Ireland's Great Famine 1845-1849
Introduction
Few topics of Irish history have attracted as much popular
interest as the Great Famine of 1845 to 1849. Wherever the Irish
diaspora reached, the Famine is never far beneath the surface. Over
the years, various people have argued that the famine had a single
cause: whether that be a Malthusian overpopulation by the Irish
working class or a genocide by the government. However these
approaches over-simplify the fact that there are few topics of Irish
history with a more fundamentally multidisciplinary cause as the
Great Famine. A full understanding of the causes and consequences of
the Famine requires a study of political science, economics,
demography, dietary science, sociology and agriculture. Research is
made all the more difficult (or colourful, depending on your
viewpoint) by the lack of reliable statistics from the era.
It is worth quoting the foreword to the 1956 book "The Great
Famine: Studies in Irish History 1845-52" (Dudley-Edwards and
Williams) which was written to commemorate the centenary of the
Famine.
"It is difficult to know how many men and women died in
Ireland in the famine years between 1845 and 1852. Perhaps all that
matters is the certainty that many, very many died. The Great Famine
was not the first nor the last period of acute distress in Irish
history. The Great Famine may be seen as but a period of greater
misery in a prolonged age of suffering, but it has left an enduring
mark on the folk memory because of its duration and severity. The
famine is seen as the source of many woes, the symbol of the
exploitation of a whole nation by its oppressors. If only because of
its importance in the shaping of Irish national thought, the famine
deserves examination. But it was much more than a mere symbol. The
economic and social influences of the famine were considerable; many
of the most persistent trends in modern Irish life emerge with the
famine, while the years of distress also saw the end of a phase in
the agitation for national self-government. In Irish social and
political history the famine was very much of a watershed. The
Ireland on the other side of those dark days is a difficult world
for us to understand, the Ireland that emerged we recognise as one
with problems akin to our own."
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Conditions
→ The
Famine
→ Effects
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