The Sad Truth About 19th Century Ireland

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[@InglouriousBradsterd]

Thomas Sowell is one of the most important and brilliant people to have ever lived.

[@mayowankenobi]

And all our government did to him was second guess and antagonize him. If they had listened to him, we'd be in a much better place.

[@jesuewalker2562]

I completely agree

[@robertward9533]

How would you know. I'm not sure about it if you follow his logic on race. Blacks got they're bad behavior from the white man

[@garyhynes6574]

He's that brilliant that he didn't realize that a Irish Catholic Man named James hoban from co Kilkenny Ireland designed and built the White House in the USA in 1793...... what a fool eh.

[@Kennedy1op]

@@garyhynes6574 how do you even know he's unaware of that? Just from listening to this clip 🤔

[@dickturpin9498]

I’ve followed Thomas Sowell for a long time, listening to his views on life, race, usually USA centred. As an Irishman I’m delighted to see this scholar “ bringing it home “, so to speak.

[@fanglethorpe]

The Irish had a meteoric rise after coming to the US tho. Some of the coolest people I know are Irish.

[@kec7116]

I love Thomas Sowell. My friend told me her Sicilian grandmother looked her nose down at the Irish for being poor and dirty. Considering what the Italians thought of Sicily, I thought it was funny and typical of human nature. When Ireland went woke on 'white privilege' I realized they must have taken up teaching students that everyone immigrated on cruise ships - not floating coffins.

[@christopherfisher128]

When comparing Ireland with Scotland, keep in mind that Scotland had managed a much different "merging" with Britain than Ireland did. That level of independence made a huge difference.

[@seanc5462]

A local story here was that many died with grass in the mouths. People were trading fields and plots for food. It was desperate times. A brillant book to read is called " along the black pigs dyke " A collection of stories from people in the South Armagh, Monaghan area. Brilliant book.

[@alphacause]

For those who consider themselves so woke on race, who like to believe that being "disadvantaged" is only a moniker that those with lots of melanin in their skin can rightfully claim, look no further than Dr. Sowell's excellent synopsis of the plight of Irish people. Every culture, if you delve far enough into their history, had to contend with tremendous trials and tribulations. So don't think that just because someone's skin is darker that they should automatically be awarded the gold medal at the victim Olympics, and should, therefore, have every bar lowered for them.

[@cheezedoodlenygguh6229]

Nobody is claiming a "gold medal" or anything like that except the liberals/women. Working blkmen who actually went through the struggle just wanted your racist government to leave us alone but that just wouldn't happen. Now y'all blame blkmen for the conditions it's in today smh...

[@Mmacc26]

Misguided. in these times most “darker skinned” people didn’t even had choices to where they wanted to go. Work to provide for our future and family? (hence slavery). Fast forward decades (for context) couldn’t even get ghe same education as others until 1954.. also I don’t think Irish or any other European person could be killed based on their skin color alone…plights are universal yes, but some run deeper to the point it’s evil. Compassion.

[@TruthFrequencyNews]

Story of the Irish Race by Seumus MacManus will open ones eyes about how such a great people were almost destroyed. What Sowell spoke here was just a hint of how horrible it was.

[@garyhynes6574]

Bollocks..it was a Irish Catholic Man named James hoban from co Kilkenny Ireland who designed and built the White House in the USA using black slaves in 1793...so don't tell me it was tough back then... Irish run the world.

[@rexjuggler19]

I read the book "Conquests and Cultures" a long time ago, and it is one of the best books I have ever read. It should be required reading in middle school, high school, college. It explains so much. It helps you to harness your own critical and logical thinking in a way that is currently not fostered in school. Thomas Sowell is a national treasure. You will learn how geography, politics, and culture affect people and regions of the world. It is truly an eye-opening and enjoyable read.

[@raoulduke344]

The Irish had it worse than anyone on the British Isles, yet no one was marching in London when UK police admitted they had collided with Loyalist paramilitaries. Marching for a man killed thousands of miles away? Well of it gets you attention and lets you virtue signal on social media...

[@matthewmann8969]

Plenty of Gypsies do marches and activism and sign shading and stomping in Eastern Europe particularly in Romania And Hungary where they have been treated as subhumans or worst for five hundred years and counting yeah.

[@dickturpin9498]

He neglected to mention that Irish catholics were forbidden to have certain jobs, education, which ruled out said jobs, couldn’t be in government and even could not have a horse worth more than five pounds. If a son converted to Protestantism, he had sole right to his family inheritance. This is why Scotland were more successful, as he pointed out. Not until “ The Liberator”, did we have a voice in government that could slowly cause change. I was shocked to hear either Mehole or Leo, stating that as we were welcomed all over the world, we should welcome migrants, revisionist history or what?! Irish went to Australia as convicts , USA after being starved out and then being lampooned in the US as subhuman, no Irish , no dogs. UK’s attitude , we’ll I don’t need to tell you. Yes, welcomed around the world indeed.

[@Cian097]

This excerpt from an section about ten times longer, where he does indeed mention Irish men were forbidden from owning much property, like a horse worth over 5 pounds. This is only 3 minutes of what he wrote.

[@jknayak7132]

👍 Ditto as for previous comment. BTW, the very same economic persecution based on religion was suffered by Goans in India 18 cent, inflicted by Portugese Inquisition.

[@davidpowell3347]

"The Liberator" = Daniel O'Connell ? (I don't think the British paid a lot of attention to him)

[@tonisalic6300]

Just to add, they weren't allowed to speak Gaelic and forced to speak English...causing them to forget their mother tongue. Anyone who has experienced learning English,knows, that you are treated like a dummy if you can't speak English well...especially in the past. If this makes sense! Also, I grow potatoes. We get our seed, which is actually a potato you cut up where the eyes are and plant the pieces, from Holland. Is it possible that the potato crop failure was from British seed. That would do the trick. Holland has sent us a few bad batches before🤔

[@hibernian87]

At risk of sounding like a victim, we were not poor by our own doing. We were suppressed into peasantry because of our religion. But even then we managed to make some contributions to the world. Whats important however is what you do when you are free from your bondage - that you take your opportunities and make something of yourself like our cousins did when they arrived in America. Now we are flourishing, and although we will never forget our past, we will not be defined by it either.

