The Dawn of Republican Socialism (Young Ireland & The Starvation)
Within decades, a new movement grew up throughout Ireland calling itself Young Ireland, taking
its name from the Young Hungary nationalist movement arising within the Austrian Empire.
Again, many of the revolutionary leaders of the movement were drawn from the Protestant
population, including Young Ireland's leader, Thomas Davis. Two leaders of particular note are
associated with Young Ireland, and their contribution to Irish republicanism marks the deepening
orientation towards the interests of Ireland's working masses, of socialism. One of these was the
fiery propagandist James Fintan Lalor. Lalor redefined Irish republicanism by inseparably linking
the political liberation of the Irish nation with the social emancipation of the masses, the
peasantry. Lalor declared that it was not sufficient to repeal the Act of Union, but that the "repeal
of the conquest, not just the union"-and its feudal land division-must be accomplished. Lalor
unceasingly spoke out for nationalization of land in Ireland, to be held by the nation as a whole.
James Stephens was the key figure within Young Ireland's leadership in forging an alliance
between the movement and Lalor, who began his propaganda efforts independently. Stephens
also fought for a deepening of Young Ireland's social program. In 1848, Young Ireland rose in
revolt, despite failing to gain support they sought from France, and immediately following the
collapse ofthe Chartist movement in England, in April 1848, which left the British in a
strengthened position. They centered the insurrection in Kilkenny and initially met tremendous
popular support, but by early August the insurrection collapsed. It is interesting to note that the
Catholic Cardinal of Ireland at that time denounced Young Ireland as "a most dangerous party"
and on the day the insurrection was defeated, Pope Pius IX formally warned against the
movement. After the defeat Stephens fled in exile to France, where he was associated with
several socialist secret societies, including Auguste Blanqui's Society of the Seasons. He later
fought in the ranks of the "Red Republicans" against the reaction of Louis Napoleon. Though
Young Ireland represented the renewal ofIrish republicanism and marked its movement towards
socialism, its impact on Irish society was dwarfed by what occurred around it. After being
transplanted from the Americas, the potato swiftly became the staple ofthe Irish peasantry, who
came to rely almost entirely on the crop to sustain themselves. When a potato blight swept
through Ireland during the years 1845 to 1850, the result was starvation on a mass level. During
the five years of the potato blight, Ireland's population of 8,196,597 (according to the 1841
census) was reduced by 1.5 million deaths and an equal number of forced emigrations. Ireland
was never again to achieve its pre-1846 population level. This period is misleadingly referred to
as "the Famine," yet throughout the years of starvation, Ireland continued to export food crops
unabated. Colonial landlords, usually absentee, cultivated crops, chiefly grain, for export on their
estates, leaving the tenant peasantry to subsist on the potatoes they grew on the small scrub
holdings they maintained for themselves. These landlords continued to export grain to England,
even when peasants were left starving from the potato crop failure. Historian G.M. Young has
estimated enough grain was exported from Ireland in each year of the "famine" to have fed the
whole of its population. The attitude of many ruling class English is reflected in the words of the
Chancellor of the Exchequer, Sir Charles Wood, to an Irish landlord: "I am not at all appalled by
your tenantry going. That seems to me a necessary part of the process ... We must not complain
of what we really want to obtain." Karl Marx used the episode of the potato blight as graphic
illustration of the process of primitive accumulation of capital in his work Das Kapital, presenting
a staggering image of social and economic upheaval. The massive shift in land titles during this
brief period is almost unbelievable, as huge quantities of land were transferred from a multitude
of small holders and concentrated in the hands of a small number of landlords of increasingly vast
estates. In 1879, for example, fewer than 4,000 landlords owned 80% ofIreland's profitable land,
while five million peasants owned nothing.
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