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When the Potatoes failed in Ireland in 1846 it was thought that a fog had killed them. The blight had first appeared in June and by the end of July the crop was destroyed, a putrid black mess that smelled like sulfur. The disease is now known as phytophthora infestans a fungus that actually had come from America. The rot happened almost literaly over night. A man would go to bed with lush green Fields and wake the next morning with rotted crops.Millions fled in the subsequent immigration to America and Canada. Some went to New york and Boston others to New Orleans, they came over on what came to be known as Coffin ships because of the mortality rate suffered during the crossing.The sad thing is, is that the famine was manufactured by greed. though the crop had failed, the English were still exporting out of Ireland cattle, pigs, flour, butter, eggs, poultry among other things, more then enough to stave off starvation. The famine lasted from 1846 to 1851, during that time more then 1 million left Ireland, including the Kennedy's and Henry Ford who was just a child at the time. 2 million died of starvation and disease. For the last year and a half I have been researching the famine, it's effect on Ireland and the subsequent mass immigration for an historican novel that I am currently writing. I just thought I'd share some of what I have learned.
During this time, wealthy Protestants offered starving Irish Catholics a deal: we'll give you food if you convert to the Protestant faith. Accepting this offer was known as “taking the soup”. From what I understand, doing this gave one the reputation of being a traitor. The Little Ice Age that affected Europe from the 15th to 19th Centuries had some influence on the potato blight. I don't recall from the show I watched whether it was simply a case cooler weather being more conducive to the blight or not.If you have seen Gangs of New York you know how the Irish lived when they arrived in America from their homeland. Some of my ancestors were in the group of Irish immigrants who settled in New York, though I believe they came during one of the later waves later in the 19th Century.It's interesting that you're writing an historical novel. You'll have to keep us posted on how it goes.
The year 1846 was a bad one weather wise and some say it did help the blight spread. But the original disease came over on infected cargo from America.For 700 years the Irish gradually became a nation of tenants in their own country. There land taken by the English. When two thirds of a population of 8 million depend on agriculture for survival it was no wonder when the crop failed that Ireland failed. They didn't even own the land they were on, they couldn't pay the rent and they were evicted.The sad thing about the eviction process was that when they came to remove them, they would pull down the houses and any of their neighbors who took pity on them and took them in would be subject to punishment by law.The Irish to this day harbor very bad feelings over the treatment of their ancestors, some Historians even resorting to the word genocide.
One heart warming incident from the famine: A group of Choctaw indians in Oklahoma, just 16 years after walking the trail of tears, heard about the famine and even though extremly poor, they took up a collection and sent $710 dollars to Ireland for famine relief.
Stumpfoot, this is a very interesting discussion. I was just looking ahead in my book and started reading about this. A lot worse than I thought. Did you write anymore about it?
The Irish to this day harbor very bad feelings over the treatment of their ancestors, some Historians even resorting to the word genocide.
It was definitely complete government incompetence.
Did you know there was a second, although not as severe, famine after this in Ireland in 1879? By his actions and criticism of Britain's handling of this and the Great Famine, Charles Stewart Parnell came into power and garnered much public and political support for Irish Home Rule.
Ski, I never knew about the second potato famine. Sometimes, I believe I learn more from this forum than class…
That may have been the time when my Irish ancestors came to the U.S. I believe it was my great grandparents on my mother's side that came from Ireland and settled in New York. I'm not sure they were victims of starvation but the timing of 1880s sounds about right.
They were from the southwestern part, not far from Cork. There was a small town called “Shanagolden” that my ancestors were from, and I had the opportunity to visit the place in the 1990s with my father and brothers. We didn't find much in terms of family history at the cemetery, but we did find our way to the pub and some friendly locals…I believe one of them showed us the way to the cemetery and helped us look for the family name.
Dad's side was from County Antrim…Mom's side from County Cork…IIRC the ancestors arrived here in the early 1880'sThe old-timers on both sides never had much use for the British from what I was told
Dad's side was from County Antrim...Mom's side from County Cork...IIRC the ancestors arrived here in the early 1880's
Hey, maybe we're cousins. ;D
The sad thing is, is that the famine was manufactured by greed. though the crop had failed, the English were still exporting out of Ireland cattle, pigs, flour, butter, eggs, poultry among other things, more then enough to stave off starvation.
Food was being exported out of Ireland to make money, surely, in quite the normal way, since it was part of the capitalist system. Were you expecting 'the English' to impose socialism all of a sudden? Could the produce of the strong farmers have been somehow confiscated? These were the days when unemployment relief in the UK was given in workhouses where conditions were deliberately made more unpleasant than those in any job, so as to prevent idleness and save on the rates - what the American governmment would, doubtless, call 'tough love'. They did their shambling best, probably: people live in their own times, not other people's.
Food was being exported out of Ireland to make money
Yeah, to make money for the British, not the Irish. The Irish were basically British serfs. Their farms were no longer their own, Britain claimed ownership and stole them.
But, in reality, the operations and the motives in both cases were, and are, something quite different ? namely, the persecution and terrorism of the unarmed population, and the attempt by economic destruction, famine, and violence, to `make an appropriate hell' in Ireland, in the hope of breaking up the organised National Government and undermining the loyalty of the people.
Michael Collins, A Path to Freedom, pg. 15LinkNow this could be taken with a grain of salt because it did come from the Irish Revolutionary leader himself who wrote these words trying to stir up Irish nationalism, but I seriously doubt Collins would make false accusations like this.