[@peterwebb8732]

If we are to avoid the victim-mentality, we should acknowledge that the native-Irish were no saints. Internal conflict was frequent, slavery was common (St Patrick was an English slave in Ireland) and the high points of Irish Court and Church culture should not blind us to the fact that the general Irish culture was deeply primitive, tribal and violent. The initial “English” presence was by invitation as Irish aristocracy promised the same Anglo-Normans who had conquered Saxon England, land in return for swords. The fighting was done, the debt was paid and the English were now there by right. English common-folk faced exactly the same oppression, and a number of very bloody civil wars followed over the next 6 centuries. What the English didn’t have, was the religious divide that kept old injuries alive and prevented political integration. Not to the same extent, anyway. Bloody-Mary and various threats of a Catholic invasion of Protestant England using Ireland as a base, did not help matters. Like a lot of history, it isn’t exactly black and white.

[@hibernian87]

@@peterwebb8732 The "Scotch-Irish" were British, not native Irish.

[@hibernian87]

​@@peterwebb8732 Im not saying otherwise. You are correct, but the Irish were oppressed pretty harshly, even by the standard of the day. For better or worse, its a fact, and it stunted Irish growth significantly. Its important to know that there are legitimate reasons why some countries were genuinely left behind and left to wallow in poverty (while others were left behind because of their own doing). But history is history, dont think Im using it as a bludgeon and trying to play a victim card. What concerns me more is the future and bygones are bygones.

[@donnachamcgowan]

@@peterwebb8732 Do some research St Patrick was a french man you are not informed Correctly

[@peterwebb8732]

@@hibernian87 .. Good luck trying to make that case. 1. Ireland was “British” so using that name is meaningless as a distinction. 2. A portion of the poor-white-southern population under discussion was ENGLISH, and they came from the same rural social and cultural background as the poor Irish and poor Scots….

[@robertjanicki5906]

Most Americans are unaware that in the large East Coast cities Irish people were below blacks and slaves on the social ladder. When signs were placed in store windows with job openings, these signs usually ended with "Irish need not apply". Sometimes the signs would also include blacks. But it was the Irish who would take the lowest, dirtiest and most difficult jobs just to survive and that eventually built up their reputation as hard working people.

[@Navy35]

Just a side note. When the Irish did start succeeding in business, instead of complementing their success, people called it the “LUCK” of the Irish as a way of explaining it !

[@caspianhall]

Lol if you believe the Irish were below blacks you’re either narcissistic or a liar.

[@bostongirlsandy]

@@Navy35 Now they call all forms of White success as White Privilege.

[@jjohnson8977]

yep thats why i'm applying for reperations when its approved Clan Monahan

[@johnschuh8616]

One cannot ignore the prejudice against them because they were Roman Catholics.

[@romulus3345]

800 years of subjugation but you'll never see an Irishman with his hand out looking for reparations.

[@gallowglass2630]

Well i do a quarter of million wouldn't go a stray lol

[@zeehero7280]

Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Give an irish man a potato, and he becomes a god! 🤣

[@RipleysSanatorium]

Nor Italian Americans.

[@XavierHernan712]

@@RipleysSanatorium both Italians and Irish communities were given jobs in abundance in the end Inorder to catch up with the rest of society that’s why u don’t see mafia’s around like they used to be. They broke it down and successfully merged the youth into society but when it comes to blacks, they’re trying to do that now but instead of fully helping they’re using them as political pawns and pretend like they’re doing something by giving them Obama and in way am I discrediting the sufferings of Italians and Irish, they also deserve a big apt on the back for overcoming those challenges and it’s not spoken enough off

[@justinwinfree7843]

Why would you be looking for reparations when your people came on their own free will. And also y’all came in the 1840s when black Americans were here since the beginning thank my ancestors you’re lucky you were able to come to a country that was built by them. When we got here the United States didn’t exist. It had to be built when all you immigrants got here there was a United States, that existed since 1776, which my ancestors pre-date.

[@carmelhegarty9829]

First of all---- Thank you Thomas - for your brilliant channel and wishing you a very beautiful 2023- all the way across the Atlantic Ocean from Ireland.. Yes- our History was Inhumane - but - trying their dam best to irradiate my Irish people off the planet and attempts to Conquer IRELAND --- Failed. I'm Irish born and bred- still got my Mother Tongue that my Ancestors died and fought to keep. They tried to kill us but little did they know we are SEED'S . The deeper u dig the soil will get into the Heart of our Creator --- He sees EVERYTHING...God Bless You Thomas and all your Family on this BLESSED SUNDAY Morning here in Ireland...🙏🙏🙏🇮🇪🇮🇪🇮🇪🙏🙏🙏

[@gerrytyrrell1507]

Thank you Mr Sowell...We never looked or wanted reparations from anyone.We don't do fake victimhood

[@miketracy9256]

MY GRANDFATHER WAS ONE WHO CAME FROM IRELAND TO THE USA IN ABOUT 1870. WITH NO GOVERNMENT WELFARE, HE SOMEHOW MANAGED TO SERVE AS A ST PAUL FIREMAN FOR 20 YEARS AND THEN HE OWNED A PRODUCTIVE FARM 20 MILES SOUTH OF ST PAUL WHEN HE RETIRED. THE OLDER SON BECAME AN MD, SERVED IN ENGLAND IN WW2, AND EVENTUALLY BECAME A GENERAL IN THE AIR FORCE. THE YOUNGER SON WAS A NAVAL OFFICER IN THE PACIFIC AND RETIRED AFTER 31 YEARS IN THE RESERVES AS A LT COMMANDER. GRANDFATHER'S THREE CHILDREN PRODUCED 18 GRANDCHILDREN AND NOW OVER TO 40 GREAT-GRANDCHILDREN.

