The British establishment made its "most fundamental miscalculation" in believing that the Great Famine would make Ireland "more manageable and governable", the special adviser to the Taoiseach, Dr Martin Mansergh, said last night.
Speaking at the launch of Famine Diary, based on the Irish Times column by Mr Brendan O Cathaoir, Dr Mansergh said that during the Famine political economy was used as "a powerful means of domination, with wilful impotence being elevated into a design of providence, or a natural law".
But the change and depopulation caused by the Famine did not make Ireland more governable, he said. "As John Mitchel pointed out, fundamental questions began to be asked, and this was the moment when iron entered the soul of Irish nationalism," he said.
Dr Mansergh said he disagreed with those who poured scorn on the notion of apologies for historic events. He was glad that both the Church of Ireland primate and the British prime Minister had made "measured statements acknowledging the wrongs and omissions committed by their predecessors, or some belonging to their tradition. It is some small reparation for a time when, in the words of Henry Grattan jnr, `Downing Street had no heart'."
He also rejected the argument that those who survived the Famine were better off as a result of the reduction of the population by some 38 per cent.
"In other circumstances, we might be a quite different country today of 15 to 20 million people, and we might well have had less of a struggle for economic development and national self-determination, given the overwhelming numbers," he said.
Dr Mansergh praised Mr O Cathaoir, "the most courteous of scholars," for "rescuing from fugitive newsprint the weekly columns he wrote and researched for Famine Diary". He also praised the editor of The Irish Times, Mr Conor Brady, for "making space available for bringing alive the past".
Mr O Cathaoir said his highest hope for his book was that it might be a "slight humanising influence", raising consciousness of the plight of those who were wretched in today's world.
He said he was particularly pleased at his association with Mr Rowan Gillespie, whose Famine sculptures are represented on the book's cover, and who is a member of a Quaker family.
The work of the Quakers during the Famine was one of the few happy aspects of that time, Mr O Cathaoir said.
