Menu

An Gorta Mór: Irish Potato Famine

The Great Hunger 1840’s – 1850’s

Menu

Some Political Background of BritainParliament: Had been a developing institution in England since the 12th Century. After the English Civil War in the 17th Century, it was the Legislative & Executive basis of a constitutional monarchy.

House of Commons (Lower House): In 1800 there were 465 Members of Parliament (MPs) from England, 48 from Wales, 45 from Scotland and 100 from Ireland. Responsible for all financial bills.

House of Lords (Upper House): Made up of the Lords Spiritual (two Archbishops, 24 Diocesan Bishops) and the Lords Temporal which were divided into three groups: hereditary peers, granted peers granted peerages, and the Law Lords, who were recruited from the ranks of Britain's High Court Judges. House of Review

Menu

English Political Parties at the Time

Whigs—first formed in 17th Century & by 19th Century favoured reformLiberals—Uncomfortable with aristocratic origins of Whigs, many Whigs started to refer to themselves as Liberals, a term that became official after 1868.

Tories—tended to favour traditional political structures and opposed parliamentary reformConservative—What Tories started to call themselves after 1824-1834

Chartists-The London Workingman’s Association drew up a charter of radical political demands in 1836 and became known as the Chartists.

Labour Based Parties—Started to become a major force after 1867 Reform Act. Included Fabian Society, Independent Labour Party, Social Democratic Federation, who together became the Labour Party in 1906.

Menu

Introduction• The famine killed 1 million people and forced

another 1 million to leave Ireland.

• Most of the land in Ireland was owned by British landlords who rented it to Irish farmers for large amounts of money.

• One-fourth of the population could read and write.

• Most farms were 10 acres in size.

• What does this say about society?

Menu

Introduction (cont.)• 1 acre of land could yield 12 tons of potatoes (feeds

a family of 6 for one year).

• Most Irish farmers lived entirely on the potato.

• The potato was highly nutritious and actually kept the Irish peasants healthier than the peasants in England who ate only bread.

Menu

Ireland Before the Famine• 1695: Penal laws put in place to punish the Catholics for supporting

the Irish King James II (Catholic) over William of Orange (Protestant)

• 1798: Ireland tried to rebel against English rule, but the rebellion was crushed.

• Catholics could not vote, hold office, buy land, attend school, possess weapons, or practice their religion.

• Gaelic language was banned.• 80% of Ireland was Catholic.• In 1600, Protestants owned 10% of the land.• By 1778, Protestants owned 95% of the land because of the Penal

Laws. (Penal laws reverse with Catholic Emancipation) • Irish population had reached 8 million.• 1838: Poor Law – created Workhouses.

Menu

Before the Famine (cont.)

• Workhouses split up the families and put everyone in the family on hard labor, prison-like conditions.

• 2.4 million Irish (1/4 of the population) were living in complete poverty.

• Irish begin leaving for North America, where they will assist in massive hard-labor construction projects (hand digging the Erie Canal!) for $1 per day.

Menu

• The French sociologist, Gustave de Beaumont, visited Ireland in 1835 and wrote: "I have seen the Indian in his forests, and the Negro in his chains, and thought, as I contemplated their pitiable condition, that I saw the very extreme of human wretchedness; but I did not then know the condition of unfortunate Ireland...In all countries, more or less, paupers may be discovered; but an entire nation of paupers is what was never seen until it was shown in Ireland."

Menu

Potatoes • With the population in Ireland growing at such a fast rate

from 1800 – 1841, people needed to depend more and more on the potato. (The population had increased by 3 million in just 40 years!) Imported from America – it was easy to grow and provided all the nutrients needed for life in Ireland. John Keating wrote that “ Labourers, cottiers, smallholders and their families depended almost exclusively on the potato as a source of food. Individuals consumed large amounts by today’s standards (around 6.4 kg per day!)

Menu

Huge DivideThe famine and its aftermath showed the huge gulf that lay between Ireland, largely inhabited by a poverty-stricken population living constantly on the edge, with no rights of land ownership, and the UK of which it was supposed to be a part. Britain had a rapidly changing society, with its growing industrial might and its developing cities.

Menu

Corn LawsBritain imported wheat.