[@dannysullivan3951]

Yeah, we've all got a grandfather like that. Usually they're white.

[@oldnwise8123]

The native Irish were not allowed to own land in the 19th century. They were slaves and the Irish problem was to be solved through famine and emigration.

[@mikegalvin9801]

My grandfather's grandfather was the only one of seven children to survive the Famine. He was the one who got the precious ticket onto the Famine Ship to NY. He was a young teenager and later fought in the Union Army. As he took someone else's place who had been drafted he later got no veterans pension. His grandson was a physician in St Paul. Classic American dream. I will however take a big reputation check if King Charles or PM Sunak wants to cut one but not holding my breath. Nor should I get one anyway - the past is just that, only losers wallow in it.

[@ellieadele3769]

If you'd ever post a longer video covering what Thomas has said about Ireland I'd really appreciate it. Like you've done with Wales and Scotland for example. I really loved those both, and I'm so desirous of better understanding what happened in Ireland. And thank you for all the other fascinating videos of his you've already posted.

[@quasarleon4645]

These photos really put things into perspective, don't they ?! These people suffered through all of this, just so that this whiny generation can cry about being "misg3ndered' on Tw@tter .

[@faechan849]

Its a shame.

[@wynbrown5985]

Totally agree with you.

[@workingstiffdiogenes2195]

The frustrating thing about being a Thomas Sowell fan is that liberal academics read his research on Ireland or England or geopolitics in general and say, "That man is a genius. What in-depth research!" But as soon as he starts looking at blacks, they turn on him. "What a political hack! Lacks context! Blames the victim!" Pretty clear what's going on.

[@dannysullivan3951]

He is a hack. His comparison of world slavery to American slavery is highly specious.

[@bostongirlsandy]

I did a DNA test and it said I'm 3% Irish and British from the famine. I'm from Brazil and I was surprised because no one in my family even knew about this history of our family. I assume this Irish British female ancestor of mine fled the famine and went to Spain or Portugal.

[@jdsheleg8332]

I am from Puerto Rico and find out that I have more Portuguese DNA than Spanish. Also have a significant amount from the British Isles, which may explain all the redheads in my family, including my reddish hair when I was a young boy.

[@Fin4L6are]

Honestly, the most important piece from this clip Is Thomas's conclusion that Irish industry declined because it could not compete, once in a Union. This is analogous to what we've seen in Eastern europe. And it speaks to the value of closed market as opposed to open market, for the developing country. While open market will always be advantageous for the developed and competitive country.

[@peterwebb8732]

A closed economy is no benefit if you require exports to generate funds to purchase much-needed imports…… like food, when a blight strikes the potatoes. The argument for a closed economy to support Irish industry is the argument that the Irish poor should be forced to pay higher prices for clothes in order to keep other Irish in jobs.

[@bhami]

This excerpt does not explain why the Scottish did so much better than the Irish. I guess I'll have to read the entire book :-D

[@stanleysmith7551]

Ireland was devastated in the United Kingdom but on the other hand it thrives in the EU. Currently Ireland has one of the highest standard of living and highest wages in Europe not counting micro states. In the 70's when it joined the EU it was one of the poorest countries in Europe comparable to the socialist block and Portugal under Salazar's dictatorship. Today it's one of the richest countries which also greatly benefited from Brexit, being the the only country in the EU with English as the (semi)official* language. *Technically it's not the official language but in reality 90% of the Irish use it as their first language while only 10% use Gael. The commercial infrastructure of the EU mainly operates by using the English** language so Ireland has a great advantage in finances and tech. **Finance and tech: English, heavy industry and trade: German, agriculture: French. Technically all EU languages are official, but in reality these 3 dominate.

[@gallowglass2630]

@@stanleysmith7551 English is official ,but not the first official language

[@rexjuggler19]

I don't think you can arrive at the conclusion that shows the value of a closed market - quite the opposite. What is shows is that isolation, either natural or imposed by a 3rd party (government), stagnates progress. Once the isolation is removed, it reveals the deficiencies of the closed market participants - in this case, the Irish people. The same happened with Eastern Europe as you point out. It is truly a revelation that hiding from reality never ends well once reality catches up - and it always does.

[@thomasmaloney843]

My family tended to buck the Irish stereotypes. Worked in Liverpool factories, came over as crew of whaling ships, went to Ohio and saved money for farm. Bought farms in Indiana. Became Methodists. Married into German and English families. Never drank alcohol.

[@bostongirlsandy]

Your family were the lucky ones.

[@johnschuh8616]

In other words, ceased to be Irish?

[@thomasmaloney843]

@@johnschuh8616 being from County Clare and descendants of Brian Boru, we had enough confidence in ourselves not to have to fit into the Paddy stereotype.

[@Breezy-jq6hq]

@@johnschuh8616 Yep. Nothing to be proud of. My Irish family remained Roman Catholic, suffered, persevered, and came out the other side but never at the price of becoming a WASP. What an insult to all the Irish who suffered to remain truly Irish and truly Catholic.

[@redtobertshateshandles]

​@@Breezy-jq6hq " truly Irish". I trust that you live in Eire?? Coz if you don't then you're not Irish.

[@jondspen]

The Irish Potato Famine wasn't because of lack of food, it was due to the fact England was confiscating's food, shipping it to military units in colonies, and the excess being sold for profit. When the blight hit, England decided instead of stopping the record exports of meat, cheese, and grain, to continue to fill their coffers while they let the people starve.

