Irish Potato Famine Research Paper

How did the Irish immigrants come? In 1818 there were Irish immigrants,they came on the first steam service to go to the UK ,this was called the called Rob Roy. Within a decade, ships were also ferrying passengers,mainly to areas in liverpool.One pull factor for them was that they heard that England had a lot of isolated area that could be used for growing crops.One push factor is the potatoe famine.Starting, in 1845 the potato famine killed over a million men, women and children in Ireland and caused millions to leave the country.Many poor people grew potatoes for food. Potatoes grew on unhealthy soil, even in winter.When a potato disease called blight arrived, possibly in ships from America.It was a disaster. Potatoes went rotten, and were

In 1845, the Great Potato Famine, otherwise called the Great Irish Famine happened. Amid this time there was a high measure of potato/edit disappointment on account of the "late curse" which is a sickness that decimates the leaves, roots or tubers of the potato plant. This was the most exceedingly terrible starvation to happen in the eighteenth and nineteenth century. This illness obliterated the majority of the potato edits in Ireland until 1849. Additionally, in the 1840's Ireland was in destitution. The British had control over their nation and the general population were excessively poor, making it impossible to eat, pay lease or pay charges. In Ireland, Irish ranchers kept on sending out grain, meat and different nourishments to Great

In 1845 a crop disease known as ‘blight’ would be introduced to Ireland. It was a disease that would cause potatoes to rot while they grew. It was from guano, which was part of a fertilizer that was imported from South America. The contaminated fertilizer was also distributed to other countries in Europe such as France, Germany, The Netherlands, and England. It was responsible for thousands of deaths in these countries but was soon eliminated, as these countries were not as dependent on the potato as the Irish were.

In Ireland about a half of the population were living on farms and since they were poor most of them were dependent on potatoes for food. When the crop soon failed after three years of success and it led to a massive famine throughout their nation, killing thousands of people. The Irish had to get out of their poor and suffering country and decided to

     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 food we eat and the quantity of it is what industries base their investments on; they use this to their advantage and produce more quantity than quality for us to consume, without taking into consideration the effect this might have on us or on the world as a whole. In the article “When a Crop Becomes King” written by Michael Pollan we see what the excessive use of a crop can do to our health and the environment. The vast production of products made with corn has made it the crop which is grown more than any other in the United States, but the process of adapting to the high consumption of corn came at a high cost. While corn is the easiest and cheapest substitute for sugar and animal food it is also linked to the cause of chronic diseases and serious, long-lasting damage to our ecosystems. The production of certain things is something we might not have control of but what we should have control of is our health and what better way than denying anything that we know might give us a hard time the power to do

Astyk and Newton, in their essay: The Rich Get Richer, the Poor Go Hungry, explains that “around the world, industrial agriculture has consolidated land ownership into the hands of smaller and smaller populations” destroying local self-sufficiency (518). Individuals are no longer able to grow own fresh, healthy foods to feed their family. They now depend on industrially grown crops and processed foods loaded with chemicals for food. Additionally, because of the farm policy, farmers that continue to cultivate healthy produce like fruits and vegetables get little or no government support, thus the higher prices of fresh produce seen today at our grocery stores.

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 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 W. Stewart Trench and William Bennett had the purpose and intent of recording

The Corn Law grew into powerful political impact. It was used to attack the government by registering voters in by-elections or “general election” (p. 358). The Corn Laws were import tariffs designed to help protect grain prices in Great Britain and Ireland against competition from the less expensive foreign imports coming in; in the late18th century and early 19th century. But this still didn’t solve the problem of high prices of other foods. This law was supported by conservative land owners and workers but during the crisis of the “Irish Potato Famine”, Peel took advantage to repeal the Corn Laws.

In the early 1800’s, relations between Ireland and England were tense. The English were building their support by enforcing plantations, pieces of land that once belonged to indigenous Catholic Irish and putting the ownership to the incoming settlers from England and Scotland. Therefore, the impoverished Irish rented their land out from the wealthier owners who resided miles and miles away. In the 1800’s, the majority of Ireland was dependant on potatoes, as it was cheap and easy to grow for the enormous poor population that resided there. In 1845, toxic disease spread through all of Europe’s potatoes, greatly affecting the Irish, who were enormously dependent on the crop. Because the strong belief in the laissez-faire policy, which prevents

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 Irish people left their homeland with a set purpose in mind. They left for something better. They left to see a better day without their crops failing to see the next day. Life was too miserable to bear for the Irish natives. This was due to a great famine that later that became known as the Great Hunger of 1847. Famines were very common during 19th century rural Ireland, but none like the one at this time. Potatoes were a staple crop, especially in Ireland, but were very vulnerable to disease. Parts of North America and France were faced with blight with the potatoes in 1844. This blight was an airborne fungus entitled Phytophthora Infestans. People had very high expectations for Ireland’s crop in 1845 despite this news heard recently around

The Irish Famine 1845-1849 “Is ar scáth a chiéle a maireann na daoine” “It is with each other’s protection that the people live” From the Fifteenth through to the Nineteenth centuries English Monarchies and Governments had consistently enacted laws which it seems were designed to oppress the Irish and suppress and destroy Irish Trade and manufacturing. In the Penal laws of 1695 which aimed to destroy Catholicism, Catholics were forbidden from practicing their religion, receiving education, entering a profession, or purchasing or leasing land; since Catholics formed eighty percent of the Irish population, this effectively deprived the Irish of any part in civil life in their own country.

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.