Guns versus butter

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The Great Famine in Ireland of 1845 - 1852 (An Gorta Mór) saw the island's population fall by between 20 - 25%. One million would perish of starvation or the related epidemics that swept the country. A further one million emigrated, enlarging the already significant Irish diaspora. 

A striking fact is that approximately £7 million was spent on famine relief by the British authorities. This, according to Peter Gray in the Irish Famine, represented less than half of one percent of British gross national product over the five years (under 0.1% of GNP per annum). Just one year later, with the outbreak of the Crimean War, over £70 million would be spent fighting Russia between 1853 and 1856.

The population of Ireland has still not fully recovered over 150 years later. The island's population  peaked at c. 8,175,000 (as recorded in the census of 1841), had fallen to c. 5,800,000 by 1861 and reached its lowest ebb of 4,230,000 in 1926. By 2011 it had recovered to 6,250,000, although recent gains may be reversed in the wake of the financial crisis and a rise in emigration. 

Ireland was not the only country affected by the potato blight. The highlands of Scotland also experienced a blight which saw up to 1.7m leave the highlands and crops across northern Europe were wiped out in the European Potato Failure. But a tragic combination of ideology, bigotry, climatic, social and economic factors ensured Ireland's particular suffering. 

Nasty, brutish and short – the north-south divide and health

The north-south divide is one of the most frequently debated economic, social and political issues in the UK. Politicians and academics argue over its precise boundaries, its implications for social policy and how to mitigate its impact. Some (including Tony Blair) have gone so far as to question whether the divide exists at all.

One of the most striking aspects of the divide is its impact on health. Experian compiled data on admissions for type II diabetes, creating a data set that was instantly christened the Obesity League Table. Whilst the table is an imperfect indicator of obesity, it does highlight the stark divide between those most or least likely to develop type II diabetes.

The top five locations where Type 2 diabetes is most prevalent are Hull, Knowsley (Merseyside), Blackburn (Lancashire), South Tynside and Easington (County Durham). All of the top twenty locations are north of the traditional Severn Estury – Humber dividing line.

The five areas least likely to be home to those afflicted with Type 2 diabetes were all in Greater London (Kingston, Kensington and Chelsea, Westminster, Richmond and Wandsworth). The only place north of the line to feature in this healthier top 20 was the City of Edinburgh.

Casting the stone

Ostracism is one of the harshest punishments meted out in a social group. Today it is taken to mean exclusion or banishment from a particular group or society. Many groups have, through history, sought to keep particular groups away from mainstream society – the Cagots in medieval France and the Dalit class in India were both outcasts. Prostitutes, heretics, Jews and adulterers have all suffered edicts requiring them to wear particular clothes to mark them out from the rest.

The term ‘ostracise’ comes from the ostraka, broken pieces of pottery upon which names could be scratched. Athenian democracy held a procedure by which individuals could be expelled for up to ten-years. During the ostracism the citizens would stratch the name of the individual they wished to expel onto the shard and toss this ostrakon into an urn. If enough fellow-citizens agreed, the individual would be banished.

There were safeguards, requiring certain numbers of votes, but the historical reports do not quite agree on the hurdles. According to Philochorus a person could only be  ostracised if they had obtained at least 6,000 votes whilst Plutarchus wrote that the ostracism was valid if the total number of votes cast was at least 6,000.

I forbid

The term ‘veto’ today means the power or right vested in one branch of a government to cancel or postpone the decisions of another branch. It is frequently found in the right of the executive (e.g. a president, governor, monarch etc.) to reject bills passed by the legislature.

It has one of the simplest etymological explanations, deriving directly from the Latin “I forbid”. The process was common in the Roman Republic, when it was known as the intercessio. The intercessio was a power that enabled tribunes to protect the interests of the plebs, and would be invoked by the tribune uttering veto. In the United Kingdom, the House of Lords once held the power to veto legislation passed by the House of Commons, but the Parliament Act 1911 reduced this to a power of delay.

The monarch has the power to veto by withholding the Royal Assent. This was last exercised in 1707 when Queen Anne withheld consent to the Scottish Militia Bill. The technical process of refusing consent was to write La Reyne s'avisera – the Queen will take advice – at the head of the Bill. Since then, all Bills have been granted Royal Assent using the following formulae:

·         La Reyne remercie ses bons sujets, accepte leur benevolence, et ainsi le vault (The Queen thanks her good subjects, accepts their bounty, and wills it so) – for a supply bill;

·         La Reyne le vault (the Queen wills it) – all other public or private bills;

·         Soit fait comme il est desire (let it be as it is desired) – for personal bills.

Bearing the weight of the world

In Greek myths the giant Atlas was punished by Zeus to hold the heavens apart from the earth for eternity. His crime was to side with his brother Titans in their war with the Olympians. A small compensation maybe his modern day fame as the etymological source for the word describing a collection of maps.

