Ireland 1844- 1850

1. Ireland1844- 1850 By Becky Pigman and Bryanna Harms

2. Pre- Famine Ireland • Before the famine many Irish farmers owned very little land. • The overlords of the farmers didn’t think they needed more land because on average people could get 12 tons of potatoes per acre in a fertilized field. • Enough to feed a family of six for a year with extra going to the animals. • Many of the overlords were English nobles who only visited their land holdings once or twice a year some not at all. • Many absent lords used local agents to oversee their land and they were known as middlemen. • Middlemen would rent huge parts of many estates and then rented them out to poor farmers, but many would divide them into smaller sections and raise the rent every year. • In some instances there were families of twelve living in a single room cabin with the families pigs and chickens.

3. The Famine Years • The summer of 1845 was the start of the famine. • Only a few days after the potatoes were harvested they started to turn black and became slimy. • “FamineFever” swept over Ireland killing 750,000 people. • “Famine Fever” consisted of cholera, dysentery, scurvy, typhus, and infestations of lice. • There were so many bodies that most were buried without coffins just inches under the soil. • Over the next five years 2 million Irishmen would leave their homes cutting Irelands population down by twenty five percent. • At least half a million people were evicted from their homes and in some places communities just ceased to exist.

4. What caused it? • In the end many things contributed to the famine. • The first major cause was that all of Irelands rural families were dependant on this one crop. • The second was the actual fungus that killed the harvests. Today farmers have to spray the potato leaves to prevent things like the famine. • Another cause is that the British land lords kept their tenets in so much debt that when the famine struck they had no money to feed themselves. • The British also had all other types of food grown in Ireland shipped to England and other countries. • Cows bred and raised in Ireland were also shipped to England

5. Immigration • In 1858 The Irish declared they were staying by making plans to build one of the largest churches in New York City called St. Patrick’s cathedral, and it was finished in 1878 after a halt due to the Civil War. • Irish immigrants would stay in cities due to their fondness for close knit communities and because they were the poorest group of immigrants coming to America. • Many Irishmen ran factories, built railroads out west, or worked in a mine, and some were carpenter’s assistants, boat-builders, dock-hands, bartenders or waiters. • Before the famine only about 5,000 Irish immigrants were coming to the U. S. • Well over half a million were recorded to have immigrated to the U. S. but some believe there were others who landed in Canada and then walked across the boarder. • In 1850 New York was 26% Irish. In April 1852 a news paper printed an article emphasizing the number of Irish immigrants. • In less than 96 hours New York was now home to 12,000 Irish immigrants.

6. Thank you