What Is The Irish Potato Famine

     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).

K.H. Connell, in his paper “Land and Population in Ireland, 1780-1845”, describes and explains the significant population growth in Ireland prior to the famine of 1845 and how the uses of the Irish land changed with the population growth.

Catholic Ireland tried to break away from England after the Reformation, but Elizabeth’s troops crushed the Irish uprising in the 1570’s and 1580’s.

England was in favor of landlords in Ireland due to a good majority of the landlords to be English and that their taxes were benefiting England. This causes bias in newspapers and articles about the landlord’s behaviors which is clearly seen in this article. Historians can read the article and decipher what it was like for these landlords and how much of the article is trying to persuade their readers one way or another especially since it was written by an Englishmen. It is important in understanding the New Departure’s goals and motivations for the Irishmen and the move towards freedom for Ireland. It shows how tenants are willing to fight back against the government which in turn fuels the fire for rebellions and ultimately moves the Home Rule party deeper into existence even with landlords doing everything they can to stay in

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

In the 16th century, Henry VIII turned England into a Protestant country, but most of the Irish people remained Catholic. Being that no one listened to the king, he sent in soldiers to push them to change religions. The land owners fled their land when the soldiers came in. New protestant colonists came in to settle on the island. The Catholics rebelled and tried to get their country back, but were not successful and were left without power and land. While Great Britain gained full control of the whole island in the 19th century, Ireland has joined Wales, England, and Scotland to become the United Kingdom.

Ireland has always had religious problems between, Pagans, Catholic, Protestant and Jewish people. Ireland has always been a place of interest in English eyes so Ireland was continually concord over and over by the English and the currency, traditions and religions changed with every English King, Queen or Irish Rebel. Between 1641 and 1691 Oliver Cromwell changed everything, Irish Catholics, Pagans and Jews were killed or shipped off to be slaves. The influence to immigrate was very strong, their options were to go to a new world of which they knew no one and had nothing, be killed for your religion, or be gathered up and shipped away as a slave. It was a hard decision they all were forced to

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 shrieks of a hungry child pierce through the solemn silence. All those who hear can only endure the horrid noise, for there is nothing that can be done to help. Her family can no longer provide food for her. Their home country, Ireland, has faced a severe shortage in one of the main staples of the native cuisine: the potato. This famine led to a decrease in not only the amount of available food, but also in the amount of money that each individual family had (Irish and German). These issues in unison made life exceptionally hard for the common Irish citizen. There was a point when the amount of hardships was too much for families to bear. They had two options: stay and hope that life would get better in Ireland, or relocate to America,

Topic to be discussed today are factors that forced the Syrians to leave their native land as well as where do they go for shelter.

The Great Famine of 1845-9 was a great turning point in the changing nature of all aspects of the Irish question. In terms of land, Ireland’s land

The Great Ireland Potato Famine was a horrible event that had many lasting effects. Some of these effects were starvation, disease, poverty, emigration, and lost traits. These effects plagued mostly western Ireland, but had an overall effect on all of Ireland. Many of the traditional ways of economics and society changed drastically because of the famine. Many people also blamed the British for letting the famine get so bad. These effects will be discussed throughout the paper.

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

against the Protestants. In 1829 Catholics were not suitable for schools throughout Ireland they were only suitable for Protestants. The Catholic peasantry were still called on to pay tithes, and they continued to be harassed by the exactions of tithe-proctors and others, who if the money was not forthcoming, seized the poor peoples cows, furniture, beds, blankets, kettles, or anything they could lay their hands on (History Of Nations 12 Ireland-Scotland p.224).The Catholics were a minority in Ireland much like in the history of Quebec where the English conquered the French, the French were considered lower forms of humans they weren’t up to English standards. As the years past the Catholics started to get back at the Protestants forming the I.R.A. I.R.A. and Protestant killings continued into the early 1900s, Britain began launching multi party- talks with the goal of forging a new assembly for northern Ireland and new relations between the north and Irish republic. By 1999, Protestant and Catholic negotiators had