Why did famine occur in Ireland?

In examining this question, the following facts should be considered:

• The potato blight spread from North America and affected most countries in Europe, but elsewhere farmers could produce alternative foods.
• This was the worst of a series of famines that had hit Ireland since the 1820s.
• The population had grown rapidly since the 1780s to reach over 8 million in 1845: nearly 3 million more than live on the island today.
• People married early and had large families.
• As the population had grown, farms had been subdivided again and again to the point where some families were living on only half an acre of land.
• By 1845 around 3 million people depended on the potato crop for food.
• Many farmers were too poor to buy food when the potato failed.
• Over 90% of the land was owned by a small class of landlords.
• Tenants, outside Ulster, had no protection against their landlords evicting them.

Concluding Activity

Natural disaster or man-made tragedy?

Consider whether each of the bullet points listed above suggests that the famine was a natural or a man-made event.

Question 2

Did the British do enough?

In examining this question, the following facts should be considered:

• At the outbreak of the famine, Peel acted promptly by importing £100,000 of Indian corn to Ireland.
• This helped keep food prices down, but it was very different from the usual diet and difficult to cook.
• Throughout the famine, food was plentiful and was exported to England, but the poor had no money to buy it.
• In Ulster , where tenants had other activities to fall back on, the famine was severe but not as bad as in the south and west.
• Public works projects helped some, but often the schemes set up involved useless work such as lowering hills.
• As demand increased, payment from public works often fell into arrears.
• When the Liberals came to power they followed a popular belief of the day (‘ laissez faire’) that governments should not intervene in economic matters, nor subsidise the poor.
• For this reason Charles Trevelyan cut back on public works when he felt the poor were becoming too dependent on them.
• In working-class areas of England the government also resisted demands that they should take measures to improve the conditions of factory workers.
• Workhouses were suitable for the conditions in England, but not for those in Ireland during the famine.
• In overcrowded workhouses, disease spread rapidly.
• Once introduced, the Soup Kitchens Act of 1847 did much to alleviate distress and help recovery.
• In the 1840s the English press often displayed prejudice towards the Irish.
• Queen Victoria gave £100,000 of her own money to famine relief, and considerable charity was received from other British sources.
• In the mid-nineteenth century communications were difficult, even between Ireland and London.

Concluding Activity

What reasons might (a) a British civil servant and (b) a Young Ireland nationalist have given for the distress experienced in Ireland in the spring of ‘Black 47’?

Question 3

How did the famine change attitudes?

In examining this question, the following facts should be considered:

• For those living through the famine, help from the government seemed too little, too late.
• The events of 1845—9 made a deep impact on the Irish. Descriptions of its horrors were passed on from generation to generation.
• People were determined that it should not happen again. Farms became larger; people married later; and people began to look to Irish politicians to fight to improve their situation.
• Improved conditions after the famine allowed people more freedom to become involved in politics.
• The landlord was often a hated figure in the Irish countryside.
• Emigrants to America came to believe that the British were responsible for the horrors of the famine.
• The poor condition of Irish emigrants when they arrived in the cities of Britain or America created an ill feeling against them which persisted long afterwards.

Concluding Activity

Even 150 years after the Great Famine, historians and politicians still argue over its causes.

Examine these statements:

• The Famine was a deliberate attempt by the British Government to wipe out the Irish people.
• The Government and landlords failed to protect the people.
• The Famine was a huge natural disaster brought about by a set of circumstances for which no-one could be blamed.
• The Irish peasants helped bring the disaster upon themselves.

Discuss the strengths and weaknesses of each of these statements.

Produce four statements of your own on the causes of the Famine.