The Irish Potatoe Famine

Recommended Book

Beginning in 1845 and lasting for six years, the potato famine killed over a million men, women and children in Ireland and caused another million to flee the country.

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 oomycete that almost instantly destroyed the primary food source for the majority of the island's 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).



Potato Blight

Potato Blight is caused by a fungus Phytophthora infestans. It spreads through the air and develops when the weather conditions are warm and humid. The British summer, as we laughingly call it.