First Corn Law instituted in 1804, at behest of wealthy landowners who dominated Parliament. Required a duty to be paid on imported wheat (or more generally “corn” or cereal) products.

Napoleon’s Continental System drastically cut imported wheat, leading to increased food prices and increased land brought under farming.

After the War in 1815, farmers feared that prices would greatly fall This fear was justified and the price of corn reached fell from 126s. 6d. a quarter in 1812 to 65s. 7d. three years later.

Menu

Corn Laws Continued…Following pressure from landowners, Parliament passed a law that allowed the import of foreign wheat free of taxes or duty only when the domestic price reached 80 shillings per quarter (8 bushels).

The corn laws were hated by average workers who saw it as the reason why they paid so much for bread. Bad harvests and higher prices led to industrial unrest including strikes and food riots, as workers demanded higher pay.

Menu

Anti - Corn Law League• Goal was to repeal corn laws

– lower food prices– increase jobs

• Led by Cobden and Bright• Prime Minster Robert Peel lends

his support• 1845 Famine breaks out in

Ireland• 1846 Parliament repeals the

Corn Laws

Richard Cobden

John Bright

Robert Peel

Menu

Economic Liberalism

• The case against government interference enhanced by Thomas Malthus– Wrote, “Essay on the Principles of Population”

• Unchecked population increases at fast rate while food supply increases at slow rate causing untold harm/starvation

• Nature imposes restraints to slow population, e.g. poverty, exposure to seasons, unwholesome occupations, epidemics, plagues, etc. No government should interfere with this natural process

Menu

The Blight Begins• 1845 Potato plants suddenly turned black and curled, then

rotted.• Fungal spores spread across the United Kingdom in one

month, destroying both the leaves and the potatoes underground.

• It was like a fog that had drifted through the air.• It was a fungus carried by ships going back and forth from

America.

Menu

The British Are Not So Helpful • The British continue to IMPORT wheat, barley, oats

and oatmeal from Irish farmers.• The Irish had to sell the grain for cash to avoid being

evicted from their homes even though they needed the food as much as anything.

• Irish sold off livestock, hoping to get through the year. The crop had never failed two years in a row.

• Some Irish borrowed money at high interest from British money-lenders, hoping to stay in their homes and recover the following year.

• Not only did the potato crop fail the NEXT year as well, it failed for the next three years. Ireland would be nearly ruined.

Menu

Why Didn’t They Help• 1. The British landowners with vested Irish interests stifled various

Government plans due to fears of their estates being burdened with extra taxation.

• 2. Ministers believed that Irish Landlords were largely responsible for the disaster that was unfolding in Ireland. Due to their indifference to their estates in Ireland and their tenants, Ministers would only turn to central Government when local authority resources were exhausted. They felt that Irish property owners should pay for Irish poverty.

• 3. There was a belief that the potato blight, which caused the Irish Potato Famine, was an opportunity to reform and change Irish agriculture. They also felt that by clearing away surplus population, a smaller, more prosperous class of farmers could be securely employed in the agricultural industry. With this viewpoint, the British Government felt that too much relief would only draw out the inevitable for all concerned.

Menu

The Famine (Roisin Hambly)In the Spring of ’45I planted my potato crop,But when I dug them up in WinterThey were black and brown from rot.

There were seven in my family,Four children under five,I had to find some food for them,To keep them all alive.

It wasn’t too bad to start with,But by Autumn ’47,Two members of my familyHad died and gone to Heaven.

That Winter it was long and coldAnd every thing was bare,Then when my lovely wife passed onI thought it so unfair.

My family were now so thin,Their faces were so hollowThey decided to emigrateBut foolishly I didn’t follow.

I saw a soldier selling corn,No one was around,I took this opportunityTo knock him to the ground.

I robbed him of his food and moneyAnd quickly ran away,But sadly I was caught and killedAnd left there to decay.

