Talk:The Great Hunger: Ireland 1845–1849

Poor Law

The article says the Poor Law came into effect in 1847 but the article about the Irish Poor Law does not mention that date. I searched for "Poor Law 1847" at the British legislation website but found nothing. This discrepancy needs to be resolved. — O'Dea (talk) 19:38, 5 May 2012 (UTC)

Woodham-Smith said that there was a "transfer to the Poor Law in 1847" on page 408. Perhaps she was mistaken on the date, or perhaps it was not an enactment but something else. I don't know. --RJR3333 (talk) 00:16, 6 May 2012 (UTC)

But your article states, "the enactment of the Poor Law in 1847", not "transfer to the Poor Law". I do not even know what "transfer to the Poor Law" means. Could you rewrite that line in the article to clear up the meaning and remove the contradiction, or perhaps remove it? — O'Dea (talk) 06:10, 6 May 2012 (UTC)

I put "transfer" in quotation marks and removed enactment. Does that work?--RJR3333 (talk) 07:33, 6 May 2012 (UTC)

I'm afraid the context does not explain what the word "transfer" means. What thing was transferred and, furthermore, what does it means to "transfer to" a law? The phrase just means nothing to me. You're the one with the book: is the meaning more obvious in the context of the paragraph you are reading and, if so, can you reveal that meaning in the article? Do you understand the difficulty I have? Do you yourself actually understand clearly what Woodham-Smith's meaning is? — O'Dea (talk) 11:14, 6 May 2012 (UTC)

No I don't understand it clearly. I'll have to reread the book and I don't have time right now. I'm sorry. But I have an idea. I could just quote the full statement by her instead. --RJR3333 (talk) 11:39, 6 May 2012 (UTC)

Does just giving her full quote in the article improve the situation?--RJR3333 (talk) 11:56, 6 May 2012 (UTC)

I think there is a strong argument to be made for removing something that two intelligent people cannot understand. If we cannot understand what the writer means, then how can we justify including it in an encyclopaedia which is supposed to explain things to people instead of confusing them? (I prefer to keep all this conversation intact here rather than fracturing some of it off to my talk page; thanks.) — O'Dea (talk) 12:03, 6 May 2012 (UTC)

Well she says earlier in the book that it was enacted in 1837 or 1838. So it must mean when the law started being implemented. But that would be odd since it was 8-10 years later. --RJR3333 (talk) 12:06, 6 May 2012 (UTC)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soup_Kitchen_Act This might be what she was referring to. It was passed in 1847. This transferred Irish people during the famine who couldn't take care of themselves to the care of organizations the Poor Law had created, even though the Poor Law itself was enacted in 1837 or 38. She mentions it on page 172. --RJR3333 (talk) 12:21, 6 May 2012 (UTC)

That is quite suggestive, given the year, but Woodham-Smith said that there was a "transfer to the Poor Law" rather than a transfer to the Soup Kitchen Act, which was a transfer in the opposite direction. — O'Dea (talk) 13:27, 6 May 2012 (UTC)

I noticed that I incorrectly formatted this article's title that's why I moved it to a new space. --RJR3333 (talk) 05:24, 7 May 2012 (UTC)

Should include some criticism

This book was criticized by many historians and a mention of one or two would do this article some good. Jonathan f1 (talk) 06:02, 5 September 2022 (UTC)