Was it lack of enough people to sustain a modern and efficient agricultural economy? Lack of external trade? Being slightly north equalling so much disadvantage? Am very curious to know the factors that led to such different paths given their seemingly similar geographic situations.
It can mostly be attributed to the Cromwellian Conquest of Ireland and the ‘Act for the Settlement of Ireland 1652’.
Starting from the mid-16th century the English crown engage in a policy of subjugating Ireland; first by seizing land and creating ‘plantation’ towns of loyal Protestant English settlers to act as a civilising influence on the native Catholic Irish, then after a number failed plantations and rebellions, a pivot toward replacement and disenfranchisement.
In 1641, the Irish led a rebellion hoping to reverse some of the previous plantations. English authority distracted by the English Civil War led to some initial success for the rebels, however at the 1649 conclusion of the civil war with Cromwell’s victory, full attention returned to Ireland and the island was once again conquered by 1652.
To finance the war in Ireland, the English Parliament had introduced the ‘Adventures Act of 1642’ in which loans raised would be repaid by land confiscated from the Irish. Furthermore, Cromwell being a deeply Puritan man, held disdain for the Irish Catholics and intended to impose harsh terms on them. The subsequent ‘Act for the Settlement of Ireland 1652’ outlined the confiscation of Catholic land and their relocation to the west of the river Shannon, or to the West Indies as indentured servants. The result of this act largely inflated the number of Anglican Protestant landowners.
Some land ownership was returned by the Stuart Restoration after 1660, but this was again lost after the Glorious Revolution and the subsequent Williamite War in Ireland. The domination of a minority Protestant landowner class became assured after 1691 by the various ‘Penal Laws’ codifying discrimination against Catholics, notably in property rights and inheritance.
The long term result was that much of the viable land became used for crops and livestock to be exported to England. What land was still owned by Irish Catholics had to be divided among the sons of the owner (unless the eldest son converted to Anglicanism), leading to the volatile situation where land holdings became so small that the potato was the only viable crop to feed a family. Many of the famines in Ireland then became a result of potato crop failures, the most devastating of course being the Great Famine 1845-1852.