Great Famine (Ireland)
In August 1845, a blight of unusual character appeared on the Isle of Wight. The Gardeners' Chronicle and Horticultural Gazette reported that week that fields in Belgium were completely desolated. By mid-September, Irish newspapers carried reports concerning what was called cholera in potatoes. On the 13th of September, The Gardeners' Chronicle announced that the potato Murrain had unequivocally declared itself in Ireland. Prime Minister Sir Robert Peel found these reports very alarming but claimed there was always a tendency to exaggeration in Irish news. Crop loss in 1845 has been estimated at anywhere from one-third to one-half of cultivated acreage. The Dublin Mansion House Committee for the Relief of Distress claimed on the 19th of November 1845 that considerably more than one-third of the entire potato crop had already been destroyed. In 1846, three-quarters of the harvest was lost to blight. Seed potatoes were scarce in 1847. Few had been sown, so hunger continued despite average yields. 1848 yields were only two-thirds of normal. Since over three million Irish people were totally dependent on potatoes for food, hunger and famine became widespread.
The middleman system for managing landed property was introduced in the 18th century. Rent collection was left in the hands of landlords' agents or middlemen. This assured the landlord of regular income while leaving tenants open to exploitation by the middlemen. Middlemen leased large tracts of land from landlords on long leases with fixed rents and sublet to tenants. They kept any money raised in excess to the rent paid to the landlord. A majority of Catholics, who constituted 80% of the Irish population, lived in conditions of poverty and insecurity. At the top of the social hierarchy was the Ascendancy class, composed of English and Anglo-Irish families who owned most of the land. Some estates were vast; the Earl of Lucan owned more than 25,000 acres. Many of these landowners lived in England and functioned as absentee landlords. The rent revenue was mostly sent to England. In 1842, an estimated £6,000,000 was remitted out of Ireland. In 1843, the British Government recognized that the land management system in Ireland was the foundational cause of disaffection. The Prime Minister established a Royal Commission chaired by the Earl of Devon to enquire into laws regarding occupation of land. Lord John Russell later reported that in one year more than 50,000 Irish families had been turned out of their wretched dwellings without pity or refuge.
Confronted by widespread crop failure in November 1845, Prime Minister Sir Robert Peel purchased £100,000 worth of maize and cornmeal secretly from America with Baring Brothers initially acting as his agents. The first shipment did not arrive in Ireland until the beginning of February 1846. Due to its yellow colour and initial unpopularity, it became known as Peel's brimstone. On the 29th of June, Peel resigned as prime minister after the second reading of the government's Irish Coercion Bill was defeated. Whig leader Lord John Russell became prime minister. The new administration assumed that the market would provide food needed. They refused to interfere with movement of food to England and halted previous government food and relief works. Charles Trevelyan limited the Government's food aid programme claiming food would be readily imported once people had money to spend after wages were paid on public-works projects. In January 1847, the government abandoned policy of noninterference and turned to a mixture of indoor and outdoor direct relief. On the 1st of March 1847, Bank of England announced plans to raise loan of £14 million to relieve Irish crisis. By the 17th of April 1847 bullion reserve of Bank of England had diminished from £15 million in January to some £9 million. The Poor Relief (Ireland) Act 1847 embodied principle popular in Britain that Irish property must support Irish poverty.
At least a million people are thought to have emigrated as result of famine. There were about 1 million long-distance emigrants between 1846 and 1851 mainly to North America. Total given in 1851 census is 967,952. Short-distance emigrants mainly to Britain may have numbered 200,000 or more. During worst of famine emigration reached somewhere around 250,000 in one year alone with western Ireland seeing most emigrants. Families did not migrate en masse but younger members of families did so much so that emigration almost became rite of passage. Emigrants would send remittances reaching total of £1,404,000 by 1851 back to family in Ireland which allowed another member of family to leave. Of more than 100,000 Irish that sailed to Canada in 1847 estimated one out of five died from disease and malnutrition including over 5,000 at Grosse Isle Quebec. Overcrowded poorly maintained and badly provisioned vessels known as coffin ships sailed from small unregulated harbours in West of Ireland in contravention of British safety requirements. In 1847 alone 38,000 Irish flooded city of Toronto with fewer than 20,000 citizens. By 1850 Irish made up quarter of population in Boston New York City Philadelphia and Baltimore.
A census taken in 1841 recorded population of 8,175,124. A census immediately after famine in 1851 counted 6,552,385 drop of over 1.5 million in 10 years. Commissioners acknowledged their figures were incomplete and true number of deaths was probably higher. Listed diseases included fever diphtheria dysentery cholera smallpox and influenza with first two being main killers. S.H. Cousens estimate of 800,000 deaths relied heavily on retrospective information contained in 1851 census and elsewhere now regarded as too low. Modern historian J.J. Lee says at least 800,000 died mostly through disease including cholera in latter stages of holocaust. R.F. Foster estimates that at least 775,000 died mostly through disease including cholera in latter stages of holocaust. Joel Mokyr's estimates at aggregated county level range from 1.1 million to 1.5 million deaths between 1846 and 1851. True figure likely lies between extremes of half and one and a half million most widely accepted estimate is one million. Asiatic cholera had visited Ireland briefly in 1830s but spread uncontrollably across Asia Europe and Britain finally reaching Ireland in 1849.
Between 1845 and 1852 population of Ireland fell by 20, 25% between 1841 and 1871 with some towns' populations falling by as much as 67%. Between 1845 and 1855 at least 2.1 million people left Ireland one of greatest exoduses from single island in history. The strained relations between many Irish people and then ruling British government worsened further because of famine heightening ethnic and sectarian tensions boosting nationalism and republicanism both in Ireland and among Irish emigrants around world. Potato blight returned to Ireland in 1879 though by then rural cottier tenant farmers and labourers of Ireland had begun Land War described as one of largest agrarian movements to take place in nineteenth-century Europe. Land League led by Michael Davitt who was born during Great Famine encouraged mass boycott of notorious landlords with some members also physically blocking evictions. Close to 1000 people were interned under 1881 Coercion Act for suspected membership. For both native Irish and those in resulting diaspora famine entered folk memory. Only small number of folk songs can be traced back to demographic and cultural catastrophe brought about by Great Famine subject generally avoided for decades among poorer people as it brought back too many sorrowful memories.
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Common questions
When did the Great Famine in Ireland begin and end?
The Great Famine in Ireland occurred between 1845 and 1852. The potato blight first appeared on the Isle of Wight in August 1845, and reports of cholera in potatoes reached Irish newspapers by mid-September 1845.
How many people died during the Great Famine in Ireland?
Modern historians estimate that at least one million people died during the Great Famine in Ireland. Estimates range from 775,000 to 1.5 million deaths, with most dying from disease including cholera in the latter stages of the crisis.
Who was responsible for managing land during the Great Famine in Ireland?
Land management was handled through a middleman system introduced in the 18th century where agents collected rent from tenants while landlords received fixed income. Many absentee landlords lived in England and sent revenue back there, such as the Earl of Lucan who owned over 25,000 acres.
What happened to the population of Ireland after the Great Famine?
A census taken in 1851 counted 6,552,385 people, representing a drop of over 1.5 million from the 1841 figure of 8,175,124. Between 1845 and 1855 at least 2.1 million people left Ireland, making it one of the greatest exoduses from a single island in history.
How many Irish emigrants died on coffin ships to Canada in 1847?
Of more than 100,000 Irish that sailed to Canada in 1847, an estimated one out of five died from disease and malnutrition including over 5,000 at Grosse Isle Quebec. These overcrowded vessels were known as coffin ships and sailed from small unregulated harbours in West of Ireland.