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Irish Potato Famine

1845-1852

The Famine Memorial - Dublin

Corn Law

PM Peel

Workhouses

Encumbered Estates Act

Canada's acknowledgment

Peel’s Brimstone

Poor laws

The famine is an event in history that not only defined Ireland and Britain but also Canada. With the large emigration to Canada and the events of 1847 at Grosse-Ile, in 2022, Canadian government commemorated the 175th anniversary of Grosse-Ile to honor the memory of those that died there and those that took care of them. The Honorable Jean-Yves Duclos, Minister of Health and Member of Parliament for Quebec stated "Canadian history and heritage include significant incidents such as the Irish tragedy of 1847. It is important to commemorate these events, as we do today, so that present and future generations can learn more about them and understand how they contributed to the development of the Canada we know today."

(The Honorable Jean-Yves Duclos, (2022), as cited in Parks Canada, 2022)

Children in the workhouses

Export

1851

1849

1852

1850

1845

1846

1848

1847

Lord John Russel

Assisted passage

Government and ethics

Laissez-Faire

Lost language

Decrease of Irish population

Significant facts

Ireland's second Capital

Percent of population by county - a decrease of 30% in some parts of the country

https://www.wrhs.org/files/resources/map-of-ireland-during-potato-famine-population-decline.pdf

Emigration

Population of Ireland:

1841 - 6.53 million

1851 - 5.11 million (O'Neill, 2024)

'Coffin ships'

https://www.statista.com/statistics/1015403/total-population-republic-ireland-1821-2011/

Ireland in the 1800s

From 1801 to 1922, Ireland and Great Britain were part of the United Kingdom with Ireland governed by the UK parliament in London.

Britain was Protestant and Ireland was Catholic which created problems by itself. The monarch was head of the Church and still is to this day. The English government approach to the Irish was that they could never be as good as the British. The debate of providing free food to the irish during the Irish great famine, was "tinged by racism and class superiority" (Powderly, 2019 ) from the English, and they were seen as "defective". Much of the land in Ireland was owned by absentee landlords which did not help with the relationship between landlord and tenant and was mostly based on profit. This had a great impact during the Irish famine as landlords did not feel obligated towards their tenants. Absentee Landlords realized they could make more money from keeping cattle on the land than giving it to poor farmers which restricted the amount of land tenants had.

Potatoes were a popular crop as they grew in poor soil, and crops from a small piece of land could feed the farmer and his family. The potato became the poor main food and proved to be nutritious.

By the 1840s most of Ireland was reliant on growing potatoes for food.

In 1845 potato crops started to fail because of the Blight Disease affecting approximately half of the years crop. As Ireland was dependent on the potato crop, the country was in a crisis. Farmers could not feed their families and hunger and starvation was everywhere.

1845 Potato Famine

1845 Potato Famine

Unfortunately, even though the Irish people were starving, the British government continued to allow grain export from Ireland to Great Britain during the early years of the famine.

The exports was of grain, vegetables, pigs, meat and alcohol.

Export

A series of laws passed between 1815 and 1846, kept the price of grain very high. The law stated that no corn would be allowed into Britain until it reached 80 shillings per quarter. This was in order to keep the grain grown in the country in top price.

This law banned the import of cheap grain as to not compete with the grain harvested in the country. This law "imposed heavy duties on imported grain to ensure that it could never be cheaper than home-grown produce." (Powderly, 2019)

Corn Law

The English Prime Minister John Peel from 1841-1846, was aware of the Irish food shortage and attempted to remove the corn law, something that not all agreed with. Peel did the best he could to help the Irish people, he secretly ordered £100,000 of Maize to be imported from the United States to help food prices in Ireland stabilize. This maize was later nicknamed Peel’s Brimstone.

He attempted to repel the Corn law in 1845 but was unsuccessful as the government was divided on this and eventually, this led to the fall of Peels’ ministry.

Prime Minister Peel

Peel's Brimstone

Peel's Brimstone

A nickname given to the maize because of its bright yellow colour. PM Peel agreed on purchasing maize from the USA secretly in 1845 to try and help with the shortage of food but this did not arrive until early 1946.

