Mrs. Grreen face

Introduction:

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Good morning, and welcome to Briarcliff News. This is Mrs. Green and in today’s special edition I am talking about the Ireland Potato Crisis of 1845 to 1852. Imagine walking into the grocery store today and seeing black, rotted, disease infested potatoes. Would you eat them? I sure wouldn’t but that wasn’t a choice that many people in Ireland had back in 1845.

Transition from Introduction to Act 1:

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Let’s jump back in time to truly understand the devastating events that lead to Ireland famine.

Act 1:

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Ireland was solely dependent on growing potatoes for survival. As their main food source, they had relied on farming potatoes for food and an income. However, in 1845, their potato crop as infested with Phytophthora Infestans. It’s also known as a blight was a fungus that caused the potato crop to turn slimy, black, and smelly. This was not the first time in history that the potato harvest had been ruined. Parts of Ireland had devastating harvests before. This was, however, the first time the crops had been ruined widespread; meaning the whole country. Without a hardy crop to supply the people of Ireland with food, a famine occurred. A famine is an extreme scarcity of food.

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Farmers had spent from March to September expecting their crops to provide food for their family only to find they were rotted by this blight. Panic plagued over the country as they helplessly watched their crops deteriorate. Their food supply was drastically declining. Families began using all of their saved, stored food to survive. Food insecurities caused frustration and anxiety about where their next meal would come from. Desperate to make ends meet, they were hopeful by the next harvest the blight would be gone.

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In the meantime, they began eating maize. Maize is another word for corn. Corn lacked many of the rich vitamins and minerals potatoes provided. The processing time was also long and tedious. Since corn wasn’t part of Irelands normal diet, it caused new health problems. Not only were they limited on food but now the food they did have caused mouth sores, disease and infections. The poor people of Ireland were desperate for the 1846 harvest to be a success.

Transition from Act 1 to Act 2:

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As the potatoes were planted in early March of 1847, the British government who ran Ireland was making some drastic changes.

Act 2:

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Charles Peel, who was the prime minister of Britain was tasked with solving the potato famine. He had previously been known for banning the maize laws which limited the tax on corn giving Ireland the ability to purchase corn at a reduced cost. However, a lot of people in the U.K. government didn’t agree with Peel’s decision to deem the corn laws unfair, he was not appointed for re-election.

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Instead, John Russell was elected as prime minister. Russell wanted to devote his time to focusing on issues in the U.K. so he appointed Charles Trevelyan to oversee Ireland.

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As Trevelyan oversaw things that happened in Ireland, he had a very hands off approach. From his office in the U.K., he believed the people of Ireland should fix their own problems without his help. The Irish people felt Trevelyan betrayed them and put the blame on them by refusing to offer assistance during the two years of the famine. Frustrated with the outrage from the Irish people, he needed a new plan of action to aid in the famine. His first solution was to hold soup kitchens for the people of Ireland. These soup kitchens would provide food to those whose food supply was diminished. As soup kitchens opened they began feeding more than 10,000 families a day! Trevelyan couldn’t continue to afford shipping in food for that many people. By mid-1847, he discontinued his efforts of running the soup kitchen turned to his next solution. Trevelyan decided the next option was that that land owners, the people who owned the land for farming, needed to help pay the expenses. He enacted the Irish Poor Law Extension Act in June of 1847. This law demanded support from the landowners.

Transition from Act 2 to Act 2.1:

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But who were these landowners?

Act 2.1:

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The farms that the farmers grew their crops on were rented from landowners. These landowners didn’t even live in Ireland! You may be thinking, that can’t be true. The land in Ireland had to be owned by the people of Ireland, but it wasn’t. The owners of most of the land in Ireland, were actually people who lived in the U.K. It does make some sense since the U.K.’s government did oversee Ireland. These landowners acquired the land from previous wars and invasions. The land was passed down in families through the 18th century. The land owners received rent from the farmers on the land and a profit from the crops. Land owners hired people called middlemen who lived in Ireland to collect rent and manage the property. At the actual land, you find the laborer known as the farmer. Farmers rent the land to grow potatoes and other crops that they ate and sold. With a ruined harvest, farmers couldn’t pay rent which led to the landowners piling up in debt of their own. They couldn’t help in the deficits in funding from the Irish Poor Law Extension Act. The only thing the land owners could do was to evict the farmers to find new tenants or sell their land.

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Many families in Ireland were evicted off their property. They were forced to move but had nowhere to go. Without food, supplies and shelter they needed to find a solution to survive. In turn, hundreds of thousands of Irish people fled to other countries where resources were plentiful. If they stayed in Ireland, they would possibly die. Ireland’s population dwindled as refugees started new lives in other countries.

Transition from Act 2.1 to Act 3:

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The journey to America was not as simple as it is today. There were no airplanes to transport the Irish people in a matter of hours to America.

Act 3:

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From their farms in the Ireland countryside families traveled by foot or horse and carriages to the nearest dock to board boats to America.

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These boats were often referred to as coffin boats. Passengers lived in cramped shared living spaces and were provided little food and water. Due to the poor conditions, passengers contracted diseases and illnesses. It was said that nearly 30% of the passengers perished on board. Their bodies were thrown overboard to make more room. This is where the term coffin boats originated.

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Many Irish people believed they could start new in America. America was known as the “Golden Door to a land of opportunities”. Ships socked at the east coast docking facilities into New York. Coming with very little money and belongings, they settled not far from the docks. Many neighborhoods in New York were segregated by ethnicity, forming small communities from different countries. Life was not as easy as they expected. However, survival was possible unlike their lives in Ireland. Very few who fled to America ever returned back to Ireland.

Conclusion:

I hope you enjoyed today’s special edition on the Ireland potato crisis. This is Mrs. Green and thanks for tuning into Briarcliff news.