The Great Famine

Potatoes were a huge part of Ireland and what its people ate.

The Great Famine, as it is known in Ireland, is what most Americans call the Great Potato Famine in Ireland.

Fact:

•         About 25% of Ireland’s population was lost because of the famine.
•        This is said to be part of the reason Gaelic is not very common any more.
•         Not all the losses of Ireland’s people were caused directly by the famine.

Back in the 1800’s, Ireland began to depend on potatoes quite a bit. There were many poor worker and farmers who needed something cheap and substantial in their diet. Gradually, the potato worked itself in to being the staple food for Irish. Potatoes were especially nice for over the winter. Plus, the poor people in Ireland were much healthier than those in England and such because they ate potatoes. The people in Ireland in general were healthier and lived longer because of the potatoes, but it was the poor who depended on the potato the most. (Wiki)

This is what blight does to potatoes. There is no way to
salvage any of it.

I don’t think most people realize what exactly made these potatoes go bad. They call it the “potato blight”. This is also known as a fungus called phythophtera infestans. It did hit America and other places in Europe, but it didn’t hit anywhere as hard as it hit Ireland. It was supposed to be a really good crop of potatoes in the year the famine started (the first year when people died due to it was 1846). This all changed when the people dug into the ground to find mushy, possibly black potatoes that were not useable at all. This was all due to blight. (History)

Obviously this was not good. The people depended on potatoes so much! After three years of bad crops, they started to worry a bit. Newspapers started to spread about how much the country was suffering, and Ireland started to complain to the Queen. One man in England remarked that Ireland tended to exaggerate things. (Wiki)  Millions of people starving doesn’t need exaggeration!

Basically everyone thought that Ireland had had famines before and that they could take care of themselves, and if they couldn’t then it was their own fault. They figured that it was Ireland’s fault for getting themselves into the mess. (History)

This was a common sight during the famine.
Starving children is not a pretty sight.

People began to starve all over the place. Everyone started to lose their land and any food or money they had left. The famine struck the worst in Western Ireland. People began to die, and those who didn’t, thought it would be a good idea to immigrate to America. They would have immigrated to other places in Europe, but seeing as they had no pity, and that America had more opportunity, they decided America might be better. This is said to be a reason Gaelic didn’t stick around too well. It was mostly spoken in Western Ireland, but so many died or emigrated that it kind of got lost. (History)

All in all, from what we can gather, Ireland lost about 25% of its population to the Great Famine. About half of this percentage was people emigrating. And not all deaths were directly caused by the famine. There were also many diseases that went around at that time. This 25% adds up to an estimated 2 million people!

What can we learn from this story, you might ask? Well, I think that we should learn not to be so dependent on one thing. Especially in the entire country! Imagine if we depended on chocolate and then it just disappeared. That would not be a pretty picture. I think that we can also learn that it is good to help one another out from country to country. If Europe had just helped Ireland out instead of leaving them to die and making matters worse, there wouldn’t have had to be so much death and emigration.

Works Cited

1.      Anonymous, EH.net: Ireland’s Great Famine, 01/10/2010

2.      History Learning Site: The Great Famine of 1845,

3.      Wikipedia Article: Great Famine (Ireland), last updated October 15, 2012.