Ireland in 1846

The famine continued and many people were starving and sick and to make matters worse, landlords evicted around half a million people to make room for their livestock. The cold winter increased the number of deaths and poor families had no crop to fall back onto as they were ridden with disease. Many who were evicted became homeless or moved into over crowded workhouses full of sick people. The workhouses provided a place to stay and minimal food in return for strenuous work and terrible conditions, many died from living there.

1846

Became Prime Minister in 1846 and resumed Peel’s policy with the Corn Laws but he took a more “Laissez-Faire” approach. This meant he did not get involved with the issue in Ireland and would let them figure things out independently.

His government did not stop the export of goods from Ireland and they debated if feeding the starving Irish would cause them to be dependent. There was no help at the time.

Lord John Russell

The Whig government lead by Lord John Russell policy of laissez-faire, stating that the government would not interfere with the economy trade affairs, and not try and regulate it. The thought was that the market would provide what was required for food and therefor and food or work relief was not required.

Laisse-Faire

Ireland's second capital

Many moved to Liverpool between 1845 and 1850 and so, Liverpool was known as ‘Ireland's second capital’.

Immigration to US, Canada and Australia

Many immigrated to the US, Canada and Australia to flee the famine and the terrible poverty they faced, hoping to build a better life. It was not an easy journey with many not making it over due to harsh travel conditions on the boats.

The conditions on the ships were very unsanitary, with no proper toilets and only seawater to bathe in, many caught diseases such as Cholera and Typhus, leading to an abundance of deaths on their travels. The ships were known as ‘Coffin Ships’ because of the amount of people that died at sea.

Coffin ships

Ireland in 1847

This year was called ‘Black 47’ as an estimated 1 million people died and another 1 million were forced to emigrate. The government opened up soup kitchens, with 1,850 soup kitchens set up across the nation. By August,3 million people were being fed every day (Kinealy, 2010), but they were discontinued 6 months later as they spread the disease of scurvy due to the lack of nutrition in the soup and the governments fear of the people becoming dependent on it.

Eviction rates were rising and people were in a worse state than the previous year. There were 100 reports a day of starvation deaths, plus 2700 deaths a week in the poor houses.

The continued famine increased the rate of emigration and in 1847, the Grosse-Île station - Canada's main quarantine immigration gateway, received nearly 100,000 immigrants while the average number of newcomers in previous years had been 25,000 to 30,000.

The vast majority of these immigrants were Irish (Parks Canada, 2022). The ships were full of diseased people and were forced to quarantine for weeks at a time. This year, "398 boats were inspected at Grosse-Ile and 441 were registered in Quebec" (Charbonneau, 1995). Many died at sea and "5,424 people were buried at Grosse-Ile." (Charbonneau, 1995).

Export continues, "Almost 4,000 vessels carried food from Ireland to the ports of Bristol, Glasgow, Liverpool, and London during 1847, when 400,000 Irish men, women, and children died of starvation and related diseases." (Powderly, 2019)

Ireland in 1847

The workhouses were part of the poor law system. It was believed to be an effective way to tackle poverty in Ireland. The conditions were terrible, often families were split up into different parts of the house, it was very strict and the food was lacking in variety and nutrition. They could only bathe once a week and would work 12-hour days.

Workhouses

The Poor Laws made sure that people without a home were put into workhouses with clothes and food, under the condition that they had to work for several hours a day.

Additional accommodations were made available in temporary buildings.

Food relief was also provided outside of workhouses to anyone unable to work, orphans and widows with children.

The government at this time also decided to move the responsibility of payment locally.

Poor Laws

1848

Ireland in 1848

This year in total, 1,433,042 people received outdoor relief, although by July the funds were almost completely gone and August 29th was the final day for the outdoor relief program. Outdoor relief was when the homeless received hot meals, blankets, and all the things necessary for a homeless person. To make matters worse, the outbreak of cholera claimed many lives in Ireland, it was first seen in seaports and many of the deceased were famine survivors.

