Reddit mentions of Famine: A Short History

Part 1/2

I think this massively depends on why the Famine never happens. There were a lot of factors that came together in a perfect storm to make the Famine as devastating as it was, so depending on which of these are considered the point of divergence from OTL changes a lot of things for the outcome. That said, some things happen the same regardless.

Let's briefly run through how the Great Famine (An Gorta Mór) happened in OTL:

Massive Disclaimer: _Many parts of this are simplified for the purposes of a more coherent answer and easier reading. If you want to go a bit more in-depth, try reading This Great Calamity by Christine Kinealy, Famine: A Short History by Cormac Ó Gráda, or if you want something visual (that's not to abysmal), you could watch Extra Credits' series on the Irish Potato Famine._

Now, on with the context.

Irish lands were owned by British landlords - many of whom were absentee and represented by middlemen - and divided out among tenant farmers. These farmers (around two-thirds or so) lived on plots of land ranging from about 0.4 hectares to 6 hectares. The land was so small because the middlemen were given the entire estate to manage and just told to collect rent for it. As such, dividing it up meant more farmers and, therefore, more rent. The small plots of land, combined with the fact that tenancy was "at will" (tenants' rights really only existed in Ulster, and - not coincidentally - this is where the Famine had the lightest impact) meant that farmers had to use very little land to grow enough food to both pay their extortionate rents and feed their (usually quite large) families. Since the potato is a very efficient crop, that can grow in almost any soil type and produces a lot from very little, this meant that tenant farmers were pretty much growing only potatoes. So there was no real grain plots and definitely no animal rearing.

Once the blight caught on, the potato harvests were absolutely destroyed. And since most of the impoverished farmers were almost totally dependent on the potato, the result was widespread collapse of both the Irish economy (such as it was at the time) and the Irish populace. The British government could've stepped in and eased the suffering, but the situation was severely mismanaged - either through incompetence in their efforts, misunderstanding of the situation or (in some cases) a belief that the poor needed to be culled anyway - so this was just nature's way of balancing itself. It also wasn't helped that those in power in Westminster who could've mobilised support tried using the situation to advance their own political agenda. Sir Charles Trevelyan - secretary of the treasury - made efforts to delay and suppress famine relief aid from abroad (American maize, for example) so as to not impact free market ideology and undermine British international trade. This meant that aid wasn't getting to those who needed it. Many were forced into workhouses, made to emigrate, or straight up left to die. The political instability also caused many people to take up arms to fight against British rule in attempts to feed themselves and their families.

Thus, the stage is set; the actors are in place; the curtain rises; and disaster is inevitable. A combination of over-reliance on a single crop due to a massively corrupt and unregulated system of land ownership, a disconnection from the reality of life in rural Ireland, a general feeling of contempt for the poor (especially the Irish poor), and the willingness to sacrifice human life and wellbeing for political gain, all created a massive powder keg on the Emerald Isle; ready to blow at the first sign of trouble. Indeed, the blight itself was merely the spark that ignited the whole thing.