RE: The Holodomor: Starvation of more than 6 million Ukrainians by Stalin
January 6, 2014 at 8:51 pm
(January 5, 2014 at 9:54 pm)BrianSoddingBoru4 Wrote:Quote:Actually 'The British' sent money, lots of money, to buy grain that was on the open market. Unfortunately it was given to the catholic church to disseminate and they spent the cash on Gold plate for church adornments and building church extensions. It was one of the first examples of a mass releif fund being set up.
Not to derail the topic, but An Gorta Mor is something I know more than a little about. The British made one - ONE - grain purchase to help the starving Irish (corn from the US) and the project was a colossal failure that had nothing to do with the church. All other relief came from private charities (a good number of them religious organisations).
The whole situation could have been alleviated by simply closing Irish ports to food exports, as was done in the 1780s.
To be even more boringly pedantic, there was never a famine in Ireland - you can't have a famine in a country full of food.
Boru
I seem to recall reading that while the peasants were starving Ireland continued exporting food for the profit of British absentee landowners.
The potato blight did not damage other crops.