Great Famine (Ireland)
| Great Famine An Gorta Mór | |
|---|---|
 Scene at Skibbereen during the Great Famine, The Illustrated London News, 1847 | |
| Location | Ireland |
| Period | 1845–1852 |
| Total deaths | 775,000–1,500,000 |
| Causes | Policy failure, potato blight |
| Theory | |
| Effect on demographics | Population fell by 20–25% due to death and emigration |
| Consequences | Permanent change in the country's demographic, political, and cultural landscape |
| Preceded by | Irish Famine of 1740–1741 (Bliain an Áir) |
| Succeeded by | Irish Famine of 1879 (An Gorta Beag) |
The Great Famine, also known as the Great Hunger (Irish: an Gorta Mór [ənˠ ˈɡɔɾˠt̪ˠə ˈmˠoːɾˠ]), the Famine and the Irish Potato Famine,[1][2] was a period of mass starvation and disease in Ireland from 1845 to 1852. It constituted a major historical social crisis and had a significant impact on Irish society and history.[3] The most severely affected areas were in western and southern Ireland—where the Irish language was dominant—hence, in Irish, the period was contemporaneously known as an Drochshaol,[4] which translates to "the bad life" and loosely translates to "the hard times". Debate exists regarding nomenclature for the event, including whether to use the terms "Famine", "Potato Famine" or "Great Hunger".[5]
The worst year of the famine was 1847, which became known as "Black '47".[6][7] The population of Ireland on the eve of the famine was approximately 8.5 million.[8] During the Great Hunger, roughly one million people died and over one million more emigrated,[9] causing the country's population to fall by 20–25% between 1841 and 1871, with some towns' populations falling by as much as 67%.[10][11][12] Between 1845 and 1855, at least 2.1 million people left Ireland, one of the greatest exoduses from a single island in history.[13][14]
The proximate cause of the famine was the infection of potato crops by blight throughout Europe. The impact of blight on food supply caused 100,000 deaths outside Ireland, and influenced much of the unrest that culminated in European Revolutions of 1848.[15] Longer-term reasons for the scale of the famine's impact included the system of absentee landlordism and single-crop dependence.[16][17] Initial government actions to alleviate famine distress, which were constructive but limited, were ended by a new Whig administration in London that pursued a laissez-faire economic doctrine. Additionally, there was a widespread belief among members of the British upper class, and therefore among members of the British government, that the famine was divine judgement or that the Irish lacked moral character.[18][19] Aid resumed only to some degree at a later stage. Large quantities of food were exported from Ireland during the famine, and the refusal of London to bar such exports, as had been done on previous occasions, was an immediate and continuing source of controversy. This controversy contributed to the exacerbation of the Irish issue in British politics, the intensification of anti-British sentiment, the intensification of Irish nationalism and the campaign for independence. Additionally, the famine indirectly resulted in the eviction of tens of thousands of households, a situation exacerbated by a provision that forbade access to workhouse aid for those possessing more than one-quarter acre of land.
The famine is considered a defining moment in the history of Ireland.[3] Its effects permanently changed the island's demographic, political, and cultural landscape, producing an estimated 2 million refugees and spurring a century-long population decline.[20][21] For both the native Irish and those in the resulting diaspora, the famine became part of folk memory.[22] Strained relations between many Irish people and the then ruling British government worsened further because of the famine, heightening ethnic and sectarian tensions and boosting nationalism and republicanism both in Ireland and among Irish emigrants around the world.[23][24] When the potato blight returned to Ireland in the 1879 famine, the Land League boycotted "notorious landlords", and its members physically blocked the evictions of farmers. The resulting reduction in homelessness and house demolitions led to a significant decrease in the number of deaths.[25]
Causes and contributing factors
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Ireland was incorporated into the United Kingdom in January 1801 following the passage of the Acts of Union. Executive power lay with the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland and Chief Secretary for Ireland, who were appointed by the British government. Ireland sent 105 members of parliament to the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, and Irish representative peers elected 28 of their own number to sit for life in the House of Lords. Between 1832 and 1859, 70% of Irish representatives were landowners or the sons of landowners.[26]
In the 40 years that followed the union, successive British governments grappled with the challenges of governing a country that had, as Benjamin Disraeli said in 1844, "a starving population, an absentee aristocracy, an alien established Protestant church, and in addition, the weakest executive in the world".[27] One historian calculated that between 1801 and 1845 there had been 114 commissions and 61 special committees inquiring into the state of Ireland, and that "without exception their findings prophesied disaster; Ireland was on the verge of starvation, her population rapidly increasing, three-quarters of her labourers unemployed, housing conditions appalling and the standard of living unbelievably low".[28]
Lectures printed in 1847 by John Hughes, Bishop of New York, provide a contemporary examination of the antecedent causes, particularly the political climate, in which the Irish famine occurred.[29][30]
Landlords and tenants
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The "middleman system" for managing landed property was introduced in the 18th century. Rent collection was left to the landlords' agents, or middlemen. This system assured landlords of a regular income and relieved them of direct responsibility while leaving tenants vulnerable to exploitation by the middlemen.[31] The effectiveness of middlemen was measured by the rental income they could extract from tenants.[31] Middlemen leased large tracts of land from the landlords on long leases with fixed rents and sublet to tenants, keeping any money raised in excess to the rent paid to the landlord. This system, coupled with minimal oversight of the middlemen, incentivised harsh exploitation of tenants. Middlemen would split a holding into smaller and smaller parcels so as to increase the amount of rent they could obtain. Tenants could be evicted for reasons such as non-payment of rents (which were high), or a landlord's decision to raise sheep instead of grain crops. Cottiers paid their rent by working for the landlord, while spalpeens (itinerant labourers) paid for short-term leases through temporary day work.[32][33]
A majority of Catholics, who constituted 80% of the Irish population, lived in conditions of poverty and insecurity. At the top of the social hierarchy was the Ascendancy class, composed of English and Anglo-Irish families who owned most of the land and held significant power over their tenants. Some of their estates were extensive; for example, the Earl of Lucan owned more than 60,000 acres (240 km2).[34] Many of these landowners lived in England and functioned as absentee landlords. The rental revenue was mostly sent to England.[35]
In 1800, the 1st Earl of Clare observed of landlords that "confiscation is their common title".[36]