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Transcript
The Great Famine
1845-48
Rural Ireland 1845
- Rapid population growth
- 8 million people
- Wealth inequality
Class Structure
Society
- Most land was owned by the Protestant Ascendancy, landlords often lived in England. They were known as absentee landlords.
- Large farmers rented over 30 acres of land and had two-story houses. They grew wheat and barley.
- Small farmers rented 5-15 acres and lived in one or two-roomed thatched cottages. They grew crops to pay rent and had a few animals but mostly lived on potatoes and milk.
- Cottiers were labourers who rented about an acre of land from a farmer. They used the land to grow potatoes and worked for someone else to pay rent. They depended completely on the potato. They lived in small one-roomed earthen and thatch cottages.
Causes of the Famine
Causes
- Ireland's population grew rapidly, as there was little industry all these people remained involved in agriculture.
- Subdivision of land meant that when a farmer died his land was divided among all his sons. Thus small farms got smaller.
- Small farmers and cottiers were almost completely dependent of the potato.
- The Blight arrived in Ireland in 1845 from North America and potatoes began to rot in the ground.
The Famine
- The Blight first struck in 1845, people began to starve from 1846.
- 1847 is known as Black 47 because of the massive death toll.
- Nealy all of the cottier class had either died or emmigrated.
The Famine
British Government Response
Government Response
- The Prime Minister Sir Robert Peel acted quickly and supplied Ireland with cheap corn, it was however difficult to cook and was nicknamed Peel's Brimstone.
- Peel also set up the Public Works Scheme which provided work building roads and piers in exchange for pay.
- Peel was replaced as PM by Lord John Russel who believed that governments should not interfere in economics (laissez-faire politics). This slowed relief works.
- The Quakers set up soup kitchens and then the government followed suit, however in 1847 they were closed and people had to go to the workhouses to get food.
Workhouses & disease
- Workhouses existed before the famine to help the poorest people but they were greatly expanded durign the famine.
- Families were split up in the workhouses and disease spread quickly in the cramped conditions.
- Soup kitchens opened again when the workhouses were full (at double their capacity).
- Typhus and Yellow Fever spread as people became weak from hunger.
- Diseases killed more people than starvation.
Consequences
The Consequences
- 1 million people died from starvation and illness.
- Subdivision of land ended, making farming more sustainable.
- People continued to emmigrate to Britain, America and Australia to find work until the 1990s.
- The worst effected areas were mostly Irish speaking, the massive population decline and the importance of English for emmigrants caused the language to decline.
- Many Irish people became angry due to Britain's unhelpful response to the crisis.
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