irish potato famine

The lumper fed Ireland for a time, but it also set the stage for human and economic ruin. Evolutionary theory suggests that populations with low genetic variation are more vulnerable to changing environmental conditions than are diverse populations. The Irish potato clones were certainly low on genetic variation, so when the environment changed and a potato disease swept through the country in the 1840s, the potatoes (and the people who depended upon them) were devastated.Thesis: The Irish Potato Famine devastated the Irish population and economy as well as sowing the seeds of rebellion against England.

1st Point: Ireland dependent on potato
• Families spent most time on cash crops to pay rent
• Potato easy to grow, nutricious

2nd Point: The Irish Potato Famine depopulated the nation through starvation, disease and immigration

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3rd Point:

I. What was the Potato Famine?
1) Families spent most time on cash crops to pay rent
2) Potato easy to grow, nutricious
A. Autumn 1845, potato blight struck
1) crops failed five years (1847 no blight but few potatos planted)
2) Gorta Mor “The Great Hunger”
3) within months, started dying of starvation
4) malnourished Irish vulnerable to disease
a) 1847 Typhus killed thousands every week
b) others afflicted with scurvy (vitamin C deficiency)
c) couldn’t pay rent, evicted by landlords

II. Social Effects of Famine: Immigration
A. 1845-1870 Three million Irish emmigrated
B. Fled death, hunger, poverty searching for better life
1) majority went to USA
2) also Canada, England, Scotland, Australia, South Africa
C. Psychological Toll
1) everyone knew people who had left permanently
2) constant loss contributed to sense of fatalism & morbidity in Ireland’s art & literature

III. Economic Effects of Famine
A. Irish evicted – lost lang when couldn’t pay rent
1) landlords faced bankruptcy without rents
2) others replaces tenants with livestock
B. English unimpressed with Irish plight –