How did the Irish survive the potato famine?

Between 1845 and 1852, Ireland suffered a period known within the country as the Great Famine or Great Hunger but known to people outside Ireland as the Irish potato famine. During this time, around 1 million people lost their lives, and at least a further 1 million more emigrated to other countries, mostly to the east coast of America on the boats that quickly became known as coffin ships.

(A memorial in Dublin to those who starved to death in the Great Hunger)

How did the famine happen?

The local population relied almost entirely on potatoes for food, and the average working adult male would eat around 14 pounds per day, which is over 6kg. Potatoes were easy to farm and grew everywhere, and since their arrival in the early 1600s, they quickly became a national favorite.

(an example of potato blight, even though it may look ok-ish to a starving person, it will make anyone who eats it very ill)

In 1845 a crop disease hit that is known simply as potato blight. It is a type of water-based mold that can spread rapidly to surround plants and water systems, and when it infects a potato it is impossible to remove. The inside of each potato will turn to mush and smell horrible, and anyone desperate enough to try and eat one will quickly regret it when the sickness sets in.

Why did they rely so heavily on potatoes?

Throughout most of the early 1800s, the Irish would grow crops for the owners of the land, which unfortunately was the English who weren’t exactly kind to the local population. To live on the land, they had to pay taxes to the landlord, which most of them couldn’t afford and so did what poor people have done for centuries, which is pay with labor. The landlords expected a certain amount of grain to be grown and shipped back to England, and doing this meant a huge amount of work for the locals.

(an illustration of soldiers throwing people out of their homes, and destroying them so they couldn’t come back, a common thing to happen for the thousands who couldn’t afford their rent)

Grain took a very long time to harvest and process which meant they had to work full-time on the landlord’s fields, this left them with little time for their crops. Potatoes produce more food in terms of weight for the amount of space they take up and are much easier to grow than many other crops. This was why people relied so heavily on them and also didn’t want any grain they grew to be taken as part of the landlord’s taxes.

What about the other crops?

The problem with the other crops is that they were mostly owned by the English landlords, as were the animals. The landlords simply didn’t care about the troubles of people they never saw in another country, and ordered their cash crops to be exported as normal instead of feeding the starving locals. Some people did own their cows or pigs, but these were sold at the market to provide enough money to last for several months instead of having a huge amount of meat all at once they had no way of preserving.

Fishing wasn’t an option for most people, even those close to the coast couldn’t catch enough to feed themselves properly. There simply wasn’t any land to grow on that wasn’t owned by someone, and many crops weren’t available for the locals to grow, and even if they were they wouldn’t provide as much as potatoes.

When did the deaths begin?

The first year was bad, but nothing compared to what followed. In the first year, people had animals or possessions to sell and were still in well enough shape to work the few jobs available. After the first year, people started to die in mass, with over 200,000 deaths in the second year. The British government responded to this by sending tens of thousands of troops to Ireland to “make sure” that the food grown on a landlord’s property was exported back to the landlord in England.

(public announcements made it very clear that people still owed labor for their rent, and what would happen if they didn’t pay up)

Anyone caught stealing the smallest amount of food was severely punished, and anyone who couldn’t pay their taxes was thrown out of their homes, which were often burned or torn down to stop them from coming back. People would work in the landlord’s fields in exchange for their rent, but wouldn’t receive any additional payment. With their own food source now rotting away, and no money to buy more, they had little choice but to starve or leave.

How many people died in the Irish potato famine?

At the time of its beginning at the start of 1845, there were an estimated 8.5 million people in Ireland. By the time it ended in 1852, around 2.5 million people were no longer in the country, either due to death or emigration. Most estimates put about 1 million people dying from starvation, 1 million emigrating and the additional 500,000 are in one of these two groups. Many people were undocumented or just left without telling anyone, which makes it difficult to get an accurate number. Also, the deaths were often unrecorded and people were often buried close to where they died with no one knowing but the people who buried them.

When did the Irish famine end?

Officially it ended in 1852, which was the first year since the blight began that people were able to plant a successful potato crop. Additional food was finally being supplied by the British out of desperation, and the country was finally able to feed itself again.

During the first few years of the famine, Ireland was producing enough food to feed over 15 million people, which was almost twice its own population, but almost all of this belonged to the landlords. In 1849, after so many people had died and left, the British started to distribute some of the food grown in Ireland to its own people. This slowed down the deaths but it took another 3 years for the blight to leave and to stabilise the mortality rate.

So how did the Irish survive the potato famine?

The short answer would be to get lucky and be in the right place. There were certain areas that grew a few other crops or they could fish or hunt, and any way of making money meant someone could potentially eat. The worst hit was the farming communities and anyone who had to work in someone else’s field, but many people still had paying jobs in warehouses and factories, and this pay, however small it was, could still buy enough food to survive.

(a drawing of a coffin ship. If one person was sick with something contagious, it didn’t take long before everyone had it, and there was nowhere to escape to)

Emigrating to America was an option but this was costly and very high risk, with the boats that took people across being named coffin ships for a reason. So many people would die on these ships from starvation or disease that it often wasn’t worth the risk. The voyage would take around 8 to 10 weeks from southern Ireland to New York, which is a long time to be stuck in a confined space with someone who has a terminal disease.