February 8th, 1847: Daniel O'Connell informs the House of Commons that 15,000 premature deaths have occurred already in Ireland.
The Liberator, who looks close to death himself, confides to his friend, P.V. Fitzpatrick, that Westminster, appears ignorant of the real state of horror in which Ireland is plunged: "If it be in my power I shall say a few words this evening."
O'Connell can barely stand in the House for trembling, or be heard in the silence of a pitying respect. He casts himself - as his British mockers have long cast him - as the Big Beggarman. He throws his country upon the mercy of England.
He estimates that 5,000 adults and 10,000 children have died, Hansard reports, "and that 25 per cent of the whole population would perish unless the House should afford effective relief. They would perish of famine and disease unless the House did something speedy and efficacious not doled out in small sums not in private and individual subscriptions, but by some great act of national generosity, calculated upon a broad and liberal scale.
"If this course were not pursued, Parliament was responsible for the loss of 25 per cent of the population of Ireland."
He assures the Commons he is not exaggerating. Typhus fever is desolating whole districts. Only one in 10 of those attacked survives. This fearful disorder - conveyed by the louse - will soon spread to the upper classes and to England, "for it would be brought over by the miserable wretches who escaped from the other side of the Channel".
Several Irish landlords are doing their duty; others are not.
O'Connell continues, according to Hansard, that "the patience of the people of Ireland could not be too much admired. It had been exhibited on all occasions, and the forbearance of the lower orders, considering their almost intolerable privations, was wonderful. It was, however, possible that they might be driven from misery to madness; and, as to the levying of rates, it was at present impossible.
"As to the reimbursing of England for her advances, he contended that she would be no loser at the present crisis, anymore than she had been on former occasions. He maintained that England had been a gainer by her loans to Ireland."
He again assures the House that Ireland is too poor to support itself and calls on Parliament to rescue his country.
Ireland is in their hands - in their power, he concludes. "If they did not save her, she could not save herself. He solemnly called on them to recollect that he predicted with the sincerest conviction, that one "fourth of her population would perish unless Parliament came to their relief."
But Russell's government is unwilling to introduce any "measures that go against prevailing economic orthodoxies, or that would upset the powerful lobby opposed to giving additional aid to Ireland.