The Great Irish Potato Famine. PEC1 PDF

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Letter to the Duke of Wellington on the Great Irish Potato Famine. 1846....

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UNIVERSIDAD NACIONAL DE ESTUDIOS A DISTANCIA

GRADO EN ESTUDIOS INGLESES

MUNDOS ANGLÓFONOS EN PERSPECTIVA HISTORICA Y CULTURAL 1ª PRUEBA DE EVALUCIÓN CONTINUA COMENTARIO DE TEXTO: Letter to the Duke of Wellington on the Great Irish Potato Famine. 1846.

Efigenia Cadena Banguera.

We are faced with a historical document, this is a letter which Mr Nicholas Cummins relates to the Duke of Wellington the horror and the devastating situation that the Irish people were living.

Cummins, who was the magistrate of Cork, travelled on August 15, 1846 to Skibbereen, one of the places most hit by the famine. There he realized the cruel reality which led this man to implore help to his receiver through this letter.

We must highlight the fact that although initially the recipient was the Duke of Wellington, this document was published in the London Times on the night of Christmas of the same year, turning thousands of readers and a whole nation into the recipients of this letter. It is feasible to think that the persons in charge of this newspaper decided to publish this document in this date in order to make aware the English population of the horror and the cruelty that their Irish neighbours were living. While in England people were celebrating Christmas with all the comforts of the glorious kingdom of the Queen Victoria I in Ireland it was possible to feel the death, the famine and the extreme poverty. CONTENXT OF THE TEXT

In 1845 Ireland started to be hit by one of the biggest famine of those that took place in the first half of the nineteenth century. This famine lasted almost five years and it killed more than two million people. At this time Ireland was dominated by land owners who were part of the English aristocracy, these people forced the native peasants to cultivate the land and to deliver the product of the crops for his later exportation. In this way the landowners left the Irish without almost nothing for their subsistence. In this manner the cultivation of potatoes took a great importance as it became the basis of the diet of the population of Ireland.

From 1845 the potatoes crops began to be successively destroyed by a serious plague, because of this the disaster began.

If these peasants had not been forced to deliver the products that they were cultivating, the population of Ireland would have been able to resist the plague of the potato. (George 33-34).

When the disaster began the English Government was presided by Sir Robert Peel, a member of the Conservative Party, who had obtained the charge of Prime Minister in August, 1841. Peel carried out some changes in order to help the Irish, He sent forty-five tons of corn to Ireland and he revoked the laws of the grain for which the Irish were forced to pay high taxes for the grain that was imported from England. This arrangement favoured the population of Ireland but it disfavoured the interests of the English aristocrats and the interests of many of his partners of party, this led to clashes and its subsequent dismissal in 1846.

John Russell, who was a member if the Whig party, substituted Peel in the position. In the first moment he applied a non-interventionist policy because he was a supporter of the free trade, therefore he was opposed to the intervention of the State in the situation of Ireland. But at the beginning of 1847 Russell’s Government decided to intervene taking small measures such as grating a loan as an aid for Ireland and they carried out the construction of dinning rooms but the situation was deteriorating increasingly and all the measurements were ineffective. CONTENT OF THE TEXT

The text reflects with rawness the horrible situation that the people were living in Ireland because of this terrible famine. Cummins reports what he saw in Skibbereen without skip details in order to receive the attention of Sir Arthur Wellesley, who was an important political and military figure.

It is very likely that the magistrate of Cork wrote this letter for two essential reasons, one is that although at this time the Duke of Wellington was retired from politics he was a man who had so much influence that he could intercede for Ireland before the Queen Victoria I. Another reason can be the fact that the Duke was an Irish man, therefore he could feel compassion for his countrymen and do something about it. Because of this we can affirm the the purpose of this letter is not only to inform Sir Arthur Wellesley about the situation but to stimulate the commiseration and the conscience of the Duke and England.

