The Cause Of The Irish Potato Famine

When the Irish Potato Famine Struck Ireland On a sunny morning in 1845, Irish farmers were going to check their crops. A farmer named Abraham Fitz found black potatoes in his fields. He thought it may be only the one, so he moved over 4 rows and dug another potato out of the ground. This one was black and rotten. This causes Abraham to travel to his neighbors house and ask about their potatoes. His neighbor’s potatoes were black, rotten, and giving off a foul stench. This would later be discovered to have affected thousands of acres in the countryside of Ireland. The Irish Potato Famine caused by Phytophthora infestans would cause one million people to immigrate to the United States and left over one million dead. Early in the 19th century,
Ireland gradually began to shift towards the potato as a primary crop(Irish Potato Famine). A Irish family of four could easily eat fourty-five pounds of potatoes each day. Potatoes are easily grown in the moderate climate and stored in bulk during the winter months. While their diet of milk and potatoes was monotonous, it provided the calories and vitamins needed(Food in Ireland 1600 – 1835). Potato crops were hardy and never failed more than two consecutive years until The Great Famine(The Blight Begins). This caused even more dependence on the crops because the Irish could expect the next harvest to be blight free. Along with being a food source, potatoes were used as currency between peasants. If a farmer needed a gallon of milk he could trade potatoes with another farmer. Few hands actually exchanged money, which led to peasants depending on potatoes(Y, F). While potatoes seemed like the perfect crop to the Irish, they had their downfalls. When potatoes were planted, lumpers were used. Lumpers are propagated potatoes. Since the potatoes were all propagated from each other they were clones which left them with no diversity(Monoculture and the Irish Potato Famine:cases of the missing genetic variation). Abnormally bitter winters struck Ireland in 1846. The sub-zero winter storms were brought on by prevailing winds from the southwest into the northeast. During the storms it was not uncommon to see gales of snow, sleet, ice, and hail(The Great Hunger). Potatoes were an important staple crop in all parts of Ireland. According to Merriam Webster, blight (n.) is a plant disease, especially one caused by fungi such as mildews, rusts, and smuts. The Irish Potato Famine was caused by a blight called Phytophthora infestans, a water mold. Phytophthora infestans is an airborne fungus that originated in North America. The crop destroying fungus transported to Ireland on the holds of ships traveling from North America to England(The Blight Begins). Phytophthora infestans causes potatoes to rot, turn a gruesome black, and give off a foul stench(McCaffrey). In North America, the blight destroyed crops in 1844(McCaffrey). One strain of the fungus separated into two, a few years before the first major outbreak. It was thought, previously, that the strain US-1 infecting crops. However, through DNA sequencing it was discovered that a different strain was the culprit(Chow, Denise).
The blight known as Phytophthora infestans spreads quickly. It has been proven to release over several million spores each day(McCaffrey). Farmers inadvertently helped the blight to thrive. Farmers would use diseased potatoes from previous harvest to plant. These diseased plants sprouted diseased shoots, furthering the damage to food harvest(The Great Hunger). By the time potatoes were ready to be harvested, the blight could spread fifty miles per week across the countryside. Phytophthora infestans is susceptible to the cold and can be killed during winter months. However, if even one diseased potato was planted it could ruin all of the surrounding field when the weather returns to its warm and moist atmospheric conditions(McCaffrey, Jill). The water mold Phytophthora infestans caused devastating amounts of damage to Irish potatoes in the year 1845 until 1849. The Irish Potato Famine, also known as The Great Hunger, caused one in eight to die from starvation.
The Irish Potato Famine caused food riots to erupt in ports such as Youghal near Cork where peasants tried, unsuccessfully, to steal a boatload of oats(The Great Hunger). In the winter of 1846 and spring of 1847, protesters and rioters filled the streets of Irish port cities as ships were loaded with goods being shipped to England(McCaffrey, Jill). During the famine years, large quantities of native grown wheat, barley, oats, and oatmeal were shipped to England. Ships full of the crops were shipped to England even though the Irish were dying from starvation. Many peasants had to borrow money at high interest rates from gombeen men, petty money lenders, to provide for themselves and their families(The Blight Begins). This often caused them fall behind on their rent and forced landowners to send them to North America rather than support them in Ireland(McCaffrey, Jill). Many families survived the first year by selling livestock and pawning meager possessions(The Blight Begins). To survive the famine many families had to pawn possessions or immigrate to the United States and
Canada. The British had a major influence on the effects of the famine.
Prime minister Peel came a solution on his own, without informing his conservative government. His plan of action was to import cheap indian corn, maize. Peel imported €100,000 worth of maize from America. The imported corn kept deaths the first year down. The corn, nicknamed Peel’s Brimstone, had to be ground into digestible corn meal. This caused many issues, due to the fact that mills in Ireland were not used to process corn, the mills had to use valuable resources to grind corn twice. To distribute the cornmeal a business like plan was put into place by the Relief Commision. The Relief Commision was composed of landowners, their agents, magistrates, clergy and notable residents. The Relief Commision estimated that four million Irish would need to be fed during the summer and spring of 1846. While the cornmeal could be used to make bread, it lacked the vitamin C potatoes were rich in. The lack of vitamin C caused many families to endure scurvy, a previous unknown disease. The cornmeal was unsatisfying. It caused diarrhea, was hard to digest, and proved difficult to cook with. The corn meal was sold at one penny per pound, however, the peasants soon ran out out money(“The Blight Begins”). While the Irish became accustomed to the cornmeal, the supplies were exhausted by June of
1846. The Relief Effort was eventually taken over by Charles Edward Trevelyan. Trevelyan was a thirty-eight year old English civil servant, an assistant secretary of the British Treasury( “The Blight Begins”). Trevelyan was appointed by Prime Minister Peel to oversee relief operations, however, he was self-righteous, overly bureacrotic and did not have a high opinion on the Irish. This caused Trevelyan to reject loads of maize on the way to ireland. He believed Peel’s policy of providing cheap corn meal was a mistake that undercut market prices and discouraged private food dealers from importing the needed food. Trevelyan claimed that aiding the Irish brought the risk of paralyzing all private enterprises. His reasoning was that he did not want Ireland to become “habitually dependent” on the British government. Trevelyan furthered the damage caused by the blight by not providing adequate relief efforts. The British increased the effects of the famine. In Dungaruan county British troops were pelted with stones. This led them to shoot 26 shots into the crowd, killing 2 peasants and wounding several others. While the British government was not directly responsible for the famine, they took advantage by ensuring increased deaths to further the policy of Anglicization and politial supression. A smaller Irish population would eliminate the growing movement of repeal against the Act of Union and reinstate an Irish parliament(Irish Potato Famine). Crop failure was seen as a “Visitation of Providence,” an expression of devine displeasure with Ireland and its mostly catholic peasant population( F.Y.). During the famine years, many Catholics believed it was devine punishment for the “sins of the people”.However, others said it was judgement against abusive landlords and middlemen. Some people believed, perhaps, the static electricity in the air from the newly arrived trains caused the rotting. Others believed that “mortifeous vapors” from volcanoes at the center of the earth caused the rot. In 1997, Tony Blair, the prime minister made the first formal apology for Britian’s role in the Irish famine. It is questioned that if the British role in the famine is classified as genocide. The British’s failure to provide adequate famine relief can be classified as the nineteenth-century version of genocide because it was in the British governments interest to see a reduction in Irish numbers as a result of starvation and emigration.