[marzell]

Thanks for the clarification. I was actually meaning that they were being "taxed" in terms of food sent to the rest of the UK and not in terms of money. Even with the article you linked, it's not clear to me if "exports" means they were forced/taxed into sending food, or if they were willingly exporting food for money in lieu of eating... Or something else

[Spooky23]

Most Irish didn’t own property and were tenants. They didn’t “export” in lieu of eating, the English landlord exported the fruits of their labor and left them to starve. The English were very concerned about the Irish and their moral fiber, so they allowed them to persevere rather than get hooked to charity.

Others couldn’t pay their rent and were evicted. Millions of Irish didn’t flee to the slums of NYC, etc for kicks.

[thefringthing]

For this reason the Great Famine is sometimes characterized as a genocide perpetrated by the British landlord class.

[bitdizzy]

> they were willingly exporting food for money in lieu of eating...

The "they" who decided to export were not the "they" who starved.