by Michael Costello The Irish Famine occurred in

by Michael Costello

§ The Irish Famine occurred in 1845 -1849. The famine was a tragedy that happened due to blight, which was a disease that caused potatoes to turn to mush and sort of look like weird looking ash. During the famine about one million people died and more than one million more emigrated from to places such as England, America, Canada and Australia.

§ People were very poor during the time of the famine because they were catholic, and Ireland was ruled by England. For a long time, Catholics were not allowed to buy land, vote, live near a town, go to school nor do anything for them to be successful. Even after Ireland got rights most of the food or animals went to England. § In 1845 most of the farms that the Catholics had were so small that the only crop they could grow were potatoes so when the potatoes got the blight was most of Irelands food source gone.

Over time potatoes grew to be Irelands main food source for poor people as it was cheap and you could get multiple potatoes out of one tine seed. Potatoes were also used to feed the animals. In 1845 stories started coming from Europe about problems with potato crops. But the English government (who ruled Ireland) did not pay attention. It was only when the Irish farmers started to harvest their crops, that they realized the devastating blight had arrived in Ireland. The blight was a fungus which attacked the potato. By 1846, over three quarters of the harvest was lost to the blight. By December of that year over 350, 000 people were without a home, or food.

Absent landlords were landlords that owned land where they did not live, but they took the rent for themselves. For example, some landlords’ land was as big as Wicklow. Did you know that 97% of all Irish land was owned by landlords’ who lived off the rent, but only 49% of them lived in Ireland. They owned big structures like local grain mills and schools. The landlords had a lot of power and they could kick out the tenants whenever they wanted, sometimes even for no reason. The tenants were very scared of these landlords.

During the Famine, the English government did not really help the people in Ireland. They keep the price of corn very high, so it was impossible for the Irish to bake bread. The English government did nothing to help the people affected by the Famine; in fact they did the opposite. They deliberately refused to provide any aid to the poor farmers, and actually the landlords raised rents and evicted over 50, 000 families.

If you can believe it Ireland exported food even during the famine. So even though THOUSANDS of people were dying of starvation we still exported Ireland had no say they had to. The problem was not a LACK of food as there was lots, but it was too expensive for any Irish person to buy. Rioters attempt to break into a bakery; the poor could not afford to buy what food was available.

§ Emigration was when people searched for a new life in a new country. Not all families emigrated usually just the younger people. So most people emigration to England, America or Australia. INFACT did you know that by 1851 one quarter of the population of Liverpool came from Ireland now a days people are finding Irish blood in the past families. § § Getting to America was on overcrowded ships and most people died trying to get to where they wanted to go to. These became known as coffin ships because a lot of people died on the ships and they used to throw the dead bodies off the ships. So many people died that sharks used to follow them knowing that they would get free corpses. Those that made it to America, settled in cities such as New York and Boston.

THE IRISH TRAGEDY § During the famine most people died from disease and NOT starvation. the main diseases were the flu, small pox. Some people say that up to 1. 5 m people died and 1 m people emigrated.

I think the Irish famine was kind of sad but with a happy ending like little red riding hood. Because of how badly the Irish were treated during the Famine, the Irish people decided to fight back and eventually gained independence.