The Great Famine in Ireland in 1845

Since the end of the 16th century, the culture of potato has had great success in Ireland because it adapts very well to the climatic and geological conditions of the island. The vast majority of Irish peasants are tenants of their land; large landowners, landlords English, want to promote breeding and are in favor of the potato which consumes little space. At the beginning of the 19th century, the relative prosperity of the Irish countryside, thanks to a mild climatic period, allowed a plot to feed a family properly. In 1845, three million poor peasants lived almost exclusively on potatoes (very nutritious), accommodated with cabbage and possibly fish ; ten million tonnes of potatoes are produced for Irish consumption.

potato disease

The first cases of “mildew” are reported at the beginning of September 1845; the “mildew” or Phytophthora infestans is a mushroom parasite that causes a disease of the tuber. Probably transported by ships coming fromNorth Americait reaches theWestern Europe in the summer of 1845. Bad summer weather contributed to the spread of the disease and to thefall, a third of the Irish harvest is lost. The harvests of 1846, 1848 and 1849 were also catastrophic: the “mildew” was not immediately identified so it could not be contained. In the fall of 1845, the first scientific commission appointed by the British government of Robert Peel (1841-1846), appointed the climate damp and cold summer as responsible for the rotting of the harvest and recommends the ventilation tubers.

The scourge of hunger and epidemics

starvation and epidemics spread rapidly: two thirds of the victims literally die of starvation and one third succumbs to the cholera and typhus which spread among a very weakened population concentrated in the big cities. Children are particularly affected by tuberculosis and scarlet fever; the doctors, priests and pastors who help the sick, also succumb to epidemics. The famine lasted until 1852 and had dramatic repercussions on the demography of Ireland until the middle of the 20th century.

To the million dead, we must add nearly two million refugees and as many migrants bound for North America,Australia and some Britain. Emigrants come from all parts of Ireland but mostly from the poorest counties. Irish emigration is characterized by a large proportion of women who choose to go into exile, contrary to what is observed in other countries.

The English laissez-faire policy

Ireland has been an integral part of the United Kingdom since the Act of Union (1800) and the organization of public assistance is theoretically the responsibility of the British government. However in Great Britain, triumphs the liberal ideology which preaches the free exchange and laissez-faire in economics: the English leaders are hostile to excessive state interventionism. To interfere as little as possible with the laws of the market, Prime Minister Robert Peel will secretly buy but American in the fall of 1845: the objective is to supply Ireland with cereals in the spring of 1846. Robert Peel also reactivated a policy of public work sites on which Irish people who asked for help were hired. On the other hand, the government does not help the hundreds of thousands of emigrants who leave Ireland by their own means.

Unlike the previous food crisis of 1780, Irish ports remained open under pressure from English traders and Ireland exported foodstuffs while entire regions suffered from famine; convoys of food escorted by the army continue to leave for England. The “Great Famine” will also have significant consequences in matter land, because it accentuates the phenomenon of land concentration (through the evictions of peasants) and allows an increase in the average size of farms, for the greater benefit of landlords ; in 1870, 80% of Irish farmland belonged to them.

Great famine in Ireland: international aid and exile

Among those who come to the aid of the poorest, the quakers (Protestant dissident religious movement founded around 1650) play a very important role. In the fall of 1846, a central relief committee was formed in Dublin then in the main Irish cities: thanks to the financial support of the quakers North Americans, they set up soup kitchens that are almost free. The international dimension of aid is specific to the event of the “Great Famine” because it is linked to the phenomenon of the Irish diaspora, settled in the four corners of the planet since the beginning of the 19th century. HAS New York and Boston, support committees are created; donations arrive from Canadafrom West Indies and Europe, in 1846 and 1847.

The international dimension of the “Great Famine” is manifested by mass emigration: from 1850 to 1870, two million Irish people left their island to go to Great Britain, the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. The trip is most often financed by personal savings or relatives who have already emigrated (prepaid tickets to cross the Atlantic). It can be noted that some large English landowners will materially help their peasants to emigrate. The ports of Great Britain, Liverpool and Glasgow, become the starting points for exile.

Liability issue

Around 1850, contemporaries wondered about the responsibility of Irish society in this humanitarian crisis: British politicians adopted a “providentialist” vision of the famine. If the responsibility for the tragedy does not lie entirely with the Irish (the “mildew” is seen as a divine gesture), the extent of the disaster is, according to English economists, the result of a “backward” peasant society which does not failed to modernize its Agriculture, nor take the capitalist turn of the 18th century. The Irish will accuse the United Kingdom of having voluntarily abandoned them and the disaster of 1845-1852 is at the origin of a revival of Irish nationalism.

From the 1930s, the historians Irish who belong to the “revisionist” current, insist on the economic and social conditions in Ireland which can explain the impact of the famine and its regional dimension. They thus diminish the responsibility of British rulers and administrators. But the magnitude of this human tragedy still raises many questions today about the responsibility of British leaders. In 1997, Prime Minister Tony Blair issued a public apology to Ireland, on behalf of the English government: That a million people died in a nation that was then among the richest and most powerful is still a source of pain when we remember it today. Those who ruled then failed in their duties “.