[@richardjohnston3359]

Due to England ? Due to a handful of men in Englands parliament you think the peasants in England were jollying it up at this time no they were starving aswell but people seen to forget about them people

[@andym9571]

There was no "English " parliament" . It was the UK parliament.

[@leomarkaable1]

My sister, while traveling in Ireland, heard the same thing in a pub there. The Irish common people are quite aware of the the theft of their food supply by English aristos, but were powerless. Similar situation in Scotland in the 1740's when the Highlanders were cleared out and forced to farm inferior land, so the aristos could graze sheep. My ancestors from Scotland, once emigrated to Canada, flourished with better food, even though the work was hard. The average lifespan was in the nineties. You have to wonder why there wasn't a revolution in England similar to the French Revolution. Certainly the exploitation was similar.

[@jcoker423]

@@leomarkaable1 Because the excess population had a chance to migrate to the New World

[@melissavancleave8686]

Thank you Dr Sowell you have taught me so very much.

[@thomasjorge4734]

The Irish maintained their Dignity, their Self-Respect and their Faith through 8 Centuries of Political Oppression, Religious Persecution and Economic Destitution. 4 Decades of Prosperity and they have lost their Souls. The Snakes have returned? Like Aesop's Tale of the Wind and the Sun: the Violent Wind makes a man hold on to his coat all the harder, while the bright, warm Sun lulls him into taking it off.

[@rat_king-]

All the isles feel the same mate. its a problem that we need to get over.

[@mambogal1]

Witnessed it during the celtic tiger.

[@rat_king-]

@@mambogal1 Both housing bubbles in the UK.

[@nobbytang]

Jeez ….the Irish had it bad !!…..imagine a life expectancy of 19 yrs and yet a slave on a plantation was nearly double that !!.

[@ShanghaiRooster]

Untrue. Irish life expectancy was only that low at the height of the potato famine. Before and after it was just below that of England (38/39 years compared to 40/42 years). Life expectancy is a measure of now long a newborn child might be expected to live at the time of their birth; as they reached each birthday that expectancy would increase. During the mid-19th century around 30% of all children died before they reached the age of five (it mattered not whether their parents were poor or rich in that regard), and 15% would die within their first year of life.

[@steflift5165]

@@ShanghaiRooster that's a good point. Do you think people actually typically died at 19 on average once they lived past (e.g.) 5? Or closer to 30? (At the time of the famine or surrounding it)

[@ShanghaiRooster]

@@steflift5165 Hi, no I don't think that. There's an interesting breakdown of life expectancy based on data throughout history from the Stone Age until modern times on the wiki page 'Life Expectancy". As a single example, we can look at ancient Greece. Life expectancy at birth was 25-28 years. Child mortality was enormous; around half of children died before adolescence. However, for those who managed to survive until their 15th birthday, they had a good chance of living until 37-41 years old. And those who survived until they were 30 could have a good chance of living between 50 and 60 years of age. People older than 60 were very rare however. Going down the page to early 19th century England, it notes that less than half of the people born in the mid-19th century made it past their 50th birthday (this again principally due to high childhood mortality), but those who survived to 20 could expect to live until around their sixtieth birthday. Today, 97% of those born can expect to reach 50. The reason why the Irish figure slumps to such an alarming level is down to the enormous toll in lives caused by the famine, and in particular perhaps death rates amongst the youngest.

[@cheezedoodlenygguh6229]

I'd rather die of famine than be a mindless livestock for my entire life with no knowledge of the outside world and how it works. And then Jim Crow right after....

[@lawsonbrady2586]

@@cheezedoodlenygguh6229 you say that but when you and your family are starving living in holes in the ground watching your children wither away in front of your eyes. either way they are no way to live life.

[@mirando100]

Excellent

[@josemama428]

Stop Irish genocide 2023 .

[@HappyEddyMcGuire]

They were absentee farmers in England because they stole all the Irish land from the real Irish owners and never gave it back.

[@donnaeturner]

You might want to include the salient fact that the English plantation system continued to farm Irish land, and send all its produce, including meat, to England while its native Irish farmworkers starved. During the potato famine, wagonloads of food were sometimes attacked by starving Irishmen, who were shot for their impudence.

[@JustAnother_Irishman]

To call it a famine suggest there was a shortage of food. That is not true, there was plenty of food. It was just the British had taken it for themselves. Genocide would be a better description. Ireland is not the only country they done this in.

[@peterwebb8732]

It was a POTATO famine. The large estates grew other products, which were private property and stealing it was viewed as theft, not impudence. It was not Estate-owners stealing from the poor, but the other way around. We can talk about “Irish” land, but the poor either never had land, or had chosen to grow potatoes over other crops. We can sympathise, but poverty was endemic around the world, and the poor always suffered disproportionately in times of famine. Normally, famines were dealt with by church and charity organisations, but Government attempts to alleviate the situation a believed to have reduced the charitable response, rather than adding to it…. and laws to reduce the price of corn incentivised landowners to grow less corn and turn to less labour-intensive industries, which meant more unemployed. You and I sit here in the welfare State and expect that everything will be done. It took us 10,000 years of wars, plagues, floods and famines to get here. Are we really shocked that the people of those times were still fumbling for solutions?

[@archiebald4717]

Where was their catholic god?

[@archiebald4717]

@@JustAnother_Irishman Utter nonsense.

[@peterwebb8732]

@@archiebald4717 …. I can’t speak for their God, but many of their priests and parsons were deeply involved in famine-relief measures, and considerable numbers appear to have died of the infectious diseases that killed more during this period than starvation.

[@Less1leg2]

An Irish person wasn't of value, but a Slave was bought and that worker was an investment of returned value. So, as sad as it was, it was better to be that Slave and live, than a destitute Irish worker whom wasn't worth a penny more at sundown.

