In a book called The Famine Plot by Tim Pat Coogan published by Palgrave MacMillanm NY, 2012 a picture of Ireland is painted. The picture of Ireland prior to the famine is a country divided by religion. In the north Catholics outnumber Protestants 2 to 1 and in the rest of the country Catholics outnumber Protestants 20 to 1. Generally Protestants looked towards England and since London ruled the country, appointing the people who ran the government, there was good reason to look towards England.

In viewing the infrastructure projects, more than one proposal was to build a railway lines, which allows greater movement of goods and people. This was rejected because the concern was railway construction required the ablest of laborers and the skill of the labor force was best for unskilled earthworks. (A short few years later, the railways of the American west would be built with Irish laborer from the east and Chinese labor from the west.)

In Ireland, there was no social security system which industrialized countries today have. Part of the solution to the ongoing famine was the Workhouse. The design followed the set up in England which the harsh conditions inside meant if a person could work they would rather than going to the workhouse. The problem in Ireland was there was no work for those who sought it. Prior to the workhouse, the Irish system of charity was based on individual generosity with the Church or Catholic Church playing the lead institutional role. When the system was being set up, it was expected 1% of the Irish would need relief, it turned out more than 3 million people were affected.

The workhouse was designed to be the last resort for the destitute only, Another aspect was the workhouse specifically outlawed outdoor relief. If a farmer had a bumper crop and want to donate, it was not allowed. The reason giving free food even to the starving was considered by officials to be demoralizing.

At the workhouse there was education, but the existing class structures should be preserved and paupers should be aware of their ordained station in life. The girls trained for household work, the boys as farm laborers. Now days we often look at education as giving people more opportunity, not less.

There were people trying to diversify the economy. For generations the Irish had depended upon the potato, but Ireland is surrounded by oceans and fish. Trying to increase the fishing trade was a challenge for there was a lack of boats, harbors and then the ability to process the fish. The Catholic Irish tended to eat meat and fish on Fridays or they did not look to the sea for food even though the sea is close by.

A group called the Quakers raised money to do soup kitchens. The difficulty was the Treasury demanded an increasing number of forms to be filled out correctly as deemed by the government. Despite the government, eventually at the peak of the famine more than 3 million people were fed daily.

Unfortunately in Irish religion, as time went on, a failing was they took the soup. Various religious groups offered soup. Some Protestant Evangelical groups believed that what the starving need was not food, but the Bible. If you ate from a Protestant group, they considered you had changed your religion to Protestant, you likely did not but the organizing group did.

Linking to dividend paying stocks, similar to giving food, there are other agendas involved and while it is great to help your fellow man, with dividend paying stocks the way to do it is continually earn a profit and pay the dividend. As a shareholder what you do with the dividends is your concern.

There are more questions than answers, till the next time – to raising questions.