EFFECTS OF THE POTATO FAMINE ON IRISH CULTURE
This research paper traces, discusses and analyzes the effects of the blight of the potato crops and the resulting famine in Ireland in 1845-1849 on Irish culture. The most direct and immediate effects of the famine and the inadequate response of the authorities to it were widespread suffering, privation, starvation and deaths, primarily among the most impoverished groups of small Irish farmers and laborers in the west and southwestern parts of Ireland who depended on the potato crops for subsistence. The famine also produced and accelerated massive emigration from, and depopulation of, much of rural Ireland.
Nearly three quarters of a century and many intervening events were to transpire before Catholic Ireland achieved independence and Ireland was partitioned so no direct cause and effect relationship can be established between those developments and the famine; however, the famine undoubtedly embittered Anglo-Irish relationships. The famine weakened the traditional political, economic and social order in rural Ireland and led to the emergence of different patterns of land ownership, usage and political and economic power. It also triggered sectarian controversy and led to increasing agrarian discontent and demands for Irish home rule, which, despite some social reforms and economic progress, were left largely unsatisfied toward the end of the 19th century. The famine contributed to the development of separatist movements and Irish cultural nationalism.
Introduction/Statement of the Problem
The famine stemmed from a then unknown fungus disease, phytophthora infestans, which ruined most of the Irish potato crops in 1845 and 1846. Then following a small lightly damaged harvest in 1847, the fungus wreaked havoc on the 1848 crop. The blight struck hardest in the west and the southwest, especially in Clare, Cork, Donegal, Galway, Kerry, Mayo, Roscommon and Tipperary Counties. It c...