A Timeline Of The Potato Famine That Changed Ireland Forever

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In a bizarre twist, our islands population is expected to reach pre-famine levels by the end of 2020

👍︎︎ 4 👤︎︎ u/MonkeyOnYourMomsBack 📅︎︎ Jan 15 2020 🗫︎ replies
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In 1845, Ireland's potato crop was devastated by an unknown disease. The resulting food shortage would spiral into a human rights disaster that lasted years and took the lives of over one million people. Fearing their homeland would never recover from what was being called the Great Hunger, millions of Irish immigrants fled to the United States. It forever changed both countries and the whole world. Today, we're going to lay out a timeline of the Potato Famine that changed Ireland forever. But before we get started, be sure to subscribe to the Weird History Channel. Oh, and if it's not too much ask, once you've done that, leave a comment and let us know what topics you would like to hear about. OK. So let's see how it all went down. Although the two are frequently associated, potatoes are not native to Ireland. And you might be surprised to learn that it wasn't until 1589 that Sir Walter Raleigh introduced the potato to the Irish. It was unpopular at first, but farmers and botanists eventually managed to breed a species that was heartier and more nutritious and tasted a lot better. The Irish eventually embraced these modified potatoes and they became especially popular in impoverished communities. Over the centuries, Ireland became increasingly dependent on the pomme de terre, a fact that would put them on the brink of disaster by the 19th century. In 1844, across the world, in Toluca Valley, Mexico, a new fungus emerged and began infecting potato crops still in the ground, rendering them inedible. This blight, which would come to be called phytophthora infestans, or P infestans, quickly spread throughout the North American continent. Entire potato harvests were ruined. But Americans bred a wide variety of diverse crops. So they weren't impacted as badly as the Irish would be in 1845, when the blight arrived on their shores. Blights had happened in Ireland before. Those previous experiences cost scientists to initially misidentify the cause of the crop failure as an overly damp summer season, a not uncommon condition they called wet rot. When crops all across Europe began to similarly fail, it became apparent that something much more serious was going on. Scientists issued warnings. But just like in every disaster movie you've ever seen, those warnings were promptly ignored. When the crops first failed, those reports were also ignored. In fact, rather than take decisive action to alleviate the problem, then prime minister Robert Peel instead warned his cabinet that the Irish were prone to exaggerating. The British government would remain skeptical about the crisis, even much later when people perishing by the hundreds of thousands. Once Robert Peel did decide to take some action, he immediately ran into a problem. Fighting the famine would require importing large quantities of American grain. However, imports were heavily restricted by a body of legislation known as Corn Laws. The prime minister attempted to repeal the law. But isolationist elements in the Whig party blocked his efforts. In early 1846, as the first reports of casualties were being recorded, Peel created a public works program with the purpose of giving impoverished Irish citizens a chance to find employment, so they could buy food. Unfortunately, the program would be short lived. Peel lost the next election to a Whig lord named John Russell. Lord Russell had very different ideas about how Ireland's problems should be dealt with. The newly elected prime minister entrusted the Irish relief efforts to a man who would go on to become one of the most despised and controversial figures in the history of Ireland, Charles Trevelyan. Trevelyan had served as the Assistant Secretary to the Treasury for years under Peel. However, his personal views were much closer to those of Lord Russell. Both men subscribed to the then fashionable economic theory of laissez faire economics. That is they believed the free market would sort the problem out, so long as the government didn't interfere, which some might consider a surprising outlook for the person in charge of leading government relief efforts. Even worse, Trevelyan was straight up intolerant of the Irish people. "The judgment of God sent the calamity to teach the Irish a lesson. That calamity must not be too much mitigated. The real evil with which we have to contend is not the physical evil of the famine, but the moral evil of the selfish, perverse, and turbulent character of the people." From here, things only got worse for the Irish. As if things weren't bleak enough already, the crop of 1846 failed just as the previous one had. With no increased response from the British government, the situation became desperate. A land agent traveling Ireland at the time wrote, "the leaves of the potatoes on many fields I passed were quite withered and a strange stench, such as I had never smelt before, but which became a well-known feature, for years after, filled the atmosphere adjoining each field of potatoes. The crop of all crops, on which they depended for food, had suddenly melted away." The few meager relief programs were overwhelmed by millions of applicants. Evictions soared and a cold winter was on the way. One of the few organizations that did try and bring some measure of relief to Ireland was the Society of Friends, also known as the Quakers. The Quakers acted much as today's Salvation Army does, soliciting donations from the wealthy and collecting clothing for the poor. After about a year, when it became apparent how long the famine would last, the Quakers found their donations were drying up. They considered their operation a failure at the time. But history would vindicate their efforts, as thousands of people survived thanks to their program. Nonetheless, by this point, government neglect had left the problem too big for a charity to deal with. So you're probably asking yourself, if growing different crops mitigated the effects of the potato blight in the Americas, why didn't the Irish just grow different crops? In fact, Ireland was successfully producing all sorts of other grain crops, along with meat and dairy. So how could the people be starving? The landowner sold those other crops to people in Britain. Almost none were ultimately consumed in Ireland. As one