The potato famine caused a lot of hardship for the native people of Ireland as potatoes were their staple food.
Most of the other food they grew was sent to Britain as the Irish were under their rule.
As a result many people died and left because of the hunger and disease created by the potato blight.
They were willing to risk the long boat journey from Ireland to other countries just to get away from their plight.
Yes, Potato blight is endemic in Ireland and Europe, but today a variety of types of potato are grown some of which are blight resistant and we also have chemical sprays that can kill the fungus. The trouble with the blight in the past was that there were no sprays and only one variety of potato was grown and when a blight evolved to attack this variety, it meant that ALL the Irish crop was hit and this lead to famine.
In the 1840s the potato was the main crop and a major part of the diet of the Irish people. A blight destroyed the potato crop from 1845 to the early 1850s, creating a major famine.
The potato drought of 1845
Famine could lead to starvation and death. So, if there are no foodstuffs in storage, people will move to an area where food is still available. When wet weather and the potato blight over several seasons caused starvation to many people in Ireland, many Irish emigrated to America.
The mass starvation in Ireland is more commonly referred to as the Great Famine. It occurred when the potato crop failed due to the arrival of the disease Blight. A third of the population at the time of the out break was dependent on the potato crop for food and as a result it lead to a period of starvation disease and mass emigration between 1845 and 1852 that in turn reduced Ireland's population by 25%. And here's the rest of the story...The major reason for the Great Famine was caused by the ENGLISH- Great Britain STOLE food, a forced export from Ireland to G.B., all of Ireland's agriculture products, including healthy, delicious potatoes to feed the British. At that time, Ireland was FORCED to be a part of Britain. The potato blight was all over Europe but it disproportionally hit Ireland because of its lack of natural resources (that were stolen) were not available. The massive famine soured the already strained relations between many of the Irish people and the British Crown, heightening Irish republicanism, which eventually led to Irish independence in the next century. Modern historians regard it as a dividing line in the Irish historical narrative, referring to the preceding period of Irish history as "pre-Famine". This, is not told in our history books in America
The Irish potato famine can be described as a time in the nineteenth century when there was a shortage of potato crops. The Irish potato famine was a horrifying agricultural disaster, not just a shortage of potatoes! For thousands of years the Irish (and most other Celtic tribes) had been great fishermen and the staple of their diet was fish from the Atlantic. But with the discovery of the New World the potato was introduced to Ireland. Farming potatoes was much easier and cheaper than maintaining large fishing ships, the nets, etc., so gradually over the generations fishing was virtually abandoned by the Irish people and the staple of their diet became the potato. By selecting the best potatoes to grow over the years they narrowed the genetic diversity of their crop (a potato variety called the Irish Lumper) until when the potato blight (a fungus like organism) attacked in 1840s crops were nearly entirely wiped out, becoming a foul smelling mush long before harvest. It was not possible for them to suddenly return to fishing. Unfortunately at the time while Ireland was growing sufficient other crops to feed everyone, the English (who ruled the country) demanded that it all continue to be exported to them as had been done in the past. Note: the failure of potato crops that lead to the Irish potato famine was not limited to Ireland. It originated in Mexico the spread through the US before jumping the Atlantic aboard clipper ships, after arriving in Ireland it spread through England and all of Europe. But in those other places there was wider variety of potatoes thus offering more resistance to the blight than the Irish Lumper did, also the laws and culture of the other locations permitted switching to alternate foods and prevented a famine elsewhere but in Ireland no such options were available resulting in massive famine.
The Irish Left Ireland Because of The Irish Potato Famine in the 1840s. In other periods of Irish history people have left due to war or poverty or to seek a better life or because of economic problems.
A potato blight which killed potatoes which the Irish tenant farmers depended on. Normally one crop's failure would not lead to one million deaths but the management of English aid was so bad that food was actually leaving Ireland and going to England rather than the other way around. Landlords were also mostly English Protestants who lived in England so they were detached from their Irish Catholic tenants and would evict them if taxes were not paid even during the famine and would physically destroy their tenant homes so they couldn't return. Many historians blame the Famine on English neglect while some even call it genocide.
Eating a big potato with with butter and sour cream.
That is a good question and a complex one to answer. It's hard to quantify because England's colonial efforts in Ireland started as far back as the twelfth century with the Norman invasion in 1169. Little is recorded of what occurred then, but one can assume that, as in any military action, many people would have been killed, and surely, there would have been hunger after as probably some harvests were burnt.Later on we have the Cromwellian invasion of Ireland in 1649. The war that followed killed tens of thousands. Catholics were not seen as fellow human beings but as animals, and were treated as such. Around 50,000 were sold into slavery to places like Barbados and Monserrat in the Caribbean. The 19th century saw the Irish famine, again a huge English involvement in letting the potato blight lead to famine, and this killed up to 2 million, and displaced millions in its aftermath as emigration started.Regards, Colm
Blight is a plant disease caused by fungi that attack leaves, stems, and fruit, blocking the plant's ability to photosynthesize and causing tissue to decay. This can lead to wilting, yellowing, and eventually death of the plant.
irish priests