[@Vent330]

And now look at what is happening in ireland , shameful 😳

[@itinerantpatriot1196]

Who do I talk to in Parliament about reparations? 🤔Oh yeah, I forgot, we don't do that. Never mind.

[@listenupification5910]

Just dont become a tool of the liberals..

[@barra6709]

We've a bit of dignity

[@itinerantpatriot1196]

@@barra6709 Indeed we do.

[@kytim89]

Ireland's population dropped massively during time when other nations were experiencing unprecedented population growth.

[@burningdaylights]

For years, I would would see anti-Irish political cartoons from that time and just think "C'mon," but those photos match up better than I thought they would. Also, that Scottish banker used his stamp without inking it first.

[@andrewcooney2387]

The death toll was 2.2 million over the 6 years of fammin, the population was close to 9 million. Less than 4 million people were left and close to 3 million were sent as slave's in coffin ships aptly named or deported to Australia for stealing an apple from a British landlords estate, or managed to flee Ireland to America. I dearly wish people would respect Thoes who Were murdered by the British empire by getting the figures right. This was deliberate genocide carried out by the British empire, but Ireland is not the only place they did this, there were many other countries who suffered the same horror India comes very much to mind where between 50 and 70 million people also died. Thank God this rotten empire is dead and gone forever may it never show it's descusting face ever in human life again.

[@mariet.sullivan8537]

In addition, few ever mention that there was wide spread famine beyond Ireland from 1845 to at least 1849. The potato crop also failed across Europe, and grain harvests were much reduced. Risk of famine and disease feed into the rebellion/revolutions across Europe in 1847-49.

[@davidpryle3935]

I like listening to Doctor Sowell, and normally find him very informative. But when he was comparing Ireland to Scotland here, he omitted one very significant detail. Scotland was rich in deposits of iron ore and coal, while Ireland on the other hand, had practically none. Belfast, in the north east of Ireland, emerged in the 1800s, as a great industrial city, to rival any. This had much to do with it’s closeness to the Scottish iron ore and coalfields, making the importation of these staples of the Industrial Revolution, economically viable.

[@fredfloyd34]

They were the first slaves in the USA...IRISH..not the blacks...Shaka zulu sold his worst crimminals later.

[@fredgillespie5855]

This is a rather one sided part of the "Irish story." It is a long story but the period of the "Great Famine" demonstrates what a nasty evil bunch of bastards the British Establishment was. Irish industry was not uncompetitive, on the contrary it was destroyed because it was too competitive for the English. Ireland was kept as a larder for industrial England and while the potato crop failed enough food was being exported from Ireland to feed the entire Irish population, it just wasn't for them. I might point out that Ireland was part of the United kingdom when the famine happened.

[@liamfoley9614]

Ireland was deliberately neglected, it was English economic policy that was the cause of Ireland's underdevelopment and ultimately the Great Famine.

[@andym9571]

There was no " English" economic policy. It was a British goverment that included people from all 4 nations

[@liamfoley9614]

@@andym9571 oh dear ...

[@andym9571]

@@liamfoley9614 ? There still is no " English" economic policy.

[@liamfoley9614]

you are unfamiliar with the term as it has been used over the last few hundred years not to mention unfamiliar with the economic history of these islands.

[@jcoker423]

@@liamfoley9614 You put your head on upside down

[@tylerl1009]

As someone with Irish Blood this was fascinating

[@RobertRAbell]

Thank you Dr. Thomas Sowell for my Daly dose of Sowell. A Gem 💎 that Needs to be Treasured as much as Education is in Schools 🏫. All day long Yahoo 😅

[@jdsheleg8332]

Actually, above school indoctrination, because that is what they do.

[@RobertRAbell]

@@jdsheleg8332 Is that your Professional opinion. Or you are just trying to convince yourself that all Schools 🏫 are bad? Personally I don’t believe you know your butt from a Hole in the Ground 🕳. All day long Yahoo

[@Anti-CornLawLeague]

If only Oliver Cromwell didn’t conquer and divvy up Ireland among his supporters, perhaps their history would have gone way better.

[@thomaszaccone3960]

Genocide

[@backrowbrighton]

This is a short but excellent account of the tragedy of the Irish. My ancestors fled the famine in Ireland in the 1840s, half going to the UK and the other to the US. Both sets eventually prospered but had to endure many decades of hardship and prejudice. As the Irish were Catholics this also lead to considerable persecution. The Irish famine was little more than genocide practiced by the English Protestant landowners. However bitter and tragic our history, we don't feel we are owed anything.

[@someonenamedbob]

There's a reason that none of the sjw's or other associated communists ever want to talk about the Irish. And why you should never let them change the subject no matter how much they don't want to talk about it.

[@dannysullivan3951]

I’m Irish American, my grandfather had to move out of MA because of prejudice. He did just fine making a living in Dallas. Might’ve been tougher if he’d been black.

[@tomtaylor6163]

I’m American and my people were English Immigrants in the 1600s. What has always irritated me is that when I was a kid in the Northeast , I would catch Hell from the Irish because I have an English Surname. My people fought against the Crown in the American Revolution, that Dog Don’t Hunt Around Here.

[@christopherlynch9006]

Being a dirt poor peasantry was the norm in western and northern Europe then - there was a famine in Holland, Prussia and Scandinavia at the same time as the Irish famine

[@salty6pence672]

When the most industrious and able leave, it really should be no shocker that remainers lag behind.

[@JPJ432]

More people Simp for monsieur Sowell than they do for any women. Don’t get me wrong I love his teachings and example too but its getting a bit out of hand here.

[@planetofthegael]

This was no ordinary famine. This was genocide inflicted by the British government and was covered up. Thank you Mr Sowell for talking about this.

