During the mid-1840s, from 1845-1848, the potato crop in Ireland failed, creating a famine that ravaged the population. This event, the Great Famine, was one of the most significant events in the 8000-year history of this island nation, and the effects of it continue to haunt the Irish, both those who still live in Ireland and those who live in the United States. The most immediate effect of the famine was the dramatic decline in the Irish population—either through death from starvation and disease or through emigration to other countries.
In Ireland, the potato had historically been the mainstay of the diet of a large proportion of the rural population. Highly nutritional, the potato was easy to plant and easy to harvest. If a family of six had one acre of land, it could grow a potato crop that would feed them for almost a year. However, dependence on one crop had its downside as well. Potatoes could not be stored for long, and farmers who had grown so accustomed to dealing with this one crop neglected to plant other crops as a hedge against possible failures.
Rapid population increases in the years preceding the Great Famine had created a country whose expanding population was often poverty-stricken. Expanding population, coupled with landowners’ lack of responsibility toward tenant-farmers, led to a system where tenant-farmers frequently subdivided their land so that they could gain a bit of rent themselves. Consequently, the rural areas were dotted with small plots of land, most of which were used for potato farming. Prior to the famine, urban areas in Ireland were also experiencing economic distress because of a decline in Irish industry that resulted in unemployment and poverty in cities such as Dublin.
In 1845, the year the famine began, a good potato crop was expected, so it came as a great surprise when nearly half of the crop of the country failed because of a blight that had come from North America. This particular blight was unusual inasmuch as when the potato was dug from the ground, it appeared to be healthy; it was only after a day or two that the potato began to rot.
Despite the fact that only half the crop failed in 1845, starvation and disease plagued the entire country because many starving people, some of whom were infected with contagious diseases, roamed the countryside looking for food and spreading disease. Then, in 1846, the crop failed completely. In 1847, there was another partial failure, but because people had eaten their seed potatoes in 1846, the crop was much smaller in 1847. Then again in 1848, the crop failed completely.
As if the crop failures were not enough, other factors affected the seriousness of the situation. Various contagious diseases such as typhus, dysentery, and several different types of fever spread rapidly. Landlords evicted tenant-farmers, and the government did very little to provide relief. Nor did it help that the winter of 1846-1847 was one of the coldest on record.
When the famine was over in 1849, a cholera epidemic struck Ireland, so that by 1850 the country found its population reduced from 8.5 million to 6.5 million. One million people had died from disease and starvation, and one million had left Ireland for Britain, Europe, or North America.
The results of the Great Famine were profound. Farming in Ireland changed from a one-crop economy to an agricultural economy that included livestock and other crops, such as grains. The seeds of animosity toward Great Britain, which had not helped the Irish in their time of need, were sown. And a pattern of emigration was established that lasts until today.
1. According to the passage, the potato became a staple of the Irish diet for all of the following reasons EXCEPT ______.
2. The passage implies that ______.
3. According to the passage, rural life in the years before the Great Famine can best be described as ______.
4 Disease plagued the Irish during the famine because ______.
5. All of the following were results of the famine EXCEPT that the Irish ______.
