Artifact #6
In 1845, what was known as the Potato Blight spread across Ireland. This ruined all the potato crop in the area, which killed many people due to the fact that they had nothing else to eat. Due to many people dying, there had to be another name for that, which was called the Great Irish Famine and lasted for about five years. Many people depended on the potato in Ireland because the plant is easy to grow, especially in poor soils. So, more and more people started to grow potatoes, which would mean that the food would be a staple in many people’s meals. According to medicalnewstoday.com, the potato can help with your blood pressure, bone health, inflammation, heart health, and more. So, I would assume that not only did the farmers like the plant because it was easy to grow, but also because they felt like they were the healthiest that they had ever been. There are two reasons why the blight occurred. One was because in 1845, Ireland experienced unusually cool, moist weather. Also, because a type of algae, called Phytophthora,infectans came over to Ireland from North America. The name comes from the Greek word meaning destruction, due to all the damage the algae can do to other plants. This alga grew like a tumor on the nodes, killing most of the crop that year. The next couple of years resulted in poor crop yields as well. An estimated one million people died to starvation, typhus, and other infectious disease. This caused the Irish government to import more food from Europe and North America. This caused for the landowners to pay for the food that was incoming. And since there was little to sell, many farmers then became tenant farmers or laborers to the bigger landowners. Britain tried to help by funding soup kitchens, and public works jobs, but this just made the Irish people resent Britain more because of their reliance on the poorly nutritional imported meals. While another two million were estimated to have emigrated from Ireland. This decline continued for decades afterwards, and by the early 20th century, Ireland’s population was half of what it had been in the 1840s. Due to so many people either dying or leaving, This lead to more grazing land for sheep and cattle, which led to more animal food export to Britain.
Works Cited:
https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/280579#10_possible_health_benefits
https://www.britannica.com/event/Great-Famine-Irish-history
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phytophthora