Irish Potato Famine

There are many quick to blame the Irish Potato Famine on the fungus that destroyed Ireland's potato crops, a fungus known as Phytophthora infestans or blight. However, the unmitigated disaster for the Irish people was actually the result of complex and multidimensional factors, including politics, cultural animosity, and poverty. During the first half of the 19th century, the Irish peasantry existed under abominable conditions. Ireland was a conquered country. Most of the population were Irish Catholic peasants, peasants who were forced to lease their lands from a small group of Protestants of the Church of England. The Protestant landlords cared little about the conditions of the Irish peasantry and exploited them as much as possible for profit. Peasants had no incentive to improve their rented lands, and anything they made over and above sustenance levels were extorted from them. There was no escape from poverty and the peasantry married early and had large numbers of children as a source of labor and as protection from starvation "Children were a precious asset, for there was absolutely no welfare or social security system, and an infirm or aged person's best hope to escape starvation was a dutiful son or a loving daughter" (McKay, Hill and Buckler 698).

The Irish population continued to grow, while its survival became increasingly dependent on one crop, the potato. As the population grew, the potato became an

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the crops was discovered. Contrary to widely held opinion that the British sat by and watched the famine destroy the Irish peasantry, steps were taken immediately in an effort to try and prevent the disaster "Prime Minister Sir Robert Peel purchased corn meal from the U.S. to give the Irish people an alternate food source. Peel implemented Relief Works in an effort to give the Irish people a source of income in order to survive. The British government also provided 365,000 pounds of sterling to the people in the form of loans in 1845-1846" (Emerson 1). However, unknown to Peel and others, the corn meal was empty of significant nutrients needed for survival and it helped caused dysentery and other ailments to spread, killing more people than it saved. There is some justification for those who feel the British could have done more to help the Irish peasantry, and for the argument that years of religious and political animosity may have robbed Britain of the motivation to help. For example, the English government continued to export Irish food during the famine but they justified this by claiming they did not want to totally close down the Irish agricultural economy or add to welfare rolls. However, worries over welfare numb

Category: History - I