This document starts with the phrase ¨Without apology or preface¨ implying the extremely urgent matter of that he relates below. We find estrange that Cummins has written this letter to an important figure as the Duke was, beginning in this way, this leads us to think that this document was written in this way with entire intention. In relation to the style, the letter has a style full of hyperbole: ¨I provided myself with as much bread as five men could carry¨, ¨…and the scenes that presented themselves were such no tongue or pen can convey the slightest idea of ¨, ¨… and what had once been a man¨, ¨such phantoms, such frightful spectres as no words can describe¨ and so on. The writer tries to replace the readers using these exaggerations. Besides, the document presents the repetition of some significant words: -¨Corpse/Corpses¨: appears in the text three times perhaps in order to reveal the fact that the situation was so serious because the famine was killing many people. -¨Frightful¨: describing the famine and the state in which the survivors were living. -¨Filthy¨: in order to reflect the conditions of extreme abandonment in which the peasants of Ireland were. It is also noticeable the fact that the text presents the continuous alliteration of the ¨S¨ sound in order to produce a sensory effect on the readers that leads them out of indifference. In addition, when we analyse the stylistic devices that Cummins has used, we can see that the writer has used a mode of appeal that is totally link to emotion because ¨Emotion changes people behaviour¨ (Godin, 2007).

We can see the text is divided in four parts. In the first one (lines 1-5) Mr Cummins starts the letter making clear his intention of direct this document to the Duke and to to the British public too. The second part is between line 6 to 22, in this part of the text the Magistrate of Cork affirms that he decided to investigate what he had heard about this situation because he is related to the county and he also declares that he is going to take a village as an example of what was happening. Starting from this the writer begins the hard story of what he had seen in this place. In the third part (lines 23-28) on one hand, although he does not mention the English Government directly, Cummins makes clear the fact that this government was to blame for what was happening because they had the resources to intervene but they did not do: ¨If these be not sufficient neither would they hear who has the power to send relief, and do not even though one came from death¨. On the other hand, the writer launches a condemnation reciting the biblical text of the book of Matthew chapter twenty-five, verses forty-two and forty-three and he declares that one day ¨the Judge off all Earth¨ is going to judge them. Finally, the Magistrate of Cork tries to touch the heart of the Duke trying that he feels compassion for his countryman and he use his influence to intercede for them before the Queen, who was the mother of the nation and ¨She has at the command the means of least mitigating the suffering of the wretched survivors¨ The fourth part is between the last six lines and it is a short farewell in which Cummins shows total submission to the Duke. As we can see that this document is totally credible because it offers some data an examples which are in complete agreement with the historical facts concerning to this period of the history of Ireland To sum up, the document was written in order to lead England, their leaders and government to a deep reflection, to change its non-interventionist policy and to provide help to Ireland. In my opinion this letter helps us to understand how a free trade can be beneficial to the wealthiest and a disadvantage to the poor.

BIBLIOGRAPHY AND WEB SOURCES

Bloy, Marjorie. "The famine in Skibbereen." History Home. 4 Marzo, 2016. Marjorie Bloy. 21 Noviembre, 2016 http://www.historyhome.co.uk/peel/ireland/skibber.htm

¨Duque de Wellington¨, Biografías y Vidas, Biografíasyvidas, 2 Diciembre, 2016 http://www.biografiasyvidas.com/biografia/w/wellington.htm

George, Henry. "The Truth About Ireland.." Progress and Poverty.. United States: Henry George Foundation of Great Britain., 1879. 28-43.

Godin,Seth. "How to Run a Useless Conference. "sethgodin. 12 January, 2007.Type Pad. 5 December, 2016 http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2005/11/how_to_run_a_us.html Martí, Miriam. "La Gran Hambruna Irlandesa." Sobre Irlanda. 3 Junio, 2014. SobreBlogs Networks SL. 22,Noviembre 2016

Pellini, Claudio. "HAMBRUNA EN IRLANDA HISTORIA Y CAUSAS ENFERMEDAD DE LA PAPA. "Historias y Biografías. 6 Noviembre, 2014. Claudio Pellini. 28 Noviembre,2016 < http://historiaybiografias.com/malas02/.>...