In this episode Tim and David ask, was the Great Famine genocide? The Great Irish Famine of 1845 claimed the lives of over a million people.

Tim will argue that the English were cruelly indifferent to the Irish and that it amounts to a deliberate policy. He believes the famine would not have led to so many deaths had it happened in England. Upwards of another million emigrated following the famine and the population is still lower now than it was 200 years ago.

David agrees that the famine was a disaster in Irish history, but the question is whether it was a disaster waiting to happen, given reliance on one crop. He believes absentee landlords got a deservedly bad press and that the greed of the middle men was also important but none of this affirms the famine was genocide.

Protestant evangelicals including some in government did see the famine as a judgement from above on an unrighteous people but while this was reprehensible it did not represent a distinct government policy. Show less