It was an attempt to explain the economic structure that would allow food to be exported from a country during a famine, not necessarily to rationalize and cert

It was an attempt to explain the economic structure that would allow food to be exported from a country during a famine, not necessarily to rationalize and certainly not to excuse. The fact of the matter is that these kind of economic structures were not unique to Ireland of the time, nor would they have been absent in Ireland under a native non-colonial government.