Irish Potatoe Famine Essay Research Paper Ireland

Irish Potatoe Famine Essay, Research Paper

Ireland is a country that has had many crop failures but the Famine of 1845-1849 was the worst ever. The people had become so dependent on the potato that when it failed they had nothing else. They had no money, no parliament in country to give them relief and no rights to keep them from being evicted from the land they diligently worked each year for their landlords. Many died, many immigrated to other nations but those who stayed cried out for security. In the years following the famine tenant associations, a push for home rule and the dissolution of the Church of Ireland were just a few things to change in Ireland after this horrid period in history.

The potato became the primary source of food sometime in the eighteenth century. They are very nutritious and many could be grown in a small plot of land. In 1845 the first failure of the potato crop occurred, little did the people know that this would happen the next four years. Sir Edward Peel, Tory Prime Minister, saw there was a need of relief. Though he did not have support from the House of Commons, he secretly ordered a supply of Indian corn from America. He did not plan to give the corn away but sell it just over cost price. By doing this he could keep the private merchants from raising the price of food. He kept secret how much corn the government had so the merchants would not find out how little corn they really did have. If the government had distributed it all at once they would have run out in just a few weeks. The problem with selling food though in an economy where there was not much money the poor still could not buy the food. The tenant farmers made little money and that was used to pay the rents on their farms. The government set up a public works system some areas so that they could earn money for food. It was a good idea in theory but the farmers were making barely enough money to feed their families and the work was so hard they barely had the strength to make it through the day. There were also areas that had no public works at all. In these areas there was a lot of distress but in the first year very few people died of actual starvation. The families just lost most of what they had by selling it off to see them through the year. So in other words they would not have anything to see them through another year.

Sir Edward Peel who was sympathetic to the farmer was put out of office in July 1846. He wanted to reform the Corn Laws, which kept the tariffs high on imported grains. He wanted to reduce the tariffs on imported corn. His supporters were dead against it. Lord John Russell was to follow as Prime Minister and he really believed that everything would sort itself out with little interference from the government this laissez faire mind set was what most politicians believed at the time. The Assistant Secretary of the Treasury Sir Charles Trevelyn agreed with Russell, he did not want to send British money to Ireland. He wanted the local governments to be responsible.

As the famine continued people began from other diseases not just starvation. Scurvy was one of them; it is caused by a lack of vitamin C in the corn that the people were eating. Gums swelled, teeth fell out, and black sores appeared on their bodies and death from gangrene. Little children had protein deficiency that led to a disease called marasmus, it aged the children prematurely. Elderly people suffered from oedema, the accumulation of fluid in the lymphatic system which made them swell up. Anemia was also there, from eating too little food over a long period of time. The conditions were not getting better but worse. If they didn.t starve to death they came down with some other disease.

There were private organizations that tried to help farmers by setting up soup kitchens. Even Quakers from America came over to help where the government would not. Some of the kitchens though would not give out food unless the person converted to Protestantism. Many absentee landlords did try to help also by setting up soup kitchens. The soup kitchens were feeding nearly three million people a day.

In 1847 with the famine still happening Lord John Russell.s government passed the Poor Extension Act. They wanted to put an end to the government paying for the famine and putting the responsibility on the Poor Law System. Basically they wanted to stop wasting British money on saving Irish lives.

At this point was the beginning of eviction for the tenants from the land. Their last hope was taken away when their land was taken. Most landlords could not afford to let the tenants stay on the land. Many landlords did pay for passage to emigrate out of Ireland. Many Irish emigrated to America, England, Canada and Australia. Emigration was not much easier though than staying in Ireland. The ships now called coffin ships were in poor condition. Most of the time a lot of the people died from disease, the conditions were unsanitary and close and there was not always enough food and water for the journey. Many continued to emigrate after the famine and the population of Ireland went down to around four million. Those who stayed behind in Ireland were ready for change and some rights to their lives.

.Ireland lay shocked and hopeless after the Great Famine; she was like a corpse on the dissecting table. There was no leadership anymore, no great movement, no cause, no po