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Use this column to do Wednesday night's homework.

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fungus blight wikipedia queen victoria potato crop history 1840s late blight hunger hungry forties

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Ireland in the 1800s

With the ratification of the Act for the Union of Great Britain and Ireland in 1801, Ireland was effectively governed as a colony of Great Britain (until the Irish War of Independence ended in 1921). Together, the combined nations were known as the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.

As such, the British government appointed Ireland's executive heads of state, known respectively as the Lord Lieutenant and the Chief Secretary of Ireland, although residents of the Emerald Isle could elect representation to the British Parliament in London.

In all, Ireland sent 105 representatives to the House of Commons-the lower house of Parliament-and 28 "peers" (titled landowners) to the House of Lords, or the upper house.

Still, it's important to note that the bulk of these elected representatives were landowners of British origin and/or their sons. In addition, any Irish who practiced Catholicism-the majority of Ireland's native population-were initially prohibited from owning or leasing land, voting or holding elected office under the so-called Penal Laws.

Although the Penal Laws were largely repealed by 1829, their impact on Ireland's society and governance was still being felt at the time of the Potato Famine's onset. English and Anglo-Irish families owned most of the land, and most Irish Catholics were relegated to work as tenant farmers forced to pay rent to the landowners.

Ironically, less than 100 years before to the Famine's onset, the potato was introduced to Ireland by the landed gentry. However, despite the fact only one variety of the potato was grown in the country (the so-called "Irish Lumper"), it soon became a staple food of the poor, particularly during cold winter months.

Great Hunger Begins

When the crops began to fail in 1845, as a result of P. infestans infection, Irish leaders in Dublin petitioned Queen Victoria and Parliament to act-and, initially, they did, repealing the so-called " Corn Laws " and their tariffs on grain, which made food such as corn and bread prohibitively expensive.

Still, these changes failed to offset the growing problem of the potato blight. With many tenant farmers unable to produce sufficient food for their own consumption, and the costs of other supplies rising, thousands died from starvation, and hundreds of thousands more from disease caused by malnutrition.

Complicating matters further, historians have since concluded that Ireland continued to export large quantities of food, primarily to Great Britain, during the blight. In cases such as livestock and butter, research suggests that exports from Ireland may have actually increased during the Potato Famine.

In 1847 alone, records indicate that commodities such as peas, beans, rabbits, fish and honey continued to be exported from Ireland, even as the Great Hunger ravaged the countryside.

The potato crops didn't fully recover until 1852. By then, the damage was done. Although estimates vary, it is believed as many as 1 million Irish men, women and children perished during the Famine, and another 1 to 2 million emigrated from the island to escape poverty and starvation, with many landing in various cities throughout North America and Great Britain.

Legacy of the Potato Famine

With a population significant reduced by 2 to 3 million, and increased food imports after 1850, the Irish Potato Famine eventually ended around 1852. But for those who remained behind in a decimated Ireland, a renewed appreciation was ignited for Irish independence from British rule.

The exact role of the British government in the Potato Famine and its aftermath-whether it ignored the plight of Ireland's poor out of malice, or if their collective inaction and inadequate response could be attributed to incompetence-is still being debated.

However, the significance of the Potato Famine (in the Irish language, An Gorta Mor, or "the Great Hunger") in Irish history, and its contribution to the Irish diaspora of the 19th and 20th centuries, is beyond doubt.

Tony Blair, during his time as British Prime Minister, issued a statement in 1997 offering a formal apology to Ireland for the U.K. government's handling of the crisis at the time.

Irish Hunger Memorials

In recent years, cities to which the Irish ultimately emigrated during and in the decades after the event have offered various commemorations to the lives lost. Boston, New York City, Philadelphia and Phoenix in the United States, and Montreal and Toronto in Canada, have erected Irish hunger memorials, as have various cities in Ireland, Australia and Great Britain.

In addition, Glasgow Celtic FC, a soccer team based in Scotland that was founded by Irish immigrants, many of whom were brought to the country as a result of the effects of the Potato Famine, has included a commemorative patch on its uniform-most recently on September 30, 2017-to honor the victims of the Great Hunger.

