The
Great Famine, known more commonly outside of Ireland as the Irish Potato
Famine, is the name given to a famine in Ireland between 1845 and 1851. The
Famine was at least fifty years in the making, and due to the disastrous
interaction of British economic policy, destructive farming methods, and the
unfortunate appearance of "the Blight" – the potato fungus that almost instantly
destroyed the primary food source for the majority population. The immediate
after-effects of The Famine continued until 1851. The number of deaths is
unrecorded, and various estimates suggest totals between 500,000 and more than
one million in the five years from 1846. Some two million refugees are
attributed to the Great Hunger (estimates vary), and much the same number of
people emigrated to Great Britain, the United States, Canada, and Australia.The immediate effect on Ireland was devastating, and its long-term effects proved immense, permanently changing Irish culture and tradition. The Irish Potato Famine was the culmination of a social, biological, political and economic catastrophe, caused by both Irish and British factors.
A contemporary report: "…six famished and ghastly skeletons, to all appearance dead, huddled in a corner, their sole covering what seemed to be a ragged horse cloth, and their wretched legs hanging about, naked above the knees. I approached in horror and found by a low moaning that they were alive, they were in fever – four children, a woman and what had once been a man… In a few minutes I was surrounded by at least 200 of such phantoms, such frightful spectres as no words can describe. By far the greater number were delirious either from famine or fever… Within 500 yards of the Cavalry Station at Skibbereen, the dispensary doctor found seven wretches lying, unable to move, under the same cloak – one had been dead many hours, but the others were unable to move, either themselves or the corpse."