Depth Study: The Irish Famine 1843-51
The Irish Famine 1843-51
Causes of the Famine
Absentee Landlords – landowners that often moved to England so let middlemen rent and
look after land
- Significance = landlords had regular income as leases were usually for at least 21
years, middle man could then subdivide between tenant farmers to earn back rent
- This instituted a continual subdivision into smaller and smaller parcels led to rent
to cottiers usually 1-3 acres and leasing for short term only about a year.
- Absentee landlord had no reason to make improvements, Irish agriculture stagnated
with little or no substantial improvement undertaken in the pre-famine period.
Landholdings
- Only 7% of landholding over 30 acres, 45% