Great Famine (Ireland): Difference between revisions

Large sums of money were donated by charities; the first foreign campaign in December 1845 included the Boston Repeal Association and the Catholic Church.<ref>{{cite book|title=Massachusetts Help to Ireland during the Great Famine|year=1967|publisher=Captain Robert Bennet Forbes House|location=Milton|last1=Forbes|last2=Lee|first1=H. A. Crosby|first2=Henry}}</ref> [[Kolkata|Calcutta]] is credited with making the first larger donations in 1846, summing up to around £14,000.{{efn|{{Inflation|UK|14000|1846|fmt=eq|cursign=£|r=-3}}}} The money raised included contributions by Irish soldiers serving there and Irish people employed by the [[British East India Company|East India Company]].{{sfn|Woodham-Smith|1991|p=156}} Russian Tsar [[Alexander II of Russia|Alexander II]] sent funds and [[Queen Victoria]] donated £2,000.{{efn|{{Inflation|UK|2000|1846|fmt=eq|cursign=£|r=-3}}}} According to legend,<ref>{{cite news |last=Akay |first=Latifa |title=Ottoman aid to the Irish to hit the big screen |url=http://www.todayszaman.com/newsDetail_getNewsById.action?newsId=269871 |work=[[Zaman (newspaper)|Zaman]] |date=29 January 2012 |quote=Legend has it ... |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131017094035/http://www.todayszaman.com/newsDetail_getNewsById.action?newsId=269871 |archive-date=17 October 2013}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Kinealy |first=Christine |year=1997 |contribution=Potatoes, providence and philanthropy |editor-last=O'Sullivan |editor-first=Patrick |title=The Meaning of the Famine |location=London |publisher=[[Leicester University Press]] |isbn=0-7185-1426-2|page=151|quote=According to a popular tradition, which dates back to 1853...}}</ref>{{sfn|Ó Gráda|1999|pp=[https://archive.org/details/black47beyondgre00ogra/page/197 197–198]|ps=: "...populist myths..."}} Sultan [[Abdülmecid I]] of the [[Ottoman Empire]] originally offered to send £10,000 but was asked either by [[Turkey–United Kingdom relations|British diplomats]] or his own ministers to reduce it to £1,000 to avoid donating more than the Queen. After a while [[Abdulmejid I|Sultan]] has sent goods and food through a few ships secretly to the [[Drogheda]]. City's amblem still has crescent and star, the flag of Ottoman Empire, which was seen when aid boxes were being unloaded from the ships.<ref name=Christine>[[Christine Kinealy]] (2013), [https://books.google.com/books?id=GnksAQAAQBAJ&pg=PA115 ''Charity and the Great Hunger in Ireland: The Kindness of Strangers''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200512035214/https://books.google.com/books?id=GnksAQAAQBAJ&pg=PA115 |date=12 May 2020 }}, pp. 115, 118</ref> U.S. President [[James K. Polk]] donated $50 and in 1847 Congressman [[Abraham Lincoln]] donated $10 ($307 in 2019 value<ref>[https://www.officialdata.org/us/inflation/1847?amount=10 10 in 1847 → $306.97 in 2019] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200607131244/https://www.officialdata.org/us/inflation/1847?amount=10 |date=7 June 2020 }}. Inflation Calculator. 3 March 2019.</ref>).<ref>"[http://www.irishcentral.com/roots/irish-historian-finds-evidence-that-abraham-lincoln-donated-to-ireland-during-the-great-famine-171588231-237530701.html Abraham Lincoln donated to Ireland during the Great Famine] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160815005131/http://www.irishcentral.com/roots/irish-historian-finds-evidence-that-abraham-lincoln-donated-to-ireland-during-the-great-famine-171588231-237530701.html |date=15 August 2016 }}". IrishCentral. 9 December 2014.</ref> [[Pope Pius IX]] also made a personal contribution of 1,000 Scudi (approximately £213) for famine relief in Ireland and authorized collections in Rome.