Irish Famine

1. Irish Famine

2. Contents • 1. Coming of the blight . • 2. Famine fever. • 3. Workhouses. • 4. Soup kitchens. • 5. Death. • 6. Credits.

3. Coming of the blight In Ireland, the great famine was a period of mass starvation. Disease and emigration between 1845 – 1850. during the summer of 1845 a blight of unusual character devastated Irelands potato crop. A few days after potatoes were dug from the ground they began to turn into a slimy decaying blackish mass of rottenness. This was the beginning of the Blight .

4. Famine Fever Many people were so weakened by hunger that they caught the disease very easily. Famine fever was common and spread quickly in the overcrowded conditions of the workhouses. In the town of Kilrush , 99 people out of 101 in the workhouse’s hospital wing died in one week alone.

5. ` Workhouses • In the nineteenth century people who were poor and had no money had no choice but to go to the workhouses. In the time of the great famine there were over 130 workhouses in Ireland. A workhouse provided: • A place to live. • A place to work and earn money. • Free medical care. • Food. • Clothes • Free education for children and training for a job. • But don’t believe everything you read.

6. Soup Kitchens In the summer of 1847 the government set up soup kitchens. To give starving people hot soup. The society of friends thought it was there duty to help the poor some even risked there own lives working with people who had diseases. The society of friends bought huge boilers which would cook the soup. However in the autumn of 1847 the government shut down the soup kitchen so people had no choice but to go to the workhouse.

7. Death In the Irish of famine of 1846-1850 can you believe over 1 million people died from hunger and disease and changed the social and cultured structure of Ireland in profound ways. The famine also spurred new waves of immigration this shaping the histories of the United States of America and Britain.

8. Credits ByRebecca