Most dictionaries agree that Atlases get their name because they were frequently adorned with an illustration of Atlas carrying the earth. The Farnese Atlas became an iconic image, repeated on many Dutch cartographical collections and thus lending the tortured giant’s name to the whole work.

But this overlooks another figure from classical mythology who also has a claim for naming rights. King Atlas of Mauretania was a wise philosopher, mathematician, astronomer and supposed creator of the first celestial globe. One of the greatest map makers of the age, Geradus Mercator, certainly subscribed to this version. The Mercator-Hondius Atlas of 1605 eschews the Farnese Atlas and, instead, depicts King Atlas flanked by figures represent the continents.

Land of winter

 

Hibernia, the classical Latin name for Ireland, can be loosely translated as the Land of Winter. More poetically, it has been rendered as the island of the eternal winter. And anyone who has stood in a face of a driving Atlantic storm in the far west of the island will understand that description.

Hibernia is a geographical term that is today consigned to the descriptive or poetic. The island of Ireland is rarely referred to by its Latin name and the term is now used in the same way that ‘Anglo’ describes something that is English (e.g. Hiberno-English, Hibernophile).

Greek geographer had labelled it Iouernia (written Ἰουερνία), adapting the old Celtic name Īweriū. The Romans took this root, and noticed its useful similarity to the Latin word hibernus (wintry). Possessing a cooler and wetter climate than that enjoyed to the south, and being a murky, misty and unconquered island the name obviously chimed with the Romans and stuck as Ireland’s Latin name.


And, although sounding entirely dissimilar, this etymology shows the shared roots with the present Irish name for the island - Éire (via the old Irish Ériu). And, far from meaning wintry, this proto-Celtic word is likely to mean the abundant land. One man's winter is another's feast. 

An ill wind blows east

Popbitch is not my usual source for this blog, but this week it had a little gem of a fact:

“The west of cities in the Northern Hemisphere are posher than the east because the winds blow west to east - i.e. back in the Industrial Revolution pollution drifted eastwards.”

The theory was set out in more detail on the Januarist blog. Prevailing winds would blow industrial stink over the slum housing in the east, driving the pollutants away from the upscale areas out west. On closer inspection, this theory doesn’t stack up well when applied across the whole of the Northern Hemisphere. It is especially flawed when applied to the US – think South Central, L.A., Southside, Chicago, the south-east quadrant of Washington D.C.  and the Bronx to the north of Manhatten.

But, there is obviously a grain of truth to the east/west divide. The Pet Shop Boys sang of West End Girls and East End Boys, and comparing EastEnders  with Made In Chelsea shows which side is the salubrious end of town.

London is the most obvious example of an east/west wealth divide. Heading east past the City brings you to Whitechapel, Poplar, Stratford and Canning Town. Going to the west end might take you to Mayfair, Knightsbridge, Marylebone or Notting Hill.

But it is not the only example. Glasgow has its own East End, almost as infamous in poverty and standing in stark contrast to Hillhead, Dowanhill, Kelvingrove, Kelvinside, Hyndland to the west of the city. Manchester and Leeds also have an east end of sorts – Manchester East and East End Park respectively.

In Bristol, grimy St Paul's, Easton, Eastville face Clifton, Cabot, Stoke Bishop to the west. In Sheffield the Peak District embraces westerly Hallam whilst east of the city lie the decidedly dicey Burngreave and Nether Edge. In Birmingham, Sparkbrook, Sparkhill, Duddestone are east, Edgbaston and Harbone are west.  The rule even applies to my home city of Preston, with Frenchwood, Deepdale and Ribbleton stretching east from the city centre and comprising some of the poorest parts of town.

There are, of course, exceptions to this rule. Some of London’s poorest areas are in the south, and north Kensington has historically been rough as docker’s palms. In Leicester the rule is reversed, with Leicester West being poorer than Leicester East and in Edinburgh the poorest areas are to the north.

I decided to investigate whether the historical rule applied today by inspecting the Guardian’s impressive data set mapping poverty in England. Set out in forensic and colourful detail, a patchwork quilt of deprivation and wealth emerges, stretching down to ward level and revealing stark patterns across the country. And it confirms that the ‘east is poor’ rule still, by and large, applies to the UK’s major cities.

One recent trend is to promote east end urban development and regeneration through major sporting events. The London Olympics in 2012 are the most obvious example, centred on Stratford and encompassing some of London’s poorest (and easterly) boroughs. But it is preceded by East Manchester's successful hosting of the Commonwealth Games in 2002 and the regeneration of Sports City and New Islington that accompanied it. It will be followed by Glasgow hosting the same event in 2014, with events and developments centred on its own East End.

So, as far as the UK goes, east is east and west is west. But, increasingly, the two do meet and often end up living in a brand spanking new apartment near a sports complex in a previously derelict side of town. 


If you liked that, try http://bitofhistoryrepeating.blogspot.com/2011/08/panic-on-streets-of-london.html for a historical view of the London riots.