The whole Irish Famine/Corn thing makes my head hurt. As far as I can tell Ireland was both importing and exporting corn throughout the crisis - in one of those exciting unexpected effects of economics. But overall it seems to have been net importer.
A switch to a diet less reliant on the potato would certainly be one explanation and, come to think of it, the widespread evictions and "rationalisation" of farming practices caused by the famine could easily have led to an agrarian landscape much more similar to that in the rest of Britain.
My general puzzlement partly stems from the apparent lack of even hypothesizing out there on why it ended.
(no subject)
Date: 2008-11-18 09:49 am (UTC)A switch to a diet less reliant on the potato would certainly be one explanation and, come to think of it, the widespread evictions and "rationalisation" of farming practices caused by the famine could easily have led to an agrarian landscape much more similar to that in the rest of Britain.
My general puzzlement partly stems from the apparent lack of even hypothesizing out there on why it ended.