The Potato Famine of 1846

       The great Irish famine which began in 1846 was due to the failure of the potato crop. This crop, which promised well, was stricken with a deadly blight and in a few days the potatoes in the fields were decayed and unfit for use. In many parts of the country the people depended almost entirely upon this product for food. When it failed, starvation faced them.

       The government and people in England and America sent aid as soon as possible. Soup kitchens were established, and storehouses, where food could be distributed to the starving people. The workhouses were filled to overflowing, and sheds were built to shelter the overflow.

       But in spite of the money and provisions that were poured into the country, thousands and thousands of the people died of starvation before the provisions sent for the relief of these people were taken across the country in carts and stored in places where they could be distributed to those who applied for aid. It was necessary for armed soldiers to accompany the relief supplies, else the food would have been taken by the hungry people long before it reached the storehouses.

       As the cart loads of provisions went by, the starving peasants came out of their cottages and begged for just a few grains of corn or a handful of meal to keep them alive a little longer. Some were so weak for want of food that they could not go to the storehouses or soup kitchens, and fell dead by the roadside. Sometimes whole families would be found dead, lying upon the floors of their cottages. Some of the kindhearted landlords offered to pay the passage to America or the colonies of numbers of those in want, and many accepted the offer. Those who found homes in the new country soon secured employment, and their first earnings found their way back to Ireland to help their relatives and friends to follow them.

Extra learning in history, first video above: second video.