Ireland Famine

More than a million Irish people died during the Irish Potato famine that hit Ireland between 1845 to 1849 (Pollard, pg. 551). Potatoes were the primary diet of the Irish, especially the Irish Lump potato. When the fungal disease hit, known as “potato blight,” the Irish potato crops were lost. After reading primary sources regarding the Irish Potato Famine, the reader can visualize the horrors that the Irish people endured during the Irish Potatoes Famine including starvation, the physical and the mental effects that go along with it, the loss of family members, and especially witnessing their children starve and die. Both Trench and Bennet had the purpose and intent of recording conditions exactly as they

The first year, the Irish only saw it as another crop failure because it only effected a third of the harvest. It was later that season that they realized that they were about to face a famine. The Irish government would not give out aid to farmers because they felt that it would make the country look bad showing other people that the citizens could not care for themselves. The

     Nineteenth-century Ireland was the most densely populated country in Europe: in 1800, its population was 4.5 million, and by 1841, it had risen to eight million (Kinealy 15). Yet much of this population existed in condition of sorrow and misery lay in the dependence of the peasantry on just one staple crop, the potato; in western countries like Mayo and Galway, nine-tenths of the people ate nothing else (MacManus 602). Here was a disaster waiting to happen, made worst by the rapid rise in population in the first half of the century which forced the peasants to subsist on smaller plots of land (O Grada, The Great Irish Famine 63).

The Irish people would have freight, terror, death and eventually peace with these changes. The potato famine started with blight being discovered by European farmers. The Irish government started to export potatoes and grains to continental Europe to help the Europeans avoid a famine (Smith, 2011). By the end of August of 1845, Ireland was freighted to find out that blight had found its way to their produce (Smith, 2011). The blight in Ireland set off a chain of events that led to the Irish people dying in more ways to get out of Ireland. The government started trying to feed their people by importing corn and grains for food (Smith, 2011). This was not enough to help the young, old and sick. Many of theIrish people were led to complete financial ruin. By the end of 1851 more than a million Irish had died due to hunger and disease exacerbated by malnutrition(Smith, 2011).The only answer for many Irish families was to take a risk and get on a coffin boat and flee to another country. North America was a safe haven for many Irish people. They dreamed of the life they would live in the U.S.A. Nearly 1 million people arrived in many cities which include New York, and Boston (Smith, 2011). When the Irish people arrived, it was a sad reality they did not think they would face. The conditions were despicable. Many families were moved into small rooms with no sanitation, ventilation, day light or electricity (Smith, 2011). The families were charged about $1.50 per week to live in extreme poverty (Smith, 2011). This led to unsanitary conditions for the communities. Diseases were able to thrive in those conditions and one of the more common disease was cholera . The Irish people usually stayed in close proximity to each other and would make a small Irish community. The Irish community strived to make money. They were only hired for unskilled jobs

In the early 1900s Ireland had gone through a “Great Famine” stage. It was a time where poverty and starvation had permeated throughout Europe, but of course it hit some places harder than others. Introducing to you, Dublin, the modern day capital of Ireland which had once fallen to famine. All living resources had become scarce and the gap between the rich and the poor had greatly increased. Those of the upper class could afford housing, clothes, and food, therefore, their circumstances had improved unlike the inhabitants (A BRIEF HISTORY OF DUBLIN, IRELAND). Thus time had called for desperation, people did whatever they could to survive through this crucial time in history. Roddy Doyle’s “A Star Called Henry” gives its audience an outlook on Ireland’s history throughout the 19th century by using real life scenarios, using symbolism and through his character Henry Smart the second (MIKOWSKI, Sylvie).

Even with the advantage of knowing English, the famine-era Irish had much going against them in America. They had few marketable skills, little education, and no money. Substantial social disorganization, poverty, crime, disease, alcoholism, and family dissolution – accompanied their resettlement in America (241).

