But he did send the Black and Tans into ireland, so while he wasn't responsible for genocide, he sure as hell was responsible for a lot of irish deaths.
Oh there was absolutely intent. Ireland was a food exporter for the entire famine, and the British turned away foreign ships that tried to bring food for relief. The fungus that caused the famine actually hit England first, but there wasn't a famine there. The hole thing was completely preventable and was intentionally made worse by Britain's government.
British turned away foreign ships that tried to bring food for relief
False, no evidence of this.
Ireland was a food exporter for the entire famine
Not the design of the government. Food production was a private endeavour by the (predominantly) Anglo-Irish land owners.
The fungus that caused the famine actually hit England first, but there wasn't a famine there
England wasn't dependent on potatoes specifically. And, as above, the land owners sold where they could for the highest profit. You can blame capitalism, certainly the land owners were motivated by that.
The whole thing was completely preventable and was intentionally made worse by Britain's government
The British government was a small government (using modern terminology). It existed for business, military, and not public health, public education, etc. Trevelyan was appalling bad at his job, but did nothing with an aim to murder.
There is significant misinformation out there on this topic. His letters reveal his contempt for the Irish, although this was mainly aimed at the Anglo-Irish owners (who I guess he didn't consider Anglo) for asking for handouts whilst they sold their food abroad. The 'genocide' label is a modern revisionism and comes with stories like ships being turned away and whatnot.
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u/egalitydream Jul 27 '26
The Irish genocide was before his time, but yeah, the country was basically comparable to Nazi Germany for a large part of its history.