confused about potato disease in the history of ireland...?

Question

is this true?
in the mid of 1840s, ireland had 3,5 million population, but 1 million passed away because of the "potato disease". England was one of the strongest countries at that time but they helped late and even didn't help much; morever, they didnt let the ships coming from ottoman empire, which are full of food, enter the horbour of Belfast and Dublin. Irish people lost the trust for the english.....

Answer 1

Brother of Eire,
The English are the worst infestation the world has ever seen, they came to our lands, took the brides of newly married women, took the land that we owned, (catholics couldn't own their own land or vote) they starved us, they put a trade embargo upon Ireland which shipped out all the food except a cheap crop or potato. They killed us for their own benefit, evicted us, treated us like dogs. 6 million either left and alot died, they also neglected the farmlands they took from us, and a fungus began to grow on the potato like wildfire, we begged for help to England and they gave us no refuge. I will see the day the IRA hangs every one of Parliament or England as a whole, i spit on their culture.

Answer 2

Hey Education,

Normally described as the Potato Famine, yes, it is true.

The Great Famine or the Great Hunger (Irish: An Gorta Mór or An Drochshaol), known more commonly outside of Ireland as the Irish Potato Famine, is the name given to the famine in Ireland between 1845 and 1849. The Famine was due to the appearance of "the Blight" (also known as phytophthora)– the potato fungus that almost instantly destroyed the primary food source for the majority population. The immediate after-effects of The Famine continued until 1851. Much is unrecorded, and various estimates suggest that between 500,000 and more than one million people died in the three years from 1846 to 1849 as a result of hunger or disease. Some two million refugees are attributed to the Great Hunger (estimates vary), and much the same number of people emigrated to Great Britain, the United States, Canada, and Australia (see the Irish Diaspora).

Answer 3

Ireland's population was 6.6 million in 1851. By the end of the famine, the population was down to about 4.4 million.

You're right about the food. The British PM Robert Peel wanted to repeal the Corn Laws which prohibited importation of cheaper grain; but he was not able to do this. Protectionism of the English farmers made this impossible. Later when the Whigs came to power, they resorted to public works programs to give the Irish money to buy food. But their efforts were very poorly constructed, and only half-heartedly engaged in.

The tragic reality was that Ireland was awash with food at the time. The famine hit hardest in the western counties. But in the eastern counties, the main cash crop was oats, which were totally unaffected by the blight. But oats were for export; and the landowners of the east (predominately -- though not exclusively, English) never considered turning these crops over to the poor in the west.

We'll never know exactly how many died in the famine. Estimates range from 500k to 1,500k. I think the truth is probably about 1 million, with another 1 million+ people emmigrating to the US, Canada and Australia.

This was a terrrible tragedy that could have been averted on several occasions. If the Irish had diversified their potato crop (there are over 30 species of potato, and the blight hit only one specie -- the one grown in Ireland); or if the English Parliament had not insisted on a protectionist environment for its farmers, the story would have been totally different.

Hope this answer helps. Cheers, mate.

Answer 4

Hi, its known as the Potato Famine, and yes, it actually did happen.

Throughout the summer of 1846, the people of Ireland had high hopes for a good potato harvest. But the cool moist summer weather had been ideal for the spread of blight. Diseased potatoes from the previous harvest had also been used as planters and sprouted diseased shoots. At first, the crop appeared healthy. But by harvest time the blight struck ferociously, spreading fifty miles per week across the countryside, destroying nearly every potato in Ireland.

Many of the rural Irish had little knowledge of money, preferring to live by the old barter system, trading goods and labor for whatever they needed. Any relief plan requiring them to purchase food was bound to fail. In areas where people actually had a little money, they couldn't find a single loaf of bread or ounce of corn meal for sale. Food supplies in 1846 were very tight throughout all of Europe, severely reducing imports into England and Ireland. European countries such as France and Belgium outbid Britain for food from the Mediterranean and even for Indian corn from America.

check out the link below for a really good history of the famine, including Englands, umm, assistance....

Answer 5

I read the link someone else left re this subject.
Yes it was quite terrible what happened it seems the only person who really wanted to help was the Prime Minister Robert Peel. I think Parliament and the Gentry have alot to answer for, but you can't blame the ordinary farm labourer in England,Wales or Scotland for what happened. They probably had no knowledge of what was going on in Ireland and were barely making a living themselves. Times were hard for everyone at the bottom of the pile, labourers and factory workers working for long hours and paid a pittance.
Though it doesn't compare with the suffering of those poor people in Ireland.

Answer 6

Just before the famine started, Ireland had a population of 8 million, after the famine ended approximately 5 years later, the population had reduced to 4 million due to many deaths and mass emmigration to the U.K., U.S.A, Australia, etc.

Answer 7

You may find better by just Googling *Irish potato famine* like I did. Not knowing much about it myself, I was really shock at the severity of it.

Answer 8

JD: another irish american patriot I assume? *Yawn* 800 years of tyranny *Double Yawn*. Just FYI, about the same number of Irish emigrated to the england as to the states, which means that the proportion of people descended from the Irish is actually much higher in evil england (mwahhahaha) than in the US. In 1840 (coming into the height of empire) something like 60% of the British army was made up of irish.