irish patato famine

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. As a result of this

continual fighting, it was hard for the peasants to grow enough food to feed themselves. The

British passed laws to deny the Irish peasants freedom. They were forbidden to speak their

own language, to practice their own religion, to own a horse worth more than ten dollars, to go to

school, or to hold a public office.

Potatoes were first introduced to Ireland around the 1600’s. Some say that Sir

Walter Raleigh, an English explorer brought the potato to Ireland to see if it would survive.

Another belief is that the potato came to Ireland when some potatos washed ashore from a

Spanish Armada ship that had sunk off the coast of Ireland.

The white potato is thought to have originated in the Andean Mountains. The Spanish

discovered it in northern Peru and brought it back to Europe. It was first considered poisonous

by the Europeans because it was classified in the same family as the poisonous nightshade.

Potatos became popular and somewhat of a fashion statement after Marie Antoinette wore

potato blossoms in her hair. Once the royalty learned of the potato’s nutritional value they

ordered the peasants to start to grow it.

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A potato, also called a tuber, is an underground stem that is short, thick, and fleshy. The

potato was such a good crop because it has nutrients, such as protein, carbohydrate, and

vitamin C. It only lacked vitamin A and calcium. If it was combined with milk than it would

contain all of the elements required for a healthy diet. For nutrition in the mid 1800’s a person

would have to eat around six and a half pounds of potatoes.

The potato was also good because when there were wars going on in Ireland, the soldiers

would go and burn all of the farmer’s crops. Since the potatoes were underground, they

would not be affected by this and could still be dug up afterwards. Ireland’s mild, cloudy, and

damp climate allows root crops, such as the potato, to thrive and to be grown successfully in

their peaty soil. Many of the p...

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...reatened the people of Ireland

with another famine. The National Land League was formed so that the poor tenant farmers

land could not be taken away, and they could not get thrown into the streets by the greedy

landowners. The National Land League organized communities together. Together they had

more power, they refused to sell goods or provide labor to landlords who were guilty of evicting

or running the tenant farmers off their land. In 1881 the parliament passed the “ Land Act of

1881” . This act made sure that the tenant farmers paid fair rent, had protection from eviction

(being thrown out), and had the right to sell his farm lease to another tenant farmer. These

dramatic changes were more important to the people in the south than the people in northern

Ireland. The north used to depend widely on farming, but now they started to depend more on

commercial businesses. Tenant farming was becoming less and less important.

There are still other famines going on in this world today. Potatoes resistant to potato

blight are being developed through genetic engineering, and some varieties of potatoes seem to

have natural immunities.

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