The Irish Famine Killed One Million

THE GREAT HUNGER OF THE 1840s
THE EMPIRE AND THE POTATO BLIGHT
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Sick Politicians, Diseased Crops

More than one million Irish people starved to death and another million emigrated from Ireland during the The Great Irish Famine (an Gorta Mór) between 1845 and 1852.

The Great Hunger, which saw about 25 percent of the island’s population disappear, is also known as as the Irish Potato Famine because more than one-third of the population was then solely reliant on the cheap crop, which was decimated by a blight.

Ironically, Ireland  was still producing and exporting more than enough grain crops to feed the entire population. Up to fifty shiploads of food produce left the country each day.

Today, the Great Famine is regarded by many historical academics as an act of either direct or indirect genocide.

Skibbereen (An Sciobairín), County Cork, Ireland.  Illustrations by James Mahony (1810-1879), for Illustrated London News 1847.

Famine dead had ‘mouths stained green’

The Famine dead are remembered in the Irish folk as having mouths stained green—their last meal was grass.