ABSTRACT
Similarly to Charles Trevelyan, Queen Victoria remains a controversial figure both in folk memory and the historiography of the Great Famine. A widespread belief that was popularized by Charles Stewart Parnell was that she made no private contribution to Famine relief. In Ireland, the prayer days were to extend to late November. Additionally, the 20 November 1846 was to be observed by Anglicans in Ireland as a day of humiliation. The impetus for these requests actually came from Prime Minister, Lord John Russell, but a call for national religious observances had to be issued by the monarch Moreover, public opposition was led by the London Times, who warned that, 'A general fast in the British metropolis in the middle of the nineteenth century on account of a remote provincial famine will supply abundant materials to the witty and the dull'.