[@brendanoreilly1]

Yes im a victim of oppression

[@ron61584]

I read something that the Irish were taken as slaves to the United States and some islands, and I’ve also seen people dispute that.

[@johnschuh8616]

Slaving expeditions along the coast were common from Elizabethan times.up to the times of the American Revolution.

[@richardjohnston3359]

Yea I read somewhere that st Patrick was a British slave taken as a Slave by the Irish all people at some point have been enslaved ALL PEOPLE. !!

[@johnschuh8616]

@@richardjohnston3359 Of course. And in a paper I read called South Carolina Indian Traders and other ethnic connections.I find that slavery was a muddle, with no respect for color. That was because there were no proper marriage laws. Indians with English names, English with Indian names, Mullattos (Indian-blackmix)with Indian or English names , all holding slaves of mixed heritage. My mother’s people, the Chickasaw had traders living in the colony, with Scots moving constantly between there and the Chickasaw lands just to the east of the Mississippi and then venturing much farther to the west to the verge of the great plains. Where the Chickasaw finally settled after removal, they and their slaves, there was already a colony of Chickasaw hunters that had gone “native”, having lost their native tongues. A (smallpox?) epidemic in the 1690s changed this a lot by hitting the indians both slave and masters, and leaving a hole in the labor market that eventually was filled with black slaves after the English gained control of the Atlantic Trade after Queen Anne’s War. Even there after, enterprising slaves of whatever hew or name would slip away to live with the Creeks or the Cherokee,. Where slave status was a matter of accident. rather than color.

[@janofb]

Explains why the Irish are so tough. The weak ones died off before they could breed.

[@johnschuh8616]

Something to be said. Maybe that also explains why blacks are such superior athletes.

[@odysseusrex5908]

Was the Scottish economic advantage over the Irish due more to cultural differences between them, or due to deliberate efforts by the absentee landlords who owned almost every square inch of Ireland, and/or the British government, to discourage Irish economic development?

[@jcoker423]

Scotland also had absentee landlords, but it also had coal, iron etc in the Lowland industrial belt that became industrialised and absorbed migrants from the poorer areas. Ireland has no large resources of minerals

[@odysseusrex5908]

@@jcoker423 I see, that's very interesting. That would certainly have a significant economic effect. Thank you for responding.

[@jcoker423]

@@odysseusrex5908 I should have said 'Midland Valley' the area from Edinburgh to Glasgow, the geology is carboniferous (coal) which drove the industrial revolution. Ireland (from memory) is mostly Limestone of the Cretaceous Age. It can be fertile, but the soil is poor, clear the trees and the soil washes away, hence the large amounts of bog. The landlords/lairds replaced people for sheep in Scotland (under-populated compared to W Norway) and the people either went to Canada or the Midland Valley. In Ireland the famine was part of the wider European famine. But the most powerful country, Britain, either didnt realise the extent (apologists) or used it (Irish nationalists) to reduce and clear out the population. As much of Ireland had large immigrant populations of settlers from Eng/Scot/Wales (who had often become Catholic) it's not as clear cut as the nationalists would have us believe. But it sure suited London to have fewer Paddies. As (Wilde's?) joke goes 4 nations in the British Isles... Scots who keep the Sabbath and anything else they can keep their hands on, Welsh who prey on their knees and on their neighbors, English who think God made the sabbath so he could have a break to let them rule things and the Irish who don't know what they want, but are willing to fight for it anyway.

[@chrismurnane6389]

I don't want to sound critical in any way but many Irish people came to Australia also in that same time frame,as my forbears on both sides did. I firmly believe that this is why the Fabians chose Australia to start their first Labor party in the world.

[@gerrytyrrell1507]

Food & raw materials been exported out of Ireland during the so called famine,to feed & build the British empire .the main crop of the peasent was the potato .the average irish man was know to eat a couple of kilos of potato's every day.the blight destroyed the potato's due to harsh weather, especially lots of rain ,not good for the crop.1 million died ,thousands died on the coffin ships heading across the Atlantic. Thousands ended up in French Canada, intermarriage with their Co religionists more ended up in New York & the southern U.S. .thousands died fighting on both sides of the civil war. Ireland gave the U.S. many presidents .

[@johnschuh8616]

The natural leaders of the irish peoples were driving out of the country in the 18th century, and the landlords who succeeded them was largely absentee. So it was not like the Norman Conquest. certainly , outside the Pale.

[@nocapnobs7845]

Culture is at the heart of everything and it is clear as day to me that it is culture that keeps the loop going.

[@GobnaitOLunacy]

Here's an interesting fact. At the height of the Great Potato Famine of the 1840's The Economist publication in England ( founded by a Scot to promote the theories of Adam Smith and other Enlightenment thinkers ) argued against sending relief to the Irish because it would be against free market principles to provide welfare or handouts. Market forces would sort things out for the eventual good of the country. Ireland's plight was widely regarded by leading figures in the British establishment as primarily her own fault. A consequence of the people's own natural idleness and intemperance. What was needed were some Victorian moral values and a more Protestant work ethic. Little attempt was made to connect the condition of the Irish to how they had been reduced to the level of serfs by rapacious landlords. The fashionable intellectual debates of the day focused on things like race and civilization as well as the application of scientific principles to social and economic problems. Meanwhile farming produce - grain, butter, beef, etc. was still being exported to England from estates in Ireland. The Choctaw of Oklahoma, who had experienced their own tragedy on The Trail of Tears a few years earlier managed to scrape a few hundred dollars together to send to Ireland to aid the starving. A huge amount for the time period. An infamous incident recalls how a group of starving peasants in the West of Ireland trudged miles in the winter rain and sleet to seek assistance from the local Anglo-Irish Protestant authorities , who refused to see them because they were busy having their dinner. They died while waiting to be heard. "For I was hungry and you gave me food". Matt 25: 35

[@RUBBER_BULLET]

This Eyerland sounds intriguing; I hope to visit one day.