A Great Hunger Museum was established at Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Connecticut as a resource for those seeking information on the Potato Famine and its impact, as well as for researchers hoping to explore the event and its aftermath.

Sources

"The Great Hunger: What was the Irish potato famine? How was Queen Victoria involved, how many people died and when did it happen?" TheSun.co.uk.
"Ireland's Representation in Parliament." North American Review (via JSTOR).
"Exports in Famine Times." Ireland's Great Hunger Museum.
"The Irish Famine." BBC.
"Blair issues apology for Irish Potato Famine." The Independent.
"Irish Famine Memorials." IrishFamineMemorials.com.
"Celtic to wear Irish Famine symbol on their Hoops to commemorate the Great Hunger." Irish Post.
"Mournful, Angry Views of Ireland's Famine: A Review of Ireland's Great Hunger Museum, in Hamden." New York Times.

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Irish Potato Famine: Date, Cause & Great Hunger - HISTORY

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The Irish Potato Famine was caused by a potato disease in Ireland in the mid-1800s. The "Great Hunger" killed about 1 million people, forcing another million to emigrate.

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Great Famine | Definition, Causes, Significance, & Deaths

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Great Famine, famine that occurred in Ireland in 1845–49 when the potato crop failed in successive years. The Irish famine was the worst to occur in Europe in the 19th century: about one million people died from starvation or from typhus and other famine-related diseases.

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Learn how the Great Famine devastated the Irish population and sparked starvation and migration Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.

NARRATOR: In the fall of 1845, potato plants in fields across Ireland started turning black and rotten. The potato crop failure was even greater the next year and for the three years after that. Crop failure is a hardship, but for the Irish people it was devastating. In Ireland these years became known as An Gorta Mór-or "the Great Hunger."

From 1845 to 1849 Ireland's potato crop was ruined by late blight, a disease that destroys both the leaves and the edible roots of the potato plant. Many Irish peasants relied on potato farming for their main source of food and income. Without the potato, they had little food to eat and no money to pay their rent, so great numbers of the Irish poor found themselves hungry and homeless.

Across Ireland famine became widespread, and the Irish people suffered great horrors during this time. Many people died of starvation. Soup kitchens provided limited food rations, and cornmeal was imported, but this was not enough to prevent malnutrition. Weakened from hunger, people could not fight off disease, causing more deaths. Families rarely could afford coffins for those they lost.

Relief came slowly. Ireland was ruled by Great Britain, and for the majority of the famine, Great Britain was led by a prime minister who believed that the government should interfere as little as possible in the economy. This meant that aid efforts fell primarily on the shoulders of the people. Irish landowners initially helped their tenants, but without rent coming in, they could not continue this for long.

Private groups from other countries were moved by the plight of the starving Irish people and tried to help. Relief money came from England, India, Australia, and the United States. The Choctaw nation sent $170, a considerable amount of money at the time. The Choctaw people had been among the first American Indians forced to give up their land and move to the Indian Territory. While they had no family ties to Ireland, the Choctaw people understood firsthand the suffering endured by the Irish and wanted to help.

One million Irish people died over the course of the potato famine-nearly one-eighth of the country's population. This is more people than currently live in such major U.S. cities as Boston, San Francisco, and Washington, D.C.

Many Irish people fled their country to escape the famine-perhaps as many as two million. This led to a growth in the Irish populations of other countries, such as the United States. Almost half of all immigrants to the United States during the 1840s were Irish. Today about 15 percent of Americans have Irish roots.

Ireland's population continued to decline in the decades after the famine. By 1921-the year of the country's independence-Ireland's population was barely half of what it had been before the famine.

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The Great Famine's effect on Ireland's population

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NARRATOR: In the fall of 1845, potato plants in fields across Ireland started turning black and rotten. The potato crop failure was even greater the next year and for the three years after that. Crop failure is a hardship, but for the Irish people it was devastating.

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Why would this activist say the quote he says here?

"In 1861, the Irish activist and journalist John Mitchel, who was arrested and deported to Bermuda for his views, wrote: “The Almighty sent the potato blight but the English invented the Famine.”

