The Great Hunger Why Did People Eat So Many A View from the Times The Great Hunger took place be- Potatoes? tween 1845 and 1852. It is one of A grown man in Ireland would eat up to the saddest and most important events in Irish history. During the 14 pounds of potatoes a day. Potatoes Great Hunger, over one million Irish were many people’s only source of people died and close to two million food. But why potatoes? people emigrated. This emigration led to large numbers of people with During the 16th and 17th centuries, Irish ancestry in countries all over England invaded Ireland. The native Irish the world today. people were forced to move to the west coast, where the land was rocky and the soil for farming was not as good. Most Sketches in the West of Ireland land in Ireland was now owned by Eng- By Mr. James Mahony, February 20, 1847 lish landlords. These landlords rented the land to the Irish at very high prices. “After leaving Clonakilty, each step that we took westward brought fresh evi- The Irish often used the good land to dence of the truth of the reports of the grow things like wheat and corn that misery, as we either met a funeral or a

they would sell to pay their rent. This coffin at every hundred yards, until left the farmers with a small piece of we approached the country of the Shep- land to grow their own food. Potatoes perton Lakes. (See the Sketch.) Here, the distress became more striking, from took up very little space and were very the decrease of numbers at the funer- An Gorta Mór by Robert Ballagh nutritious. One acre of potatoes could als, none having more than eight or feed a family of four for a year. Potatoes ten attendants, and many only two or also grew well in the rocky soil. At least three.” Causes of the Great Hunger two-thirds of the farmers in Ireland The Great Hunger was caused by a grew only potatoes for themselves and Illustrated Newspapers plant disease that ruined potato their family. plants. This disease was named phy- Photography was invented a short time tophthora infestans. It was also before the Great Hunger. It was not called ‘the blight’. The blight was first used in Ireland yet. There are no known seen in Ireland in 1845. The potatoes photographs of the Great Hunger. looked normal when they were Newspapers that wanted to report on planted, but when the farmers went the events of the Great Hunger had to to harvest them the potatoes came rely on illustrations. They would send up black and rotten. The blight journalists to the area they wanted to spread very quickly and affected know about, and the journalist would large amounts of potato crops all write down what they saw and draw over Ireland. Many Irish families re- sketches of the landscapes and the lied on potatoes as their main source people. Readers depended on these of food. Irish farmers grew other articles and illustrations to learn about crops too, but everything else was what was happening in Ireland. Many of sent to England to pay the farmers' these artists did not know how to draw rent. The Irish farmers did not have a person who was starving. The artists anything to eat when the crops were did the best they could, but there was A diagram of the potato plant bad. The blight lasted for seven no way to show how terrible conditions years which meant that millions of in Ireland really were. people starved.

Eviction Emigration When the Irish could not afford Emigration is when someone to pay their rent, their landlords leaves their country and moves in England would often evict to live in a different country. them. This meant that the land- People emigrated for two rea- lords would force families out of sons. Some left because there their homes. After eviction was not enough food or jobs, many people lived in small shel- and others because their land- ters made from holes in the lord had evicted them. Some ground, or were left with no landlords also paid to put the shelter at all. Roughly 350,000 Irish living on their land on a people were evicted during the boat headed for the United Great Hunger. Landlords wanted States, Australia, or Canada. Bridget O’Donnel and her Children, December 12 , 1849 to evict their tenants because Emigration was not always a they could make more money good solution. Ships were over- What Happened to the using the land to graze cattle. crowded, and many people died People? Landlords would often burn the before reaching their new The population of Ireland was roofs of the houses so that no home. Disease spread quickly more than 8 million in 1841, 4 one could continue to live onboard because people were years before the Great Hunger. there. By forcing out the poor- packed in so close together. By 1851, the population was ex- est Irish people, landlords made These ships became known as pected to be at 9 million, but it the effects of the Great Hunger "coffin ships" because so many had dropped to 6 million peo- much worse. Many people died people died aboard them. ple. More than 1 million people of hunger, lack of shelter, or dis- died from starvation and related ease. diseases. More than 2 million people left the country. People continued to leave long after the Great Hunger ended. By 1921, 4.5 million people had left Ireland. The population was cut in half by a combination of death and people leaving the county. Ireland's population has still not returned to pre-Famine numbers today. Ireland’s Population

1841—8 million 1851—6 million

1871—4 million The Depopulation of Ireland. Emigration Vessel, Between Decks, May 10, 1851 2017—4.75 million