1 / 16

The Great Irish Potato Famine 1845-1850

Hunger in Ireland. The Great Irish Potato Famine 1845-1850. Picture of citizens attacking a potato store during the potato famine. Causes. Started in 1845 . Potatoes were a very important food in Ireland at this time. Very strange weather during the summer of 1845.

nora
Download Presentation

The Great Irish Potato Famine 1845-1850

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. Hunger in Ireland The Great Irish Potato Famine1845-1850 Picture of citizens attacking a potato store during the potato famine.

  2. Causes • Started in 1845. • Potatoes were a very important food in Ireland at this time. • Very strange weather during the summer of 1845. • It was very hot, and then it rained for three weeks straight. • Caused by Late Blight. • Disease that kills the leaves and the edible roots/ tubers. • Late Blight is caused by Plytophthora infestans. • Potatoes turned black from it.

  3. Details • Worst famine to occur in Europe in the 19th century. • Plytophthora fungus arrived from North America accidently. • The poor people depended on potatoes for their main food. • The U.S. sent cornmeal to Ireland, but the Irish people didn’t like it. Potato leaves affected by late blight

  4. Details • By 1847, 3,000,000 Irishmen were going to soup kitchens. • People blamed fairies that they believed in for the famine (One fairy often blamed was Fear Liath (Gray Man). • Late blight is a type of pathogenic water mold. Map of effected areas of Ireland.

  5. Details • Also known as the Irish Holocaust. • Prime Minister Sir Rorbert Peele tried to stop the famine from 1845-1846. • This famine was so well known because it was so large and destructive. Regular potatoes and potato affected by late blight

  6. Details • 24 other crop failures had occurred beginning in 1728, but none were throughout Ireland like this one. • Nobody knows what the exact number of the people who died during the famine was, but it was very large.

  7. Details • Most of the victims were Irish Catholics. • Many lived in poverty and couldn’t read and/or write. • Most people were used to eating from 7 to 15 pounds of potatoes everyday per person before the famine occurred. • Potatoes were harvested two times each fall. • They were the main food in Ireland in the time, so when they were gone many people had no other source of food.

  8. Details • Before the famine, Ireland was the most densely populated country in Europe. • Many Irishmen came to the United States, and many of those landed in Boston. • Boston was very affected by the Irish and now has many Irish pubs. • Ireland had great, farmable land and people had a lot of land for farming.

  9. “...no issue has provoked so much anger or so embittered relations between the two countries (England and Ireland) as the indisputable fact that huge quantities of food were exported from Ireland to England throughout the period when the people of Ireland were dying of starvation.” • Cecil Woodham- Smith Primary Source

  10. John Mitcel • Irish nationalist, activist, and writer. • Member of Young Ireland and the Irish Confederation. • Was a convicted felon. • His journal from his time in prison is now one of Irish nationalism’s most famous books.

  11. Diarmuid O'Donovan Rossa • Diarmuid O’Donovan was a survivor of the famine. • He blames the English Landlords and the richer citizens for the famine. • His family had a small wheat crop. • The landlord sent men to guard their wheat until they paid their rent. • Many other landlords were the same way.

  12. Result • Population fell from 8,400,000 to 6,600,000 in just seven years (1844- 1851) • Around 1,000,000 Irishmen died and about another 2,000,000 left Ireland for other countries. • Most of the information comes from children and grandchildren of the survivors. Many people don’t like to talk about it.

  13. Timeline • 1728- Crop failures begin. • 1845- Great Irish Potato Famine begins. • 1845-1846- Sir Robert Peele tried to stop the famine. • 1849- Famine ended. • 1844- 1851- Population of Ireland fell greatly.

  14. Works Cited • "Irish Potato Famine." Encyclopedia Britannica. 2007. Encyclopedia Britannica Online School Edition. 15  Nov.  2007  <http://school.eb.com/eb/article-9003032>. • "Great Irish Famine." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. 14 Nov 2007, 11:49 UTC. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. 15 Nov 2007 <http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Great_Irish_Famine&oldid=171415553>. • Bartoletti, Susan Campbell. Black Potatoes. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company.

  15. Works Cited • "John Mitchel." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. 23 Nov 2007, 09:07 UTC. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. 3 Dec 2007 <http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=John_Mitchel&oldid=173250562>. • "Irish literature." Encyclopædia Britannica. 2007. Encyclopædia Britannica Online School Edition. 3  Dec.  2007  <http://school.eb.com/eb/article-272055>.

More Related