Menu

Visual sources 1/5 Lesson 12

Menu

• "I ventured through that parish this day, to ascertain the condition of the inhabitants, and although a man not easily moved, I confess myself unmanned by the extent and intensity of suffering I witnessed, more especially among the women and little children, crowds of whom were to be seen scattered over the turnip fields, like a flock of famished crows, devouring the raw turnips, and mostly half naked, shivering in the snow and sleet, uttering exclamations of despair, whilst their children were screaming with hunger. I am a match for anything else I may meet with here, but this I cannot stand."- Captain Wynne, Inspecting Officer, West Clare, 1846

Menu

• Sir Charles Trevelyan takes over full control of the situation. (He was a Whig and believed in laissez faire)

• He closes the Corn Meal kitchens which we set up to keep the Irish from starving. He said it was to keep Ireland from being “too dependent on England.”

• British people who fed the Irish were rebuked for doing the “wrong thing.” Trevelyan told them that the Irish should “form a relief committee.”

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NLZRWNdGCUc

Menu

• A Catholic priest named Father Matthew wrote to Trevelyan: "In many places the wretched people were seated on the fences of their decaying gardens, wringing their hands and wailing bitterly the destruction that had left them foodless."

Menu

• "Miss Kennedy distributing clothing at Kilrish," from The Illustrated London News, December 22, 1849

Menu

• The winter of 1846 – 47 was the coldest in Ireland in living memory and the worst on record. Normally, there is no snow. They got several feet of snow each month through the winter.

• Poverty in Ireland had always been helped by the mild climate and the availability of turf/peat for fires, but the cold now became intense, and people had no energy to cut turf.

• Many children were left in workhouses as families travelled to the new world. Many of these children did not survive.

Winter of 46-47

Menu

Bad to Worse• Those that died were buried inches beneath the

ground. Disease began to spread.

• Black Fever (spread by lice) and Typhus spread across Ireland.

• Now food became available for next to nothing, but because there was no money in Ireland, people continued to starve.

• British landlords began evicting the Irish farmers so that they could grow wheat.

Menu

Menu

Coffin Ships• Landlords began evicting penniless tenants and either

sent them to jail or sent them to Canada.• The ships were often overcrowded and not well built. • The 40 day journey often killed 1 in 5 passengers due to

disease and sickness.• The line of ships to get into port at Quebec was 2 miles

long and took 15 days to process.• Many dead were dumped into the St. Lawrence river

and others were piled like wood in mass graves.• The landlords’ promises that there would be someone in

Canada to help them were complete lies. They had said anything to get them out of Ireland and onto the ships.

• 50,000 Irish walked from Canada to America. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vEz5mS_XQcQ

Menu

Menu

Fleeing

Menu

Financial Ruin

• June 8, 1847: British Parliament passed the Irish Poor Law Extension Act which put the entire cost of the famine relief on Ireland’s property owners.

• British Soup kitchens were now being shut down to encourage the Irish to fend for themselves.

• The British railway industry (unrelated to the potatoes) financially falls apart.

• 11 British banks completely fail. Bankruptcy occurs in hundreds of businesses.

• This means there will be no money from Britain to help the Irish.

• Trevelyan passed a law which required any landowner to give up their land in order to receive help.

• The Irish began to violently rebel against English authority.

Menu

Financial Ruin• Britain sent 15,000 soldiers to Ireland to reinforce their

authority. • 1848: Ireland begins to move for Revolution.• Britain sends MORE troops.• Laws were passed which would send anyone who spoke

against the British to jail for 14 years or more. • Fall 1848: The potato crop fails for the 3rd time.• Britain cuts off all help for Ireland.• Irish people begin deliberately committing crimes to be

sent to the prison colony in Australia were there was food.

• Thousands of Irish now begin boarding ships and leaving Ireland for America forever.

Menu

Deaths Per Year

• Deaths

• 1843 70,499

• 1844 75,055

• 1845 86,900

• 1846 122,899

• 1847 249,335

• 1848 208,252

• 1849 240,797

• 1850 164,093

• 1851 96,798

• 1852 80,112

Menu

After the Famine (cont.)

• In summary: 2,500,000 people were lost during the Famine (1/4 of Ireland’s population!)

• 1,000,000 left for other countries.

• 1,500,000 died.

• Total British expense for the famine: $7 million.

• Total Irish expense for the famine: $8.5 million.

• 40 million Americans have Irish ancestry.

Menu

Menu

• Wolf Tones http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ma55F-BzEyo

• Sinead O’Connor http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ZCe8Fw8vyM