The Irish Potato Famine didn't stop abruptly but gradually ended as the blight lessened (around 1848-1852), combined with shifts in relief efforts, increased food imports, and massive population loss (death/emigration), changing Ireland's agricultural reliance and societal structure, though its legacy of bitterness towards Britain remained. The blight itself eventually ran its course, but British policies, shifting from initial intervention (like corn imports) to laissez-faire economics, worsened the crisis, with relief measures like workhouses and soup kitchens proving inadequate, leading to immense suffering.
There is no consensus as to when the Famine ended with dates between 1848 and 1852 being used. There was no clear marking point or government decision made, rather the blight ran its course. From 1848 the blight affected less and less of the crops and farmers began planting again.
Irish people didn't eat other foods during the famine primarily because poverty, British policies (like the Corn Laws), and lack of infrastructure blocked access; they grew other crops, but these were exported to pay exorbitant rents, while they lacked money for other foods, and local fishing/food distribution systems were too weak or non-existent for mass relief. The potato was the only crop that could yield enough food on the tiny plots of land the poor farmed, making them totally dependent when the blight hit.
Poor Irish survived the first year by selling off their livestock and pawning their meager possessions whenever necessary to buy food. Some borrowed money at high interest from petty money-lenders, known as gombeen men. They also fell behind on their rents.
Originally, the problem was a series of potato crop failures, which affected the population further by the British exporting all Irish crops. Therefore, the British turned it into a famine by not helping the situation with valid relief measures or discontinuing the crop export.
Hostility increased towards the Irish over the centuries, as they steadfastly remained Roman Catholic despite the fact that Edward VI and subsequent rulers used coercion to convert them to Protestantism. The religious majority of the Irish nation was ruled by a religious minority, leading to perennial social conflict.
The peak of Irish emigration resulted from the Great Famine of 1845-1852. It has been estimated that nearly two million people - about a quarter of the population - emigrated to the United States in a ten year period at that time.
The donors included the rich and the famous—President Polk, of the United States, Queen Victoria, Pope Pius IX—while people in Italy, Antigua, France, Venezuela, Hong Kong and Barbados were among those who sent contributions.
Pope Pius IX asked every diocese and district to proclaim three days of public prayer in churches and other holy sites. The specific purpose of this prayer was to request that God end the Great Irish Famine and prevent it from happening elsewhere in Europe.
Some scholars have also included the years 1958 or 1962. It is widely regarded as the deadliest famine and one of the greatest man-made disasters in human history, with an estimated death toll due to starvation that ranges in the tens of millions (15 to 55 million).
Author of The Irish Cookbook, an encyclopedic look at Irish cuisine, McMahon has his own theories about the long-standing Irish aversion to seafood. In more churchgoing days, he explains, meat was forbidden during Lent and on Fridays, making the eating of fish a penance rather than a pleasure.
Photographs of the Great Famine in Ireland (1845 – 1852) and famine victims are scarce because photography was a relatively new invention at the time. The equipment needed to produce photographs was expensive and thus only the wealthy classes had access to it.
in the 1840s - a result of the potato disease that killed the crop most Irish depended on to survive - caused a million to leave Ireland, with many going to Britain and the USA. Ireland was then a part of Great Britain, ruled from London.
Lasting up to six weeks, the Atlantic crossing was a nightmare for those brave, or desperate, enough to attempt it. Packed tightly below decks, steerage passengers barely saw sunlight. They were allowed up on deck for no more than one hour a day. Here they would gather in small groups around open stoves to cook.
Potatoes are native to the Andes Mountains of South America. We call them Irish potatoes because the potato was first brought back to Europe in the 1500's and developed as a crop there. The Irish immigrants brought the culture of potato to the United States.
When the rest of the world heard of the famine spreading into Ireland, they were outraged over the lack of interference from the British government. The largest amounts of relief came from Catholic parishes in the United States and in Britain.
During the Great Famine (1845–1852), in which approximately one million Irish people died, many Jews helped to organize and gave generously towards famine relief.
In 1940, Time magazine quoted Einstein lauding the Catholic Church for its role in opposing the Nazis: Only the Church stood squarely across the path of Hitler's campaign for suppressing truth.
2025 is the Jubilee Holy Year, the 2,025th anniversary of the Incarnation of our Lord, an "event of great spiritual, ecclesial, and social significance in the life of the Church." The concept of "Jubilee" has its origins in the Book of Leviticus (chapter 25) as a special year of reconciliation, pilgrimage, and coming ...
Let's be clear: the Irish didn't starve because they ignored fish. They starved because they were denied access to the means to survive—by poverty, by policy, and by prejudice. Ireland is an island surrounded by some of the richest fishing grounds in Europe. But presence does not translate to access.
Although some believed the myth that Queen Victoria (known in Ireland in later decades as the "Famine Queen") had only donated a miserly £5 to famine relief, in fact the sum was £2,000, the equivalent of between £217,000 and £8,120,000 in 2022, from her personal resources.
Initial limited but constructive government actions to alleviate famine distress were ended by a new Whig administration in London, which pursued a laissez-faire economic doctrine, but also because some assumed that the famine was divine judgement or that the Irish lacked moral character, with aid only resuming to some ...
They were also found to have most similarity to two main ancestral sources: a 'Northwestern France' component which reached highest levels in the Irish and other Celtic populations (Welsh, Highland Scots and Cornish); and a 'West Norway' component related to the Viking era.
Ill will toward Irish immigrants because of their poor living conditions, and their willingness to work for low wages was often exacerbated by religious conflict. Centuries of tension between Protestants and Catholics found their way into United States cities and verbal attacks often led to mob violence.
1 Murphy 2 Kelly 97, O'Kelly 3 3 Walsh 94, Walshe 6 4 O'Connor 89, Connor 9, Connors 2 5 O'Sullivan 89, Sullivan 11 6 Byrne 95, O'Byrne 5 7 O'Brien 98, Brien 2 8 Ryan 9 Smith 52, Smyth 48 10 O'Neill 92, Neill 8 11 O'Reilly 61, Reilly 39 12 M(a)cCarthy 97, Carthy 3 13 Doyle 14 Brown 56, Browne 44 15 Murray 16 Doherty 85 ...