Wld. Hist. 9
What, in the name of Heaven,
is to become of us? What are
we to do? The country is gone!
The Times, May 23, 1849
The country wasn’t gone but many people were. They had either died or fled when the effects of the
"Great Potato Famine" dragged on for 5 years.
The wounds still run deep. The Irish people say there wasn’t a famine in Ireland - there was The Great
Hunger. Famines result when all crops fail. Only the potato crop had "the blight." Other crops were
produced in abundance. It’s just that much of the food (too expensive for penniless people to buy) was
shipped elsewhere.
At the time, in 1845, people in Ireland no longer owned most of their land. Hundreds of years before,
Queen Elizabeth I finished what her father, Henry VIII, had started. The Irish countryside, with its green
pastures and wonderful farmland, had been turned into English plantations. Land-owning Irishmen who
worked for themselves became English tenants overnight. The only money that changed hands, of
course, was the rent that was now paid to the new landlords.
To Irish potato-growing land renters, the potato was everything. It was both food and cash. Part of the
crop was sold to pay the rent and buy what the family needed. The rest of the crop fed the family. There
was very little, if any, crop diversity.
An Irish potato crop failure in 1845 would not merely harm a family’s financial well-being. It would
jeopardize that family’s ability to provide for basic physical needs. And if the reason for the failure was a
potato blight that affected the whole country, the negative impact could have national proportions.
That’s just what happened to the Irish people between the years of 1845-1849.
"Penal Laws" governing the conduct of Irish Catholics were enacted. Over the years, those restrictive
laws diminished the ability of the Irish people to flexibly manage their own affairs. Perhaps the laws
were not enacted to render an entire population "ignorant." But the list of what was forbidden makes
one wonder how the English expected the Irish to function as a cohesive nation.

The Irish Catholic was forbidden the exercise of his religion

He was forbidden to receive an education

He was forbidden to enter a profession

He was forbidden to hold public office

He was forbidden to engage in trade or commerce

He was forbidden to live in a corporate town or within five miles thereof

He was forbidden to own a horse of greater value than five pounds

He was forbidden to purchase land

He was forbidden to vote

He was forbidden to keep any arms for his protection

He was forbidden to hold a life annuity

He could not be a guardian to a child

He could not attend Catholic worship

He could not himself educate his child
Laws like that set in motion a disaster-in-the-making.
THE POTATO BLIGHT
A devastating plant disease called "Late Potato Blight" ruins potato crops every year. Caused by a
fungus known as Phytophthora infestans, the blight destroyed the Irish potato crop of 1845.
The disease first infects exposed leaves and stems of the potato plant. As the fungus grows (the link
takes you to a drawing of its genetic map), it produces spores. When those spores are washed into the
soil by rain or irrigation water, the fungus spreads. Once the fungus gets into the soil, it infects the
tubers and causes them to rot.
Certain weather conditions help the disease. A prolonged rainy period, for example, will help the fungus
grow and spread. Ireland had such a weather pattern during the summer of 1845.
Once the fungus takes hold of the plant, it can spread quickly. First it acts like a parasite, getting its
food supply from the plant. The fungus itself is not very visible. It looks like a kind of white mildew on
the surface of infected potato leaves and stems. The disease progresses, however, and as the tubers
become infected they begin to rot. Unchecked, the disease spreads until it runs out of food. By then,
the whole potato crop can be destroyed, as it was in 1845 Ireland.
Death had descended on the Emerald Isle. People everywhere were dying. By January 18, 1847, an
eyewitness reported there were unattended bodies by the roadside and in homes. Surviving family
members had neither the strength nor the money to care for their deceased loved ones. Some people
were dead as long as 11 days before they were buried.
So many people died the coroners were overwhelmed. Burdened beyond their capacity, they stopped
holding inquests for people who died in the streets. Funerals, when they were held, had few mourners.
People weren’t strong enough to attend.
There wasn’t enough wood to make coffins. Undertakers developed coffins with sliding bottoms so they
could be reused after people were buried in mass graves.
By the time the most damaging effects of the Great Hunger were over, Ireland’s population had
dropped from about 8 million (at its highest-ever level in 1845) to about 5 million.
Answer each question with complete sentences on the back of this page.
1. How do you feel British policies toward the Irish people contributed to the Great Hunger?
2. What could be done today to avoid a great famine here in the United States?