ThesisThe Great Famine of Ireland was a major turning point in history, sending many into starvation and poverty. People everywhere on the island found that their crops were reduced to nothing but a black mush- inedible and certainly incapable of selling. Those that attempted to consume the rotting goo fell ill. Ireland’s rural communities- which made up most of Ireland's population at the time- had nothing to sell and next to nothing to eat. Due to the lack of payment from the Irish peasants and farmers, landlords were forced to evict their tenants and move them to distant lands such as North America. One-third of those on the ships perished, with two-thirds reaching their destinations starving and sick. The Irish blamed the English for their late response, leading to a century-long grudge over the Blight. Once a land of eight million people, the combination of emigration and starvation wiped three million of Ireland's populace in just a few years.
"The crop of all crops, on which they depended for food, had suddenly melted away, and no adequate arrangements had been made to meet this calamity, the extent of which was so sudden and so terrible that no one had appreciated it in time, and thus thousands perished almost without an effort to save themselves."
~William Trench
Land Agent in County Kerry 1846~ |
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