politician said of the situation, "the circumstances which appeared most aggravating was that the people were starving in the midst of plenty and that every tide carried from the Irish ports corn sufficient for the maintenance of thousands of the Irish people." By 1847, the situation in Ireland had become a nightmare. After visiting the rural Western town of Skibbereen and neighboring Bridgetown, London News journalist James Mahoney wrote, "not a single house out of 500 could boast of being free from hunger and fever, though several could be pointed out with the lifeless lying close to the living for the space of three or four, even six days without any effort being made to remove the bodies to a last resting place." In yet another town he witnessed, "a woman carrying in her arms the lifeless body of a fine child and making the most distressing appeal to the passengers for aid to enable her to purchase a coffin and bury her dear little baby. This horrible spectacle induced me to make some inquiry about her, when I learned from the people of the hotel that each day brings dozens of such applicants into the town." Peel's public works program didn't fare well under the administration of Charles Trevelyan. Workers would put in long days for insufficient pay. Then, in March of 1847, Trevelyan ended the program entirely. He opted instead for a system of soup kitchens that would simply distribute food for free. Unfortunately, the British government refused to meaningfully back the program and the kitchens quickly found themselves overwhelmed. Reports indicate that, in some cases, a single kitchen would be responsible for the impossible task of feeding 10,000 people. Exacerbating the problem was the fact that the soup itself was a watery paste, made from corn meal and rice and it was served in portions too small for even a child. Needless to say, the hunger grew worse. And the year 1847 got so bad, it would become forever known as Black '47. Things were bad. And many could not even pay their own rent. Landlords who knew they could use their valuable real estate to raise livestock or profitable crops were eager to evict tenants. More chillingly, some landlords were so eager to get rid of their tenants, they would offer to pay for their passage to America. The impoverished tenants would then be placed on ships that were overcrowded and rife with ailments, like dysentery, typhus, and all manner of infectious disease. These vessels quickly earned the name Coffin Ships. When the Coffin Ships reached their destinations, they would drop off the sick passengers to perish on the streets of the new world. The landlords never had to worry about recriminations or consequences of any kind, since their victims were unable to return to Ireland and seek restitution. For the most desperate people, there was always the option to check into a public workhouse. Though they had existed in Ireland since the 1830s, the workhouses were ill-equipped to deal with the numbers of impoverished people created by the famine. Most were overcrowded, cruel, prison-like places that separated families, imposed draconian rules, and spread disease among its population. It is said that the workhouses were so bad, many people literally preferred going to prison instead. Inspired by uprisings in Paris, Irish nationalist sentiment began to take root. While the famine dragged on, an independence movement that called itself the Young Irelanders, spread throughout the country. Led by a politician named William Smith O'Brien, the Young Irelanders built their followers from the starving masses and preached rebellion. In July of 1848, the group exchanged fire with the police and were quickly dispersed. While they didn't really make much of a difference at the time, the movement created crucial links between figures who would go on to play important roles in the fight for Irish independence later in the century. That great hunger lasted years. And the British government never changed its policies. So what finally ended it? Well, the Irish did improve the crop yields over time and their economy did slowly adapt. But the real answer is far grimmer. The game changer was the significantly decreased population. So many had died or emigrated by 1852 that the food supply became adequate again. To underscore this point. In 1841, the population of Ireland was about 8 million people. 10 years later, that number sank to 6.5 million. By the end of the century, 1.5 million perished, 2 million had fled, and the population of Ireland had dwindled to a mere 4.5 million people. In the year 1853, 43% of all immigrants to the United States were Irish. With significant religious differences between the mostly Catholic Irish and the mostly Protestant Americans, the new arrivals were faced with legal oppression, economic hostility, and widespread anti-Irish sentiment. Famously, job ads at the time often included the warning, "No Irish Need Apply." It would take decades for the Irish to overcome this initial resistance. But in time, they integrated themselves into all aspects of American life. Today, Irish people are accepted as important parts of American culture. In 1999, Prime Minister Tony Blair acknowledged Great Britain's role in the great famine and apologized to the Irish people, writing, "the famine was a defining event in the history of Ireland and Britain. It has left deep scars. That one million people should've perished in what was then part of the richest and most powerful nation in the world is something that still causes pain as we reflect on it today. Those who governed in London at the time failed their people." So what do you think about the plight of the Irish? Let us know in the comments below. And while you're at it, check out some of these other videos from our Weird History.
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Channel: Weird History
Views: 1,186,300
Rating: 4.8998098 out of 5
Keywords: Irish Potato Famine, Timeline of the Irish Potato Famine, Facts about the Irish Potato Famine, Potato Famine history, Weird History, The Blight, Irish Potato Famine Summary, potato crop failure, Irish History, The Quakers, Black ‘47, irish potato famine summary, potato famine causes, potato famine timeline, potato famine immigration, potato blight, famines, ireland history, ireland famine, european history, history.com, simple history, extra credits, encyclopedia britanica
Id: f2zklucyTFU
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Length: 11min 19sec (679 seconds)
Published: Wed Jan 15 2020
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