The Great Famine of Ireland
At the start of 1845, all was well on the island of Ireland. The union with
England gave the over eight million Irish the protection and support of the most powerful
and prosperous nation of the time, as well as offering a strong market for exporting the
more profitable agricultural produce. And the potato, the blessed potato, provided a
cheap, healthy diet for many farmers and laborers. The Irish loved their potatoes. In fact
for two-thirds of the entire population the potato was an integral part of the diet, and half
of them ate almost nothing else (Harris 2). All was well until later that year when
disaster struck; the cursed Blight. The years that followed were marked by heavy losses
in the potato crop, resulting in over one million mortalities and about two million
emigrants (Whelan 27 - 28). This was the last and most devastating famine ever in
Western Europe, and quite possibly the worst ever, per capita, anywhere (O Grada{II}
52). To this day Ireland’s population has yet to reach its 1841 high of over eight million.
Well, only some of this is true. The potato crop did fail and many died, but all
was not well on the emerald isle before 1845. One could imagine that successive failures
of a people’s main food crop would produce negative results, perhaps some starvations.
But how could losses to a single crop so dramatically alter a people’s vitality, as it did in
1840s Ireland? If the answer is their relatively extreme dependence on the nourishment
of the potato, this begs the question: How did it come to be that so many people relied so
heavily a single crop that they would starve without it? The short answer is poverty. The
Irish were quite poor, especially in comparison w...
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...llan Press LTD.
1998. 51 –71.
Scally, Robert James. The End of Hidden Ireland. New York: Oxford University Press.
1995.
Strang, Jillian and Joyce Toomre. "Alexis Soyer and the Irish Famine." The Great
Famine and the Irish Diaspora in America. Ed. Arthur Gribben. Amherst: University of
Massachusetts Press. 1999. 66 – 84.
Whelan, Kevin. "Pre and Post-Famine Landscape Change." The Great Irish Famine. Ed.
Cathal Poirteir. Dublin: Mercier Press. 1995. 19 – 33.
18
Webliography
Potato Blight. http://www.cavannet.ie/nature/spuds.htm, November 5, 2001.
Lough Sheelin Side. http://www.cavannet.ie/culture/music/rocks/sh-evict.htm,
November 5, 2001.
Ireland's Potato Famine. http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Rhodes/6477/potato.html,
November 5, 2001.
Interpreting The Irish Famine, 1846-1850.
http://www.people.virginia.edu/~eas5e/Irish/Famine.html, November 5, 2001.
middle of paper ... ... n that after nearly seven hundred years of attempted domination, the British oppression of the Irish had deprived them of all but the bare necessities of survival, and caused such destitution that when the potato famine struck, the poor could not avoid the worst privations, given the social and political conditions controlling their lives. The British government’s ineffectual attempts at relieving the situation played a major role in worsening the situation; they allowed prejudice and State and individual self-interest, economic and religious dogma to subjugate even the least consideration for humanity. Ultimately British politicians bear considerable blame because they were not prepared to allocate what was needed to head off mass starvation, and they as the parent government did nothing to protect its subject people.
The Irish began immigrating to North America in the 1820s, when the lack of jobs and poverty forced them to seek better opportunities elsewhere after the end of the major European wars. When the Europeans could finally stop depending on the Irish for food during war, the investment in Irish agricultural products reduced and the boom was over. After an economic boom, there comes a bust and unemployment was the result. Two-thirds of the people of Ireland depended on potato harvests as a main source of income and, more importantly, food. Then between the years of 1845 and 1847, a terrible disease struck the potato crops. The plague left acre after acre of Irish farmland covered with black rot. The failure of the potato yields caused the prices of food to rise rapidly. With no income coming from potato harvests, families dependent on potato crops could not afford to pay rent to their dominantly British and Protestant landlords and were evicted only to be crowded into disease-infested workhouses. Peasants who were desperate for food found themselves eating the rotten potatoes only to develop and spread horrible diseases. ¡§Entire villages were quickly homeless, starving, and diagnosed with either cholera or typhus.¡¨(Interpreting¡K,online) The lack of food and increased incidents of death forced incredible numbers of people to leave Ireland for some place which offered more suitable living conditions. Some landlords paid for the emigration of their tenants because it made more economic sense to rid farms of residents who were not paying their rent. Nevertheless, emigration did not prove to be an antidote for the Famine. The ships were overcrowded and by the time they reached their destination, approximately one third of its passengers had been lost to disease, hunger and other complications. However, many passengers did survive the journey and, as a result, approximately ¡§1.5 million Irish people immigrated to North America during the 1840¡¦s and 1850¡¦s.¡¨(Bladley, online) As a consequence of famine, disease (starvation and disease took as many as one million lives) and emigration, ¡§Ireland¡¦s population dropped from 8 million to 5 million over a matter of years.¡¨(Bladley, online) Although Britain came to the aid of the starving, many Irish blamed Britain for their delayed response and for centuries of political hardship as basi...