Ireland, Swift's home country, was under deep poverty and famine in the time period of this writing. Many citizens were stuck in a financial hole with no escape from the latches of poverty. In addition, many of the impoverished class consisted of mothers with multiple children. As a result, many

It could be argued that The Great Famine was the utmost turning point in Irish Nationalism due to the lack of action of the British Government, which left deep-rooted hatred for the English within Ireland. Government expenditure for the famine equaled a total of £8 million, 3% of the total government budget. The British Government stuck closer to a laissez-faire economic policy, which is echoed through Charles Trevelyan who claimed that through relief “people grow worse instead of better.” The Irish

Ireland poverty was a very common situation and there are two perspectives in the way people saw or lived the poor life, in the “Modest Proposal” by “Jonathan Swift”, Swift tried to help those who were living the life of being poor and trying to figure out ways to decrease the percentage of those who are poor. In another perspective like Frank McCourt in “Angela's Ashes” by “Frank McCourt”, he lived in the ireland poverty and talked about how he struggled to survive.

It can be argued that the reason the government failed to react as it should in time of crisis is because of the widespread belief of laissez-faire. This argument is flawed, as the strict rules against the government’s invasion of personal matters were broken on numerous occasions to benefit the British landlords, who hired the police force to guard the ports while ships full of food left a starving Ireland. John Mitchel, the leader of the Young Ireland Movement, wrote the following in 1860: The British Prime Minister had “violated every pledge previously made on arriving at place and power… but the pity was that the minister was permitted to act so with impunity” (NJCHE 4). The twisted version of laissez-faire that had corrupted the government was so normal and such a popular opinion, that they were accumsed to the prominent wrongs the leaders were invoking on the Irish people. Not only that, but there was an unspoken agreement that the concept of laissez-faire was only a strict policy when concerning the Irish, but when regarding the British people there was extreme flexibility. Furthermore, Kinealy, in her book The Great Calamity, wrote, “The underlying philosophy of the relief efforts was that they should be kept to a minimalist level; in fact they actually decreased as the Famine progressed” (NJCHE 4). By the time the blight

Over the course of the seven years that the Potato Famine occurred, there was a decrease in Ireland’s population by twenty to twenty-five percent. This famine happened during the time that the different countries were trading

The state of Ireland is well described by Swift in this piece. He speaks of woman who “instead of being able to work for their honest livelihood, are forced to employ all their time in strolling to beg for substance for their helpless infants,”(2633). This is just one of his many observations to point out the extreme poverty Ireland was facing at the time. People were hardly

Ireland 1845, food was suddenly scarce, money was hard to earn, and what little was earned was immediately spent for survival. The people of Ireland had grown up used to missing meals due to crop failure. However, previous crop failures couldn’t compare to the potato famine of 1845. For the next five years, the blight destroyed nearly all the potato crops and killed many Irish. About one million people died during this time in Ireland because of the starvation and disease. About two million fled the lands of Ireland in hopes of escaping the starvation, disease, death, and poverty that had taken over Ireland since the famine. The tenant farmers, who suffered would farm land that belonged to the absentee landlords. They would grow many crops, most of which were very successful. They were only allowed to keep the potato crops for their own; the rest of the crops would be harvested and exported to England. The absentee landlords lived like kings while the tenant farmers were forced to sell everything they owned so they could have money to purchase food to stay alive. When they ran out of things to sell they were then forced to scavenge for food scraps just to escape death for a while longer. The starvation and struggle of the Irish tenant farmers could have been avoided if the absentee landlords hadn’t been so greedy with collecting the rent. England could have come to the aid of the Irish people sooner than they did if they weren’t so interested in staying true to their

The Irish Potato Famine was a period of starvation, disease and emigration, and was known as one of the biggest tragedies from 1845 to 1847. Many people depended on potato crops to survive; however [comma] the potato crops acquired blight, a disease that caused the potatoes to rot while still in the ground. No good crops could be grown for two years [comma] causing Irish tenant farmers unable to pay rent and was forced off their land causing over 21,000 people to die of starvation. The Irish Potato Famine caused many people to leave Ireland to seek work overseas in areas such as England and America. The Irish Potato Famine had a big impact on the history and the economy of Ireland.

In 1845-47 one million people died as a result of the famine, yet the response of the Irish government to the famine was minimal. “The famine years witnessed the workhouses become overcrowded centres of disease and destitution – in March 1851, 250,611 people were paupers receiving poor relief in the workhouse” (Feriter,2004,p.52) .Voluntary groups such as the Quakers emerged nineteenth century and established soup kitchens.