The Great Famine

 

The Irish famine of 1845 to 1852 was without doubt the greatest catastrophe to hit Ireland - something from which we still have not fully recovered. The population of Ireland before the Great Famine, as it is known, was close to 9 million people and the population today of the island is 6.5 million. The population of Ireland fell continuously from 1850 to the early 1970’s

The famine is sometimes called The Irish Potato Famine but this is not a term I endorse - or the thinking behind it. The implication that the loss of the potato crop was the cause is a gross oversimplification and hides the culpability of the authorities. Certainly, the loss of the potato crop through the spread of a devastating blight was the immediate cause of the hunger, famine and disease but the real cause was economic. All famines are economic. People starve because they are poor and there are no mechanisms to protect the poorest when disaster strikes. Ireland was exporting huge amounts of food from the country during the famine, more than enough to feed everyone. But the prevailing belief of the rich was that people were poor because they were lazy and if they died from hunger it was largely their own fault. This is a belief held by some in our own time.

The famine in Ethiopia in 1984/1985, of which I have personal experience. was very similar in some respects. It was the poorest Ethiopians who died and food was being exported from the country just as food to feed the hungry was being shipped in. It was economic.

The truth is that the famine was caused by mismanagement and/or deliberate policy decisions of the British authorities. Some have called it a deliberate act, an act of genocide, but that is probably going too far. Nonetheless the policies of deliberate impoverishment, particularly via the Penal Laws, led inevitably to the catastrophe that was the Great Famine. Ironically the introduction of the potato from the Americas in the late 1500’s allowed families to grow what was a very nutritious food on poor soil leading to an increase in population. Contrary to a popular belief at the time, the growing of those potatoes was backbreaking work that required intelligent management of the land. 

It is almost impossible to convey the extent of the misery caused by the famine. And it was worst along the western part of the country where in some places up to 30% of the population died. Co. Mayo, where most my ancestors are from, suffered particularly badly. But few counties of Ireland escaped entirely.

Many of the deaths were caused by diseases that the weakened populace could not resist. 

Many who could, emigrated either to the cities of England or further afield to North America. People were transported in what were known as “coffin ships” a name derived from the fact that so many died on the voyages. There is a particularly tragic story in the arrival of ships into Grosse Isle in Canada. Many of the people who survived the journey had to wait, quarantined, in the ships anchored in the St Lawrence River before they could land. On shore, people were housed in large sheds where the local population, some of them earlier Irish emigrants, cared for the sick. Many of the religious and medical staff died from diseases contracted from the sick arrivals. There is a very moving memorial there now.

One cannot help but see parallels in the people coming in boats to Europe across the Mediterranean

This short piece cannot hope to capture what the Irish famine was. But it is important to know that it is central to our history and it traumatised the people of Ireland for generations. There are many books written about the famine but if I had to recommend one it would be “Famine” by Liam O’Flaherty. It is a novel but based on first-hand accounts that the author heard as a child. 

Sadly, the famine is not the only tragedy of Irish history. There was another famine in the 1740’s which proportionally killed more people. And in the years following the Cromwellian wars in Ireland the population fell from around 1.6 million to less than 600,000. And there’s more ……