[@Pine_Gap_Island]

It's interesting how different the journeys the Irish and the Scottish had, as 1000 years ago, they were basically the same people with basically the same language and culture. The Irish had a horrendous time from the point of arrival of the Anglo-Normans (ie Norman French who ruled England) onto the British Isles until only relatively fairly recently in the 20th century. So that's 800 years of Norman-English-British rule. After once fighting the English, the Scottish united with the English and became leaders in the Enlightenment as well as having a major role in the running of the British Empire. I do wonder why this is. The Irish never seemed to acquiesce to British rule, whereas the Scottish did join the English of their own free will. Or was it a Catholic vs Protestant thing?

[@garyhynes6574]

Amazing how fortunes change.. it's now one of the wealthiest countries in Europe.

[@andym9571]

Basically because of EU money. Quite a big share of which came from Britain

[@garyhynes6574]

@@andym9571 really I thought it was from American companies setting up shop to avoid paying huge taxes but at the same time pumping billions in to the economy...I had no Idea England actually pumped up irelands economy... WHY didn't England just pump that money into Britain.

[@andym9571]

@@garyhynes6574 partly right but the difference before and after Ireland joined the EU was quite incredible. Buildings going up everywhere and business set ups etc . The UK ( not just England ) was in the EU and was 2nd only to Germany in the amount of money paid into the system which then went to countries like Ireland. Britain and Germany badically subsidizing the rest of Europe. One of the reasons we have now left.

[@garyhynes6574]

@@andym9571 it seems to me England is the money machine in Britain if England fails then the UK fails ..why England would pump money into Ireland with no return is madness..

[@andym9571]

@@garyhynes6574 Thats true but England is full of people from the other 3 countries business wise. Very inter- dependent. Like I say ...its one of the reasons we left ! 👍

[@eleanorkett1129]

Very sad story.

[@davidpowell3347]

Is "Death on the Railroad" (PBS Secrets of the Dead) still on You tube? (I hate to think that the perps might have been "Scotch-Irish") ("Paxton Boys" of a somewhat earlier time?) (The Irish coming on the repurposed slave ships to work on the railroad happened well before the "Potato Blight" era) Tim Pat Coogan : "The Famine Plot"

[@mambogal1]

The potato famine figures down the quays in northside Dublin is a great reminder of what the Irish went through.

[@bathtangle]

I had to stop. Some day I might be able to listen to what happened to my ancestors. It's easier listening to other peoples hardship. The distance is easier.

[@justsayn2075]

Here is the bottom line. It does not matter what hardships your ancestors suffered, if you were born in the United States, you won the LOTTERY. Remember them with pride for their courage, but you deserve nothing for their struggle.

[@lefantomer]

My great-great grandparents lived in Cork. My great-grandparents were domestics in Boston's Back Bay. My grandfather was a master sheet metal worker. His grand-daughter went to Harvard. "Reparations" for what?

[@Chris-un1ll]

Up until the 1980s alot of Ireland was relatively poor.

[@jcoker423]

1990's more like

[@roger55es]

The truth always prevails TG so much unnecessary suffering Hopefully he have seen the last of these horrible times, hopefully we can get a government who thinks & respects it's citizens instead of making the wealthier more filthy rich

[@amievil3697]

Irish white privilege?

[@johnschuh8616]

But you were not white. Only Protestants were white. After all, Adam was an Englishmen.

[@alancorrigan9448]

Irish white privilege?????????? That is one of the most hateful and religiously biased and truly nationalistic racist comments I have ever read in my life and I've read a lot about the turmoils between Ireland and England. It really and truly saddens me that in 2023 people still have such hostility against the Irish. If you actually did some research into the sad history between Ireland and England you would realise that England started the 800 year long war and relentlessly attacked, plundered, murdered, raped, denied our ancestors of basic rights, confiscated all and any food the country had during the famine and did far worse atrocities than all of the above. The troubles between England and Ireland didn't start in the 1970s they started 800 years ago when England tried to take Ireland by force and eradicate all of our native Irish people. The English mentality and unfounded sense of entitlement at the time is the real and true cause of all our two countries conflicts.

[@robertk1968]

Great historian and love his work, except when it comes to certain parts of Irish History, he is wrong about Irelands potato famine which is a total exaggeration of an issue which did occur, but the Irish were not as dependent on the potato as the history books make out, the famine in Ireland was deliberate and a genocide through stealing (requisitioning) and importing all the grain and livestock abroad. Plenty of evidence to prove this.

[@youtubehatesfreespeech]

British had a part in the crops failing.

[@thecrypto5340]

If life l expectancy was 19 years that many young girls had kids as early as 12 years old.

[@dadsonworldwide3238]

If white Irish Scott and blacks ever united and organized along the religious lines that would make up the largest vote block which explains a lot of the targeting and division driven into them throughout the 1900s till now.

[@matthewmann8969]

Don't forget Amerindians also joining the foil yeah.

[@dadsonworldwide3238]

@@matthewmann8969 yup. Any Ancestry with similar shared fundamental beliefs that are skeptic of hierarchy. . Being the largest vote block by default makes them the most targeted and attacked over time. Unity wouldn't end well for smaller vote blocks.

[@mikeserridge4547]

Living conditions and life expectancy for mill workers and coal mining families in 19th and early 20th century England were not much different. They were exploited by more powerful people (such is the history of human kind) and were slaves in all but name long after the abolition of slavery in America and of the trading of slaves by wealhy Europeans. Try telling decesendants of the Irish, English or indeed any European working class (the overwhelming majority in these countries) that they have any sort of privilege or that they owe reparation.

