The Irish Famine: Potato Blight (2024)

FAQs

The Irish Famine: Potato Blight? ›

The proximate cause of the famine was the infection of potato crops by blight (Phytophthora infestans) throughout Europe during the 1840s. Blight infection caused 100,000 deaths outside Ireland and influenced much of the unrest that culminated in European Revolutions of 1848.

In 1845 a strain of the water mold Phytophthora infestans, which causes late blight in potatoes (as well as tomato plants), arrived in Ireland accidentally from North America. When plants become infected with it, lesions appear on the leaves, petioles, and stems.

HERB-1, they believe, was responsible for the Great Famine and hundreds of other potato crop failures around the world. It wasn't until the early 20th century that improvements in crop breeding yielded potato varieties that proved resistant to HERB-1 that the deadly infection was stopped in its tracks.

Between 1845-52 Ireland suffered a period of starvation, disease and emigration that became known as the Great Famine. The potato crop, upon which a third of Ireland's population was dependent for food, was infected by a disease destroying the crop.

The Irish Potato Famine, also known as the Great Hunger, began in 1845 when a mold known as Phytophthora infestans (or P. infestans) caused a destructive plant disease that spread rapidly throughout Ireland.

In cool, wet weather, late blight may move rapidly from leaves to petioles and stems and infect an entire field in only a few days. A field heavily infected with late blight will have a distinct fetid odor. The odor is that of rapidly dying potato foliage and is similar to that of vine killing.

Many Irish families re- lied on potatoes as their main source of food. Irish farmers grew other crops too, but everything else was sent to England to pay the farmers' rent. The Irish farmers did not have anything to eat when the crops were bad.

during the famine years? "the fisheries of Iraland, were undeveloped, and in Galway and Mayo the herring fishermen were too poor to buy salt with which to preserve a catch.

P. infestans is infamous for causing the Irish potato famine in the 19th century, yet it remains a major threat to potato crops globally. Understanding its migration and genetic diversity is key to combating its spread.

More than the crop failed, however; so did the entire system by which England gov- erned Ireland. John Mitchel, a witness to the period that the Irish remember as “The Great Hunger,” wrote, “The Almighty, indeed, sent the potato blight, the English created the famine.”

Why are there no photos of the Irish famine? ›

Photographs of the Great Famine in Ireland (1845 – 1852) and famine victims are scarce because photography was a relatively new invention at the time. The equipment needed to produce photographs was expensive and thus only the wealthy classes had access to it.

The Quakers collected mostly American food, flour, rice, biscuits and Indian meal, along with clothes and bedding. They set up soup kitchens, purchased seed, and provided funds for local employment. During 1846–47, the Quakers gave approximately £200,000 for relief in Ireland.

As the people became too weak to labour, British and Anglo-Irish landlords evicted them from their miserable dwellings, leaving them at the mercy of the elements. One and a half million Irish people starved to death, while massive quantities of food were being exported from their country to Britain.

Until the arrival of the potato in the 16th century, grains such as oats, wheat and barley, cooked either as porridge or bread, formed the staple of the Irish diet. The most common form of bread consisted of flatbread made from ground oats.

Blight is a serious disease of potatoes and tomatoes, which can ruin the crops of both vegetables, making them totally inedible. Check plants regularly for symptoms.

Potato is often considered synonymous with Ireland, due to the great Irish famine in 1845, and remains the most important primary food crop in Ireland. Over the last 60 yr, the area of potatoes has reduced from 86,000 ha to 9,000 ha.

The Irish potato famine was not simply a natural disaster. It was a product of social causes. Under British rule, Irish Catholics were prohibited from entering the professions or even purchasing land. Instead, many rented small plots of land from absentee British Protestant landlords.

With almost no genetic diversity in the potato crops, the water mold rapidly spread throughout Ireland, ruthlessly exploiting the identically vulnerable plants. This lead to devastating failures in 1846–49, as each year's potato crop was almost completely ruined by the blight.

Blight is a serious disease of potatoes and tomatoes, which can ruin the crops of both vegetables, making them totally inedible. Check plants regularly for symptoms.