron of a charitable organization involved in the effort. In part because of false reports that she had given only five pounds, Victoria was named “The Famine Queen”.

Sultan Abdulmecid of the Ottoman Empire declared that he was sending 10,000 pounds to the Irish people. The Queen requested that, because she had forwarded only 2,000, he send only 1,000. The Sultan agreed to do as the Queen had asked. Secretly, he sent three shiploads of food. Despite attempts to block the ships, they arrived at the harbor of Drogheda, approximately 56 km (35 miles) north of Dublin.

The British Relief Association (founded in 1847) campaigned for money in England, North America, and Australia. With Victoria’s ‘Queen’s Letters of Appeal’, the Association raised approximately 200,000 pounds.

Absentee Landowners, Greed, and Evictions from Ireland

The English did not move quickly enough when they received news of the famine. Early warnings of impending major problems were ignored. Absentee landlords were interested only in the money made from use of the land. The tenants’ main crops were potatoes which grew abundantly in small areas and provided food during winter.

It is estimated that approximately two-thirds of the potato crops were destroyed by the blight. More than one million people died of starvation and disease. Another million people, who wanted to escape or were evicted by absentee landowners, emigrated to distant shores. Many died during their journeys.

Disastrous Government Policies

Prime Minister Robert Peel successfully repealed the protectionist Corn Law early in 1846, but was forced to resign. His successor Prime Minister John Russell was an ineffective leader. The government’s ill-advised counter-productive approach to the problem was disastrous. Food products (grains, cattle, pigs, eggs, and poultry) exported from Ireland could have more than amply fed the famine victims.

Another perspective is that Russell was sympathetic to the cause and that the British Parliament blocked his relief proposals. The public works were virtually useless as the people needed food not unnecessary labor. Landowners and their middlemen took advantage of the situation by evicting impoverished, starving tenants.

Queen Victoria Controversy

During Victoria’s reign, the English monarchy became less political and more ceremonial in character. For that reason, the British Royal Family received less criticism than the government for the dreadful situation.

There was wide controversy when she made an official visit to Ireland in 1849. The propaganda tour was meant to show British politicians the extent of the crisis. The exorbitant cost of banquets and other events far exceeded the amount of her contribution to famine relief.

Grosse Ile Quebec Quarantine Station relates information about the journeys and arrivals from Ireland during this period.

Sources:

The Great Irish Potato Famine by James Donnelly, Sutton Publishing, 2002

Black Potatoes: The Story of the Great Irish Famine, 1845-1 by Susan Campbell Bartoletti, Houghton Mifflin Company, 2001

The copyright of the article Charitable Organization Donations During Famine in UK/Irish History is owned by Kathleen Airdrie. Permission to republish Charitable Organization Donations During Famine in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.