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The Great Famine / An Gorta Mórimage - Coggle Diagram
The Great Famine / An Gorta Mór
Life in 1840s Ireland
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Land owned by landlords - came from Protestant Ascendancy class, descended from Protestant planters of the 16th century
1841 - 70% of population lived in the countryside - Dublin, Belfast and Cork the only towns with over 50,000
Rented land to tenant farmers - large farmers rented more than 30 acres, small farmers rented 5-30 acres
Ireland ruled from Westminster, Irish MPs sat in HOC, Irish lords sat in House of lords
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Land given to all sons of the family (subdivision) - as population grew so fast farms thus became smaller
Causes of the Famine
3. Dependence on Potato - poorer families depended on the potato as it was nutritious and easy to grow - 1/3 pf population depended on the potato and had no alternatives
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2. Rise in Population - as population increased, people became poorer - cottier population with less than 5 acres exploded
5. Slow Response of British Government - British peasants not hit as badly as they had alternative foods, MPs in London thought this was also the case in Ireland too and took no steps initially to deal with issue
1. Subdivision of land - farmers subdivided land more and more between their sons as population grew - as farms got smaller, people became poorer
Course of the Famine
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Blight hit again in 1846 - entire crop was destroyed so starvation was rampant among poor of society
Blight spread from America to Ireland in 1845 - farmers noticed stalks turning black and a rotten smell from the fields
1847 - no blight but the fact that there were no remaining seeds meant crop was tiny - widespread malnutrition and starvation
1848 - blight came back, extra potatoes planted rotted, starvation and emigration ramped up
Diseases such as typhus, cholera and dysentery worsened and killed thousands from 1848 onwards
Many unsympathetic Landlords evicted thousands who could not pay rent, others allowed starving tenants to stay
1 million died, 1.5 million emigrated - many died on unsanitary coffin ships bound for America
Irish Diaspora
However, next generation were better educated and got better jobs as teachers, policemen and firefighters - influenced politics of the Democratic Party in the 1900s
Diaspora in Britain - moved to major cities like Liverpool, Manchester, Glasgow and London, lived in ghettos and experienced anti-Irish and sectarian abuse from locals
Discrimination, anti-Catholic and anti-Irish sentiments were rampant
Made a significant contribution in construction and manufacturing, generally took up low paid jobs
Diaspora in America - thousands of Irish went to New York and Boston, worked poorly paid jobs and lived in crowded tenements (women as domestic servants, men in construction)
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