Between 1845 and 1851 some one million Irish

Between 1845 and 1851, some one million Irish flocked to the United States. They left Ireland to escape a great famine. E. Napp

�At this time, Ireland was a part of Great Britain. A few wealthy Protestant Irish families owned most of the land. E. Napp

�The poor Catholic Irish worked on the estates for little or no wages. They were given only small amounts of land on which to plant food crops. E. Napp

�The poor Irish discovered that the best crop to plant in a small space was the potato. Potatoes were easy to plant, took up little room, and thrived in Ireland’s moist climate. E. Napp

�Because the potato took so little of their time and soil, the Irish planted no other major food crop. E. Napp

�But from 1845 to 1851, a fungus carried over from America destroyed the yearly potato crops. E. Napp

�The Irish were so dependent on the potato that almost 25 percent of the population (between 500, 000 to 750, 000) starved to death or died from diseases caused from malnutrition. E. Napp

�The British government , which ruled Ireland, turned the problem over to the Irish Poor Law system. E. Napp

�Under this law, the government was authorized only to set up workhouses where poor people could live and work. But there were no facilities for the sick and dying. E. Napp

�The British government did not even prevent the rich landowners from demanding their rents. E. Napp

�At the time, many people believed that poverty was a moral failing. E. Napp

�It is hard to understand how a country as wealthy as industrialized Great Britain could let the Irish die from hunger. E. Napp