In addition, the Young Ireland Rebellion took place in the village of Ballingarry. This rebellion was a failed nationalist uprising formed by O’Brien Smith and John Mitchell. They were annoyed with the British for not helping fast enough when news of the famine came out. The rebels took children hostage, and were armed with guns, eventually, the police outnumbered the rebels and they fled.

1848 events

- Famine continues

- Potato crop continues to fail

- Disease continues to spread increasing death toll

- People receiving outdoor relief

- Young Ireland rebellion

Events

1849

Hunger and disease continued to spread throughout Ireland. The blight continued to affect the crop and the winter was particularly hard one, which caused disease to spread along with tens of thousands of people dead. In August, Queen Victoria visited Ireland, this was her first visit since the beginning of the famine. This visit was intended to be “ a show of solidarity with her impoverished Irish subjects.” (Royal Museums Greenwhich, n.d.). The first port that she visited was the Port of Cobh, this was the main port of emigration. Her visit was popular with the Irish people. Cobh was re-named Queenstown after her visit.

Ireland in 1849

Encumbered estates Act

The encumbered Estate’s Act was established by the British Parliament to make the sale of Irish estates easier as those who lived in the estates could no longer meet their obligations because of the famine. Many of the new owners made the living conditions better, while others carried on evicting tenants or making their rent go up.

Encumbered Estates Act

Children in the workhouses

"In 1849, 923,000 were admitted to the workhouses" (Moran, 2021) including adults and children. Children entered the workhouses with their parents or as orphans, and sometimes, they were left behind when parents traveled abroad with the hope of making enough money to pay for their children's travel. Many suffered from disease and malnutrition, with some dying from dysentery. "Between 1849, over 20,000 females classified as ‘orphans’ and aged between fourteen and eighteen years, had their passage paid to the colonies, mainly Australia and Canada, where there were employment opportunities and a shortage of women for marriage." (Moran, 2021).

Children in the workhouses

Ireland in 1850

- 1 million people were receiving relief

- There was only a limited appearance of blight

- With nothing much left in Ireland, emigration continued with 95% going to America and Canada with many settling in the eastern states of America. Some landlords paid for tenants to emigrate. This was called an assisted passage.

Assisted Passage

Landlords paid for tenants to move overseas as it was cheaper than settling them elsewhere.

Assisted Passage

Ireland in 1851

A census was held in Ireland to show the full extent of the effects of the famine. In the previous census, the population was around 8.1 million but now it had fallen to 6.5 million people. The number of agricultural laborers faced a dramatic decline, and the ridding of smallholders freed up more land for sheep and cattle, providing food exports for Britain.

Ireland in 1852

Blight disease started to be less common but there was an immense amount of damage done in Ireland, people continued to leave Ireland long after the famine, and the Irish language began to fade. Many people were angry at the British government for not doing anything sooner, this anger lasted for a long time.

Government and ethics

During the famine, the Irish were expected to keep on exporting grain to England under Peel’s ministry. When Russel took over he continued with Government’s Corn Law policy, but he took a more laissez-faire approach, meaning that the British government would not interfere with the Irish economy, with the expectation that it would sort itself out. In addition, Charles Trevelyan - assistant secretary to the Treasury, added “The famine is a punishment from God for an idle, ungrateful, and rebellious country; an indolent and un-self-reliant people. The Irish are suffering from an affliction of God’s providence.” (Kirk, 2023) How was this ethical? The Irish had a food shortage and they were continuing to export food to England, furthermore, the government was no longer interfering with the economy, leaving them to fend for themselves. Was the government right to see this as a money-making opportunity rather than helping their neighboring country?

Government and ethics

Lost language

Lost language

Gaelic - the use of the spoken Irish language has decreased by 1851. During the famine it was estimated according to Falc’Her-Poyroux (2015) that 3-4 million people spoke the language. In 1845 the population of Ireland was 8.5 million while in 1851 it was 6.575 million In the 1851 Irish census, “over 300,000 persons were listed as speaking only Irish, and over a million and a half as speaking both Irish and English.” The number of people speaking Gaelic has reduced significantly after the famine concluding that “at least 1.5 million native speakers either emigrated or died in just a decade.” (Falc’Her-Poyroux. 2015)

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