The Great Famine
Black 47
Worst year of the famine
Choctaw tribe donate money which we never forget
Crop failed
English kindly said let them die
English anounnce famine is over
famine was still there though
Military barracks double to prevent trouble
Consequences of the famine
Songs such as the fields of athenry
GAA in other places such as London, New York, Abu Dhabi
Strong hatred to British
Liverpool and Manchester United
Irish diaspora
Aleix Mac Allister
Come back to trace their roots which Irish economy benefits on
79 million Irish descendants
40 million in America
Jack Grealish
The beatles
Muhammed Ali
Henry ford
1 million died
population wnet from 8 million to 4 million now 5 million
parents taught kids english instead of irish due to immigration
farmers now gave land to oldest son
Emigration grew and 2 million left on coffin ships
Went to America Liverpool Manchester and Australia
racist abuse to irish
Course of the Famine
Lord John Russell
In 1846, coldest winter in 100 years
All soup kitchens closed
stops the importation of maize
Russell sets aside £10 million
Typhis and cholera spreads
Laissez - Faire
Ireland were exporting food
means the goverment should not intervene for business and the poor were to blame
Charles Trevelyan
Cuts the pay by 20% and the prices still went up
set up roads and piers
Set up workhouses and the amounts of work you did you got paid
In 1846 people started dying
Robert Peel was Prime Minister and was trying sell cheap grain to the people
Some charitable organisations set up soup kitchens
Quakers did this not the British Government
Poor law - ordered landlords to set up workplaces
Public works - sets up work schemes to get money and in your weaken state
Children as young as 8 or 9 working in it
Sets up relief commition
Called Peel's brimstone
Didn't bring the same filling as the potato
it lacked Vitamin C and resulted in scurvy
Maize brought in and cause diarrhea
Peel tried to help the Irish and he split his party and lost power after trying to appeal corn laws
They can't afford it and are left starving
1845 No one dies as 2 harvests
3 million tenants, and 2 million 4th class citizen
Ireland was England's food exporter
Exporting eggs corn salmon and alcohol
In 1845 Britain was one of the wealthiest in the world
1846 75% had blight
1845 50% has blight
Housing
really poor
pigs slept with them
Mud cabins
A dozen people slept in the house
No windows, no chimneys
Main topic
What caused it
Population increase
People married young and had a lot of Children
In 45 years Ireland is gone from 4 million to 8 million
Lack of industrialisation
Protestant areas like in Belfast were rich
Only a quarter of the people could write
Vey little employment oppurtunities
One of the poorest in Western Europe
Act of Union
Local agents were around and twice a year to pay rent
Increased rent every year and was called rack renting
If you couldn't pay your rent you were evicted
like a death sentence
95% percent were on landlord land
All were protestant
Ireland ruled in Aras an Uachtaráin by Lord Lieutenant
English neglectance
Middlemen controlled the land for the landlord
Cottiers were the poorest and were 56% of the population
They suffered the most during the Famine
Had a cabin made of mud from a conacre
Cottiers had no land ad no rent and worked for the tentants so they could survive
were underground and paid tenants for land
Relied completely on the potato
Taxes were paid by tenants
The majority had 10 acres had just enough to grow food and survive
A small number rented 20 acres of land
Land was divided from English and British
Potato Blight
Began in South America and spread to North America and comes here
Had 3 meals on Potatos in 1840
Overdependance on Potato