[@debraprince4511]

My one wish is that they would stop using "average life span" and instead give us the " mean life span". I would rather know the age that most people lived to instead if a number that includes the many infant deaths fifured into that average because it gives an inaccurate picture. They were Catholic so lots of kids so more young deaths. I suppose they also include the old grannies but there aren't as many of those.

[@carolinemcilhenney9964]

I read in a cookbook that Ireland was too wet for wheat; the climate favored oats. I also read that potatoes came from Peru. Seems like the Irish would have been better off sticking to their oats? Tragic for the Irish but it's good to have them here.

[@undoubtedcrow8010]

You can grow more potatoes per area than oats. Also, potatoes are quicker.

[@NEMO-NEMO]

If we could only all agree to finding the true enemy, we would all be better off..

[@daveduffy2823]

That’s why my ancestors came here.

[@konavader]

Facts, coming to get you! Facts, don't care whether you like it or not, period. Get on with your life, aloha.

[@VuqarIE]

Its funny I just remembered conversation regarding Irish people from the movie The Departed. "You opened up store in Irish neighborhood, these are the dirty dirty people. Don't you know that"

[@TheLeonhamm]

Very nearly true - but: Why*? Ireland, surprisingly, was far from poor, being largely self-sufficient in farm produce throughout the 19th century - unlike much of the hyper-industrialised areas of England and Scotland - indeed exporting large amounts of beef, milk, butter, oats, barley, etc, during the Blight. Cheap farm labour made this possible, even while millions were indeed starving - because they could not afford to buy the taxed wheat imports (from the Americas) to supplement the potatoes, turnips, carrots, beans, and herbs that made up the main meal (fresh wild fruits and nuts, vegetable soup with occasional lean mutton stew, a rather healthy balanced diet - when available - in case that had escaped your attention); in fact, a similar situation was faced at the same time in the Netherlands between the wealthy bread-eating Dutch elites and the potato-eating Belgian labourers (both Flemish aka Dutch and Walloon aka French). It is well to note that this division was not one of choice but of regulation, to ensure that the home labour market remained cheap and plentiful for ordinary commercial reasons - not least to feed human fodder into the burgeoning and voracious factories/ projects in key areas of cheap/ available production materials (i.e. the Corn Laws ensuring a fair price to pay, in Malthusian economics, with modest labour costs maintaining high consumption of local products without depressing global profits - until natural disaster disrupts the flow). The farm owners, btw, did not starve - regardless of their ethnicity or religion; nor did the waggoners, warehousemen, builders, bargees, innkeepers, shop owners, tradesmen, professionals, and civil servants .. whatever level of industry or factory work was available locally; the problem - outside that of the farm labourers (then still a majority across Europe and the Americas) - was one of admissibility to professions, ownership, and crafts or skills, here politics, ethnicity and religion played a decidedly large role in admission to lodges, guilds, Society and WASP communities et al (oddly enough, in many places it still does .. though wrapped up in different politically-corrected preferential language). ;o) * A wealthy, healthy, well-educated, professionally minded, and yet socially excluded very large Irish Catholic population glaring across the Irish sea at England .. was not something to be encouraged. It was bad enough having some well-educated and industrially funded Scotch Protestants sniffing down discontentedly at supposed increasing English popery. But if the Irish could get away with tweaking England's political nose (as eventually, they did, in two very different clans) what would the Scots and Welsh and Cornish and Manx and Yorkshiremen and London slum dwellers be like .. a rather serious problem ....

[@morganptah3266]

My ancestors. I demand reparations (joke)👀👀👀👀🔥

[@nza3923]

Yall chose to be servants

[@morganptah3266]

Who sold neighbors

[@nza3923]

@morganptah3266 using a fallacy to try and have a point, makes you sound even more idiotic. The whole time, the irish is just another case of the white on white crime, just like Hitler war against the European yews...both evil acts, just don't compare them to how MAJORITY of white people have dehumanized black people and those of non-European decent for centuries. Yall just got bullied by the vikings,

[@colinwood7020]

Has he ever spoken about the destruction of the Native Americans?

[@Paddy31775]

Yes. In the same book this excerpt is from. Spoiler: they mostly died of disease and then were conquered like countless tribal people before them.

[@dannysullivan3951]

He's a libertarian/conservative, so you know ahead of time what he's going to 'teach'.

[@simpleman283]

If you think the modern era brings peace & prosperity, think again.

[@arawiri]

I didn't know he was talking about Ireland

[@WeighedWilson]

I'm thinking potato blight was an Irish disease that was common to another crop and cross contaminated potatoes.

[@patbournes5281]

How could there been a famine? What did the Irish eat before the potato was imported? And how can you starve if you are surrounded by the worlds richest fishing waters?

[@ChildOfTheFlower]

The Irish can't live off Guinness

[@jjohnson8977]

Monahan is my family name where are my reperations I'm waiting for my $250k

[@johnschuh8616]

Ask the new King.

[@MartinMartinm]

*Monaghan

[@paulboegel8009]

The life expectancy statistic is very telling.

[@wwilcox2726]

👍👍

[@rogeralsop3479]

Hombre.

[@universalsoldier2293]

Such an interesting listen. My GF's great-grandparents came over an indentured servants, so while they didn't eat well, they were at least free after they paid off their debt. Her great-grandfather worked for the naval yards building ships. They lived in Brooklyn and couldn't shop at certain stores because they were Catholic compared to the many Protestants who lived there. The dividing lines of Europeans was hardcore, and many people don't realize those divisions were even a thing as late as the '70s. In comparison, I'm going to assume that American slaves were fed well so that they could work them harder?

[@rezakarampour6286]

'Alan Sabrosky : Israel Writing US Laws . '

[@DukeofConnaught977]

2:48 What about the Industrial North East?