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BBC Radio Foyle

From the North West of Northern Ireland -local news, sport, weather, speech and music

The North West of Northern Ireland's station for local news, live sport, weather, intelligent speech, great personalities and music to suit all tastes

The Long and the Short of It

Documentaries

Factual: History

Tim McGarry and Dr David Hume investigate Irish history from different perspectives.

Tim McGarry, a six-foot-four comedian, joins vertically challenged Orangeman and historian Dr David Hume to investigate Irish history from different perspectives.

BBC Radio Ulster

The Long and the Short of It: Series 4

The Long and the Short of It: Series 4: Episode 3: Was the Great Famine Genocide?

Episode 3

Episode 3: Was the Great Famine Genocide?

Series 4

Was the Great Famine Genocide?

BBC Radio Ulster - The Long and the Short of It, Series 4, Was the Great Famine Genocide?

Tim McGarry and Dr David Hume come from different perspectives to explore Irish history.

Tim McGarry and Dr David Hume are back for a new series, looking at a number of fascinating historical incidents and people in Irish history from their differing perspectives.

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.

Northern Ireland's national station for local news, sport, weather, speech and music

Northern Ireland's national station for local news, live sport, weather, intelligent speech, great personalities and music to suit all tastes

Investigating little-known Ulster-Scots stories and well-known historical events.

Tim McGarry, a six-foot-four comedian, joins vertically challenged Orangeman and historian, Dr David Hume, to investigate little-known Ulster-Scots stories and well-known historical events.

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The Long and the Short of It

Series 4

Episode 3: Was the Great Famine Genocide?

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