Irish Potato Famine facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Great Famine an Gorta Mór
Scene at Skibbereen during the Great Famine, by Cork artist James Mahony (1810–1879), commissioned by The Illustrated London News, 1847.
Country	United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland
Location	Ireland
Period	1845–1852
Total deaths	1 million
Observations	Policy failure, potato blight, Corn Laws
Relief	see below
Impact on demographics	Population fell by 20–25% due to mortality and emigration
Consequences	Permanent change in the country's demographic, political and cultural landscape
Website	See List of memorials to the Great Famine
Preceded by	Irish Famine (1740–41) (Bliain an Áir)
Succeeded by	Irish Famine, 1879 (An Gorta Beag)

The Great Famine, Great Hunger, or Great Famine is the name given to the famine in Ireland in the years 1845-1852. Outside Ireland, it is usually called the Irish Potato Famine. The famine was caused by "the potato blight", a fungus-like organism which quickly destroyed the potatoes in Ireland, and throughout Europe. The effect was particularly bad in Ireland because potatoes were the staple food for most Irish people at the time.

It is believed that between 1 million to 1.5 million people died in the three years from 1846 to 1849 because of hunger or disease. Another million became refugees because of the famine. Many people who left Ireland moved to Great Britain, (mostly to the nearby town of Liverpool), the United States, Canada and Australia.

In Ireland this time is referred to as "the starvation". The potato was the only crop affected, yet Ireland continued to produce corn, wheat, barley, and beef. However, the mostly English landlords made a bigger profit by selling these food products elsewhere.

By the late 17th century, potatoes had become common as a supplementary rather than a major food. The diet was mainly around butter, milk, and grain products. Potato became a base food of the poor, especially in winter. The lack of genetic variability among the potato plants in Ireland caused the emergence of Phytophthora infestans which had devastating effects in Ireland. Another factor is that holdings were so small that no crop other than potatoes would be able to feed a family.

Starting in 1801, Ireland had been directly governed, under the Act of Union as part of the United Kingdom. In the 40 years after the union, British governments grappled with the problems of governing the country. One historian calculated that, between 1801 and 1845, there had been 114 commissions and 61 special committees enquiring into the state of Ireland. "Without exception their findings prophesied disaster. Ireland was on the verge of starvation, her population rapidly increasing, three-quarters of her labourers unemployed, housing conditions appalling and the standard of living unbelievably low". It was caused by monoculture because they only planted one main crop and let its disease infest all other potatoes in the Irish territory.

Images for kids

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  A potato infected with late blight, showing typical rot symptoms

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  A starving Irish family from Carraroe, County Galway, during the Great Famine (National Library of Ireland)

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  An Irish Peasant Family Discovering the Blight of their Store by Cork artist Daniel MacDonald, c. 1847

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  Suggested paths of migration and diversification of P. infestans lineages HERB-1 and US-1

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  Rioters in Dungarvan attempt to break into a bakery; the poor could not afford to buy what food was available. (The Pictorial Times, 1846).

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  Scene at the gate of the workhouse, c. 1846

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  An 1849 depiction of Bridget O'Donnell and her two children during the famine

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  Lord Palmerston, then British Foreign Secretary, evicted some 2,000 of his tenants.

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  George Bingham, 3rd Earl of Lucan

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  The Emigrants' Farewell, engraving by Henry Doyle (1827–1893), from Mary Frances Cusack's Illustrated History of Ireland, 1868

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  Irish population in the United States, 1880

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  Political cartoon from the 1880s: "In forty years I have lost, through the operation of no natural law, more than Three Million of my Sons and Daughters, and they, the Young and the Strong, leaving behind the Old and Infirm to weep and to die. Where is this to end?"

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  Famine Memorial in Dublin

See also

In Spanish: Gran hambruna irlandesa para niños