The Irish Potato Famine 1845-1850

The Great Famine or the Great Hunger (Gaelic: An Gorta Mór or An Drochshaol), known more commonly outside of Ireland as the Irish Potato Famine, is the name given to a famine in Ireland between 1845 and 1849. The Famine was at least fifty years in the making, but was mainly caused by the unfortunate appearance of "the Blight" —the potato fungus that almost instantly destroyed the potato which was the primary food source for the majority population.Between 1845 and 1855, over 1 million people died and two million refugees emigrated to Great Britain, the United States, Canada, and Australia.

The Potato Blight 1845

In 1845 disaster struck. A new disease called blight- which farmers control today by spraying-spread through the potato crop. Stalks turned black and potatoes rotted in the ground.Luckily, the early crop had been gathered and people managed to live through that first winter. However, the potato blight struck again in 1846 and almost the whole crop was destroyed. Thousands of people starved to death; they lay down in the fields and along the sides of the roads and died; whole familys were found dead in their cabins. The dreaded ‘famine fever’, typhus, spread quikly and killed many more.

Aid and Help

The British government acted quickly at first. It brought cheap Indian meal [maize] into Ireland and set up public work schemes – such as the building of roads, bridges and piers – so that people could earn enough money to buy this food. Unfortunately, in 1846, a new government came into power, which felt no responsibility for the poor in Ireland. The cost of the relief schemes was left in the hands of the local landlords and the supply of cheap corn for the poor was stopped. When people in Britain and elsewhere eventually discovered through their newspapers what was happening in Ireland, they donated large sums of money and food centres or ‘soup kitchens’ were set up to feed the starving people.

Death and Emigration

The potato crops improved in 1848 and ‘49, but by then nearly a million people had died of hunger and disease. The worst hit areas were the counties in the west and southwest, and it was the small farmers, cottiers and labourers who suffered most. During the famine years over a million people fled from Ireland. Many of them travelled to Britain but most risked journey to America, even though the trip was long and dangerous. The small sailing ships on which they travelled were often overcrowded and filthy, and became known as "coffin ships", because so many people died of disease on the voyages.