The Irish Potato Famine

Historical tragic events that have occurred in the world have made a colossal effect on its society. Europe has gotten through a lot of historic and eventful phenomenons in the 19th century. Nevertheless, in the 19th century the Irish Potato Famine was the most tragic occurrence in Europe history. No one could predict this historic event to ever take place. The Irish Potato Famine also called Great Famine, Great Irish Famine, or Famine of 1945-52, was an interval of disease, mass starvation, and emigration in Ireland. It was a substantial turning point in Ireland’s history according to historians. It created a great deal of suffering for the people of Ireland. It resulted in a great number of deaths and a historic emigration caused by potato

The decline in the population was a substantial amount as well as the crop failure. The Irish famine eliminated approximately one million people, or one-eighth of the whole population. This established it as a major famine, comparatively expounding, by world-historical standards. “The famine proved to be a watershed in the demographic history of Ireland. As a direct consequence of the famine, Ireland’s population of almost 8.4 million in 1844 had fallen to 6.6 million by 1851. The number of agricultural labourers and smallholders in the western and southwestern counties underwent an especially drastic decline.” (Mokyr, Joel). The trounce of the famine had not yet transpired, the blight had destroyed only a segment of the potato crop in 1845, and destroyed all the crops by

The Irish emigrated for a better life away from the famine. Approximately 1.3 million of the population was estimated to have emigrated in the prompt famine period, with the despair and depression that trailed extended the decline until the subsequent half of the 20th century. These migrants predominantly ended up in mostly North America, and some in Australia and Britain. “Between 1845 and 1855, 1.5 million people left for good. In 1845, emigration was at the pre-famine rate of 50,000 per year. In 1846 100,000 left. It peaked in 1847, when 250,000 left. Over the next 5 years it averaged 200,000 per year, before the numbers fell off. By 1855, the rate was down to 70,000 per year.” (Abbot, Patrick). Of the countries the population fled to, 70% went to the United States, 28% to Canada, and 2% to Australia. The fares to Canada were roughy 55 shillings, while a fare to the United States would cost around 70 shillings. Those that emigrated to the United States, the “immigration records indicate that by 1850, the Irish made up 43 percent of the foreign-born population. Up to ninety percent of the Irish arriving in America remained in cities. New York now had more Irish-born citizens than Dublin. Those who did not stay in New York or Boston traveled to places such as Albany, Cincinnati, Pittsburgh, Chicago, and out west to Butte, Montana, and San Francisco. Upon arrival, the Irishman and his family would usually go straight to