[Niamh.]

Originally Posted by parmnion

Who allowed the landowners to export thier goods?

Well Ireland was ruled by Britain during the time of the famine so...........

food was actually exported under armed guard at the time.

The link I posted in my last post covers all that if you're interested in the history lesson

The Whigs believed in the free market and opposed anything that would upset trade. They were also evangelical Protestants with little respect Irish Catholics. Some regarded Ireland as a backward country with an idle population and outdated farming systems. Charles Trevelyan, the man responsible for organising famine relief in Ireland, even went to so far as to say that the famine was God’s way of punishing the Irish and weeding out excess population.