2. -
A GOOD CROP
The year 1845 changed the history of Ireland.
The potato crop was good that year but the Irish didn't realise
that a new form of potato disease was about to strike.
3. THE SPREADING OF THE DISEASE
The disease first appeared in America two years earlier
and later reached Europe.
4. THE AFTERMATH OF THE DISEASE
The potatoes turned
black and nobody could
eat them.
More than half of the
year’s crop was
destroyed.
Irish people depended
on potatoes for their
survival, and the loss of
the potato crop was an
utter disaster.
5. THE BRITISH GOVERNMENT
The British government did very little to help those who
suffered during the crisis.
In 1847 the government set up soup kitchens to give out
free food to the people in need, but it was too late.
6. MORE PEOPLE DIED OR LEFT THE
COUNTRY
Between 1845-1855 more than
700,000 Irish people died.
After the famine about two
million people, reduced to
poverty, left the country.
Many went to the USA which
accounts for America’s large
Irish contingent.
Ireland’s population fell by
more than a quarter.
7. THE TRANSFORMATION OF
IRISH CULTURE
The crisis was worst in
the West of Ireland
where most Gaelic
speakers lived.
Families who decided to
emigrate lost the use of
the Gaelic language.
Today only a small
minority of the Irish
people speaks Gaelic as
its first language.
8. IRELAND’S INDEPENDENCE
Many historians believe
that the Great Famine
also contributed to the
rise of the nationalist
movements which
finally brought about
Ireland's independence
from Britain in 1921.
