The Great Irish Potato Famine 18451850

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The Great Irish Potato Famine1845-1850
Hunger in Ireland
Picture of citizens attacking a potato store
during the potato famine.
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Causes

• Started in 1845.
• Potatoes were a very important food in Ireland
  at this time.
• Very strange weather during the summer of 1845.
• It was very hot, and then it rained for three
  weeks straight.
• Caused by Late Blight.
• Disease that kills the leaves and the edible
  roots/ tubers.
• Late Blight is caused by Plytophthora infestans.
• Potatoes turned black from it.

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• Worst famine to occur in Europe in the 19th
  century.
• Plytophthora fungus arrived from North America
  accidently.
• The poor people depended on potatoes for their
  main food.
• The U.S. sent cornmeal to Ireland, but the Irish
  people didnt like it.

Details
Potato leaves affected by late blight
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Details

• By 1847, 3,000,000 Irishmen were going to soup
  kitchens.
• People blamed fairies
• that they believed in for
• the famine (One fairy often
• blamed was Fear Liath
• (Gray Man).
• Late blight is a type of
• pathogenic water mold.
• Map of effected areas of Ireland.

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Details

• Also known as the Irish Holocaust.
• Prime Minister Sir Rorbert Peele tried to stop
  the famine from 1845-1846.
• This famine was so well known because it was so
  large and destructive.

Regular potatoes and potato affected by late
blight
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Details

• 24 other crop failures had occurred beginning in
  1728, but none were throughout Ireland like this
  one.
• Nobody knows what the exact number of the people
  who died during the famine was, but it was very
  large.

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Details

• Most of the victims were Irish Catholics.
• Many lived in poverty and couldnt read and/or
  write.
• Most people were used to eating from 7 to 15
  pounds of potatoes everyday per person before the
  famine occurred.
• Potatoes were harvested two times each fall.
• They were the main food in Ireland in the time,
  so when they were gone many people had no other
  source of food.

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Details

• Before the famine, Ireland was the most densely
  populated country in Europe.
• Many Irishmen came to the United States, and
  many of those landed in Boston.
• Boston was very affected by the Irish and now
  has many Irish pubs.
• Ireland had great, farmable land and people had
  a lot of land for farming.

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• ...no issue has provoked so much anger or so
  embittered relations between the two countries
  (England and Ireland) as the indisputable fact
  that huge quantities of food were exported from
  Ireland to England throughout the period when the
  people of Ireland were dying of starvation.
• Cecil Woodham- Smith

Primary Source
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John Mitcel

• Irish nationalist, activist, and writer.
• Member of Young Ireland and the Irish
  Confederation.
• Was a convicted felon.
• His journal from his time in prison is now one of
  Irish nationalisms most famous books.

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Diarmuid O'Donovan Rossa

• Diarmuid ODonovan was a survivor of the famine.
• He blames the English Landlords and the richer
  citizens for the famine.
• His family had a small wheat crop.
• The landlord sent men to guard their wheat until
  they paid their rent.
• Many other landlords were the same way.

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Result

• Population fell from 8,400,000 to 6,600,000 in
  just seven years (1844- 1851)
• Around 1,000,000 Irishmen died and about another
  2,000,000 left Ireland for other countries.
• Most of the information comes from children and
  grandchildren of the survivors. Many people
  dont like to talk about it.

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Timeline

• 1728- Crop failures begin.
• 1845- Great Irish Potato Famine begins.
• 1845-1846- Sir Robert Peele tried to stop the
  famine.
• 1849- Famine ended.
• 1844- 1851- Population of Ireland fell greatly.

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