Ever since the occupation of Ireland by the English began in 1169, Irish patriots have fought back against British rule, and the many Irish rebellions and civil wars had always been defeated. To quash further rebellion, the Act of Union was imposed in 1800, tying Ireland to the United Kingdom of England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales. Laws discriminating against Catholics and the handling of the Irish Potato Famine of 1845-50 led to increased tension and the proposal of introducing Home Rule gained support.
extra crops. At a time while financial needs was leaving individuals in other parts in
It is estimated that about 1.5 million Irish people immigrated to the United States alone during the time of the famine. Most people believe that to cause of the Great Hunger was not really the blight on the potatoes; they believe England’s poor response to the loss of potato crop helped the disease spiral out of control.
Ireland in the 1500’s was a very unstable country. The country’s English rulers fought. with the local Irish civilians and the Irish nobles. The Irish nobles also fought among themselves. The English landlords owned the land that the peasants lived and farmed on.
Majority of the farmers were gaining cheap calories at the cost of poor nutrition. The
The Great Potato Famine occurred in Ireland beginning in the mid 1840’s to the late 1840’s and early 1850’s. This outbreak was caused by a fungus called Phytophthora Infestans. At the time of this outbreak occurred the potato was a staple in the diet of one-third of the Irish population. This outbreak caused many Irish citizens to immigrate to places like the United States of America. But among those that were not able to leave Ireland were the farmers and the other Irish citizens that could not afford to emigrate to another country and they also relied on the potato as a source of food. Most of these farmers and other citizens totaling 25% of Ireland’s population at the time died either of starvation or disease.
As most Irish immigrants came over around the same time, in large numbers, they all most likely had the same kind of hope, that America was going to be great. When Ireland gained their freedom from Britain, it placed an achievement upon their sleeve, and no one was about to take that away. Not even Great ‘ole America.
Furthermore, many tenant farmers started farming potatoes instead of other crops because of how many you could produce with a small acre. In addition, many people’s standard of living also increased. The went from being unemployed to having an actual income. This meant that they could support their families and buy furniture, food and other necessities to improve their lives. Potatoes also influenced the diet of the Irish.
The Irish began to experience issues with Britain when they overtook Ireland in the 12th century. The Irish revolutionaries have consistently fought against the British for their own independent nation. In order to cease all further struggles amongst Ireland and Britain, the Act of Union was created in 1800. The Act of Union sought to create the United Kingdom of Britain and Ireland. Unfortunately, this Act caused more distress between these two nations; the British imposed new laws discriminating against the Irish. Not only has Ireland endured much pain and anguish in their fight for freedom but Ireland also suffered one of the most brutal famines in history with little to no support from Great Britain, increasing the tension between these two nations. The Easter Rising of 1916 is regarded as one of the most noteworthy rebellions in the history of Ireland. Although the nationals gained much momentum during this insurrection, this rising is known as a military failure but an immense political victory for the Irish Republicans.
On the other side of the Atlantic, Ireland was facing its own conflict with the British Empire. The Irish were fighting for their economical independence from the United Kingdom. Ireland was not going to be an associated British country anymore but an independent and free republic. Nevertheless, the British started demanding the Irish for more taxes and goods in order to sign an official independence. This caused a general economical crisis in the country that the government did face and that improved with the time. Fortunately, in 1942 Ireland was declared and independent nation. When the McCourts ...
The mid-1840s was a rough era for the people of Ireland. All of the crops of potatoes became infected with fungus, causing a large amount of the harvest to go bad. Many of the Irish were affected by this because potatoes were the main food source for the poor. In those years, Ireland was being ruled by the British, so the few crops that did not get affected by the fungus were shipped to Britain, causing many Irish to starve to death. The shortage of food in Ireland was the main reason why the Irish began migrating to the United States.
In the summer of 1847, government soup kitchens were feeding three million people a day, but by then it was too late for the hundreds of thousands of Irish people that already died. The famine, disease, and lack of support from the British government forced the Irish to emigrate to America. This mass emigration of one and a half million Irish people between 1847 and 1851 was the single most important outcome of the great famine. The Irish immigrants thought this would be the end of their journey, but in many ways it was only just the beginning. The living conditions and discrimination they experienced in America were the same as in Ireland until the American Civil War brought acceptance of Irish immigration and opened up opportunities for them. The pattern of immigration set up by the famine continued with Irish immigrants pouring into the United States through to the second half of the nineteenth century. The immigrants that arrived later on received a far warmer welcome than the famine immigrants, but many of them still felt forced into exile by the British and many of them took this belief into their new
And what’s worse, although 78.3 percent of young individuals had eaten vegetables on a given day, nearly half of them preferred potatoes (Fisher, 2004, p. 16).