Famine book authors Tim Pat Coogan and John Kelly will also testify on whether it was genocide
Fordham Law School
Irish Famine Tribunal to examine the responsibility of the British
Government, under international law, for the tragic consequences of this
period.
Photo by Fordham
On April 20-21, 2013, Fordham Law School
will be hosting the Irish Famine Tribunal to examine the responsibility
of the British Government, under international law, for the tragic
consequences of this period.
The Irish
Famine of 1845-1852 (also known as the Great Hunger or An Gorta Mór) is
one of the most catastrophic famines in modern history. It is estimated
that over one million people died, two and half million emigrated within
ten years, and almost 300,000 smallholdings disappeared.
Was
it the case, as John Mitchel famously (or infamously) asserted, that
“the Almighty, indeed, sent the potato blight, but the English created
the famine”?
The Tribunal will consider
whether the British role during the Famine amounted to either genocide
or a crime against humanity. Prosecution and defense teams, including
law students from Fordham Law School and Dublin City University, will
present their cases before an international panel of judges:
Judge
Fidelma Macken, recently retired from the Supreme Court of Ireland and
the first female judge to sit on the European Court of Justice; Judge
John Ingram, a renowned New York Supreme Court judge who has presided
over many high profile criminal trials; and, Judge William Schabas,
professor of international law at Middlesex University in London,
chairman of the Irish Centre for Human Rights at the National University
of Ireland Galway, and widely considered the world’s leading authority
on genocide.
Joining them will be
authors Tim Pat Coogan (“The Famine Plot: England's Role in Ireland's
Greatest Tragedy”) and John Kelly (“The Graves Are Walking: The Great
Famine and the Saga of the Irish People”), along with historians Dr.
Ciarán Ó Murchadha (“The Great Famine: Ireland's Agony 1845-1852”) and
Dr. Ruan O’Donnell, Head of the Department of History at the University
of Limerick.
In 1997, then British Prime
Minister Tony Blair stated that “[t]hose who governed in London at the
time failed their people through standing by while a crop failure turned
into a massive human tragedy.” Does that failure, however, give rise to
liability under international criminal law?
Amongst the other questions that will be asked:
·
Were the repeated, devastating failures of the potato crop beyond the
power of any government, in the context of the time, to effectively
manage?
· Was Ireland particularly vulnerable to famine and, if so, why?
· What relief efforts were made?
· How responsive was the government in London to reports from relief officials in Ireland?
· How influential were laissez-faire and providentialist ideologies?
· How influential were laissez-faire and providentialist ideologies?
· Did British policy makers take advantage of the Famine to “reform” Irish society?
· Was it only the British government that stood by while Ireland starved?
· What part was played by landlords, merchants, big farmers, shopkeepers and, more generally, the Irish middle classes?
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