The sin of the Union was that it imposed on Ireland from without a sort of spiked strait-jacket which could have no effect but to squeeze the blood and breath out of every interest in the country.

What was meat to England was poison to Ireland, and even honest Englishmen, hypnotised by the economists of the day, were unable to perceive this plain truth.

Let me give another illustration.

The capital exploit of Union Economics was, as has been said, its dealing with the land question, but perhaps its most pathetic fallacy was the policy with which it met the Great Famine.
Now the singular thing about this famine is that during it there was no scarcity of food in Ireland; there was only a shortage of potatoes.
"In 1847 alone," writes Mr Michael Davitt in his "Fall of Feudalism," "food to the value of L44,958,000 sterling was grown in Ireland according to the statistical returns for that year.

But a million of people died for want of food all the same." The explanation is obvious: the peasants grew potatoes to feed themselves, they raised corn to pay their rents.