Editing Great Famine (Ireland) (section)

==Reaction in Ireland==
In early November 1845, a deputation from the citizens of Dublin, including the [[Augustus FitzGerald, 3rd Duke of Leinster|Duke of Leinster]], [[Valentine Lawless, 2nd Baron Cloncurry|Lord Cloncurry]], Daniel O'Connell and the [[Lord Mayor of Dublin|Lord Mayor]], went to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, [[William à Court, 1st Baron Heytesbury|Lord Heytesbury]] to discuss the issue. They offered suggestions such as opening the ports to foreign corn, stopping distillation from grain, prohibiting the export of foodstuffs, and providing employment through public works.{{sfn|Woodham-Smith|1991|pp=48–49}} Lord Heytesbury urged them not to be alarmed, that they "were premature", that scientists were enquiring into all those matters.{{refn|[[Lyon Playfair]] and [[John Lindley]] were sent from England to investigate with the local assistance of [[Robert Kane (chemist)|Robert Kane]].{{sfn|Woodham-Smith|1991|p=44–45}}|group=fn}}

[[John Mitchel]], one of the leading Irish nationalists, later wrote one of the first widely circulated tracts on the famine, ''The Last Conquest of Ireland (Perhaps)'', published in 1861. It proposed that British actions during the famine and their treatment of the Irish were a deliberate effort at genocide. It contained a sentence that has since become famous: "The Almighty, indeed, sent the potato blight, but the English created the Famine."{{sfn|Duffy|2007|p=312}} Mitchel was charged with [[sedition]] because of his writings, but this charge was dropped. He was convicted by a [[packed jury]] under the newly enacted [[Treason Felony Act 1848|Treason Felony Act]] and sentenced to 14 years [[Penal transportation|transportation]] to [[Bermuda]].{{sfn|Duffy|2007|p=323}}

According to [[Charles Gavan Duffy (Australian politician)|Charles Gavan Duffy]], ''The Nation'' insisted that the proper remedy, retaining in the country the food raised by her people until the people were fed,{{sfn|Duffy|1888|pp=277–278}} was one which the rest of Europe had adopted, and one which even the parliaments of [[the Pale]] (i.e., before the union with Great Britain in 1801) had adopted in periods of distress.

Contemporaneously, as found in letters from the period and in particular later oral memory, the name for the event is in {{langx|ga|An Drochshaol}}, though with the earlier [[Irish language#Orthography|spelling standard of the era]], which was [[Gaelic type|Gaelic script]], it is found written as in Droċ-Ṡaoġal.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.duchas.ie/en/tpc/cbes/4427742?con=GA |title=The great famine |website=dúchas.ie |access-date=28 July 2018 |archive-date=12 May 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200512043154/https://www.duchas.ie/en/tpc/cbes/4427742?con=GA |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>Muinntear Ċiarraiḋe Roiṁ an Droċ-Ṡaoġal (Irish Edition)</ref> In the modern era, this name, while loosely translated as "the hard-time", is always denoted with a capital letter to express its specific historic meaning.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/irish/articles/view/1186/english/ |title=BBC - Irish - An Fháinleog Chapter 6 |website=www.bbc.co.uk |publisher=[[BBC]] |access-date=28 July 2018 |archive-date=2 October 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181002132605/http://www.bbc.co.uk/irish/articles/view/1186/english/ |url-status=live}}</ref><ref name=cuiv/><ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.teanglann.ie/en/fgb/Drochshaol |title=Foclóir Gaeilge–Béarla (Ó Dónaill): Drochshaol |website=www.teanglann.ie |access-date=28 July 2018 |archive-date=12 May 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200512024604/https://www.teanglann.ie/en/fgb/Drochshaol |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |url=http://donegalhistory.com/indices02.php |title=Donegal Historical Society - Indices |website=donegalhistory.com |access-date=28 July 2018 |archive-date=28 July 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180728071506/http://donegalhistory.com/indices02.php|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |url=https://heritage.galwaycommunityheritage.org/content/topics/galways-gastronomic-heritage/folklore-and-cures/an-droch-shaol |title=An Droch shaol |date=16 May 2017 |access-date=28 July 2018 |archive-date=11 May 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200511043101/https://heritage.galwaycommunityheritage.org/content/topics/galways-gastronomic-heritage/folklore-and-cures/an-droch-shaol |url-status=live}}</ref>

The period of the potato blight in Ireland from 1845 to 1851 was full of political confrontation.{{sfn|Póirtéir|1995|p={{page needed|date=September 2023}}}} A more radical [[Young Ireland]] group seceded from the Repeal movement in July 1846, and attempted [[Young Irelander Rebellion of 1848|an armed rebellion in 1848]]. It was unsuccessful.{{sfn|Woodham-Smith|1991|pp=329–360}}

In 1847, [[William Smith O'Brien]], leader of the Young Ireland party, became one of the founding members of the [[Irish Confederation]].{{sfn|Doheny|1951|p={{page needed|date=September 2023}}}} The following year, he helped organise the short-lived Young Irelander Rebellion of 1848 in [[County Tipperary]].<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1qHor7SbaH4C |title=The Rebel in His Family: Selected Papers of William Smith O'Brien |last=O'Brien |first=William Smith |date=1998 |publisher=[[Cork University Press]] |isbn=978-1859181812 |language=en |access-date=19 January 2018 |archive-date=12 May 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200512000009/https://books.google.com/books?id=1qHor7SbaH4C |url-status=live}}</ref>