The conspicuous absence of examination questions concerning the Great Irish Famine: political economy as science and ideology *

Abstract

To advance our general understanding about the development of nine-teenth-century Irish political economy in the wake of the Great Irish Famine (1846-51), this article analyses the Famine's impact on a previously unstudied, yet uniquely authoritative, element of the displine: the questions given to candidates for the Whately Professorship of Political Economy at Trinity College, Dublin from 1832 to 1882. This article concludes, contrary to previous arguments, that the Famine did not fundamentaly influence the discipline's development, and relates this conclusion to debates over whether and how political economy functioned as an ideology in shaping policy responses to the Famine.