He said that while the Famine was “an appalling occurrence”, he doubts “it can at all be placed at the door of an English civil servant and I sincerely doubt that the goodwill of Laura Trevelyan should be turned into some 21st century guilt complex”. Ian Paisley, the DUP MP, asked “where does this stop?” if Ms Trevelyan pays compensation for her ancestor’s actions. She said the “real value” of Ms Trevelyan’s comments is that people are now talking about the Great Famine, adding: “A vague promise of reparations seems to be of less value than gaining an understanding of what causes famines and hunger in a world of plenty.” A token donation from the Trevelyan family will not change that.” The author of Heroes of Ireland’s Great Hunger added: “Despite its famine-filled history – under British rule there were food shortages every few decades – today, the Republic of Ireland is a progressive democracy with a buoyant economy. Prof Christine Kinealy, director of Ireland’s Great Hunger Institute, said Sir Charles’s “parsimonious oversight” contributed to the death and displacement of millions of people across Ireland.īut, she told The Telegraph: “175 years later, his descendant … says that her family will consider reparations if the Irish government requests it. Ms Trevelyan said last week that her family would consider making compensation payments if the Irish government found they were “liable” for his actions. Sir Charles also said the Irish deserved the Famine, saying it was a “punishment from God” for being “idle” and “ungrateful”. The journalist said her relative, who was in charge of famine relief in the 1840s and was reluctant to hand out aid, “failed” the Irish people. The potato blight killed one million people and forced a further two million to emigrate. Ms Trevelyan said her family would consider making reparations for the failings of her great, great, great-grandfather Sir Charles Trevelyan, who oversaw the UK Government’s response to the famine. An expert in the Irish Famine has said the country does not need a “token donation” from BBC presenter Laura Trevelyan to atone for her ancestor’s handling of the tragedy.
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