British Tory MP's idea of using potential food shortage threat against Ireland ignorant and reprehensible

The repercussions continue in regard to British Conservative MP Priti Patel's suggestion that potential food shortages in Ireland could be used as leverage in Brexit negotiations. Despite her claims that her comments were taken out of context the criticism shows no sign of abating. Priti Patel's comments were viewed as particularly insensitive in light of the Great Famine, which was exacerbated by British trade policy at the time and resulted in the deaths of millions. The British government's (who then ruled Ireland) response to this catastrophic period of Irish history continues to be highlighted. Between 1845 and 1852 the Great Famine (Irish: an Gorta Mór) or the Great Hunger was a period of mass starvation, disease, and emigration in Ireland. Yet the export of food crops and livestock from Ireland continued over that period.

The criticism of Priti Patel is not that she holds strong views on British withdrawal from the European Union. It is her apparently breathtaking ignorance of history and if it was not her ignorance of this period of Irish history, then her comments are something much worse. However, it does emphasise the point that many people in Britain have no or scant knowledge of the Great Famine in Ireland. At most many hold to the belief it was all down to the failure of the potato crop. However, as John Mitchel (Irish: Seán Mistéal; 3 November 1815 – 20 March 1875) one of the leaders of the Young Ireland Movement, pointed out in 1860:

I have called it an artificial famine: that is to say, it was a famine which desolated a rich and fertile island that produced every year abundance and superabundance to sustain all her people and many more. The English, indeed, call the famine a "dispensation of Providence;" and ascribe it entirely to the blight on potatoes. But potatoes failed in like manner all over Europe; yet there was no famine save in Ireland. The British account of the matter, then, is first, a fraud; second, a blasphemy. The Almighty, indeed, sent the potato blight, but the English created the famine.

If nothing else comes out of Priti Patel's appalling, crass and offensive comments, it is that others will seek to find out the real history of the Great Famine and the atrocious role that Britain played in that period of Irish history.