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Introduction
The potato blight, a fungus that infected the potato crop, made its first appearance in Europe in 1844-45. Although it caused problems elsewhere, the consequences in Ireland were disastrous. Already a poor country, with harsh living conditions, Ireland's potato crop had been declining when the rapidly spreading fungus destroyed three consecutive crops. Combined with political and social policies that had already adversely affected Ireland's economy, the result was a period of mass starvation and disease known as the "Great Hunger," or the "Great Famine."

More than 1 million Irish died from starvation and related disease (primarily typhus, often called "famine fever"). As many as 1.5 million left Ireland for the United States and other countries, where they hoped to escape lives of grinding poverty and unfair treatment. (Unfortunately, their new homes often provided scant relief.) Even the ships they sailed on were substandard. An editorial in the London Times called for a parliamentary investigation into the conditions experienced by Irish emigrants: "The worst horrors of the slave-trade...have been re-enacted in the flight of British subjects from their native shores... The boasted institutions and spirit of this empire are on trial."

The Acts of Union in 1800 that created the United Kingdom had declared that Ireland, a predominately Catholic country, would be directly under British rule. The Irish Parliament was abolished. The Irish could vote for representation in the British Parliament-but only for Protestants, since Catholics were forbidden to become members of Parliament. Many farms in Ireland were owned by English absentee landlords. The Irish were, in effect, second-class citizens in their own country. Even when the Catholic Emancipation Act of 1829 allowed Catholics to join Parliament, the relationship between England and Ireland remained strained.

Government Response
Many assumed that Britain would provide aid when reports of the wretched conditions in Ireland became widespread. But the government response was neither swift nor adequate, exacerbating the tensions between Ireland and England, and sowing the seeds for rebellion and civil unrest.

Robert Traill, the Protestant rector of Schull, County Cork, Ireland, was one of the people who pleaded for aid. Despite his personal dislike of Catholics, he was horrified by what he saw happening to his own parish. In addition to setting up a soup kitchen and raising money as part of the Schull Relief Committee, he wrote about the devastation he witnessed. Traill was shown in a drawing in The Illustrated London News tending to the dying. A letter to the London Times in 1847, from Commander James Caffin, described the suffering he had seen when he accompanied Traill to Schull. "Three-fourths of the inhabitants you meet," wrote Caffin, "carry the tale of woe in their features and persons, as they are reduced to mere skeletons." Traill himself succumbed to typhus later that same year.

Sir Charles Trevelyan, who was in charge of the administration of government relief, supported a policy of laissez-faire. He believed that government should refrain from intervening in economic matters, including the situation in Ireland. He also expressed the virulent anti-Irish views that many in England held-that the Irish were lazy, drank too much, and were to blame for their own predicament. Trevelyan, who has been praised for other accomplishments, has been blamed for making a devastating situation worse. Although Queen Victoria privately contributed to charities for Ireland and Scotland, and finally visited Ireland in 1849, her response has been characterized as indifferent and lackluster. She expressed concern over the people's suffering, but also on occasion echoed commonly held prejudices about them.

In 1861, the Irish activist and journalist John Mitchel, who was arrested and deported to Bermuda for his views, wrote: "The Almighty sent the potato blight but the English invented the Famine." Historians are still analyzing the causes and consequences of the famine, which lasted almost five years and permanently changed the landscape and demographics of Ireland. In 1997, Prime Minister Tony Blair apologized for the British government having done "too little" about the crisis.

©2018 WGBH Educational Foundation. All rights reserved.
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MASTERPIECE | Victoria Season 2 | The Irish Famine

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Introduction The potato blight, a fungus that infected the potato crop, made its first appearance in Europe in 1844-45. Although it caused problems elsewhere, the consequences in Ireland were disastrous. Already a poor country, with harsh living conditions, Ireland's potato crop had been declining when the rapidly spreading fungus destroyed three consecutive crops.

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From Irish American Family Album edited by Hoobler

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I copied the text into google docs so that it was easier to read. If you want to look at the original textbook, here it is. I also wanted to be sure to give credit to the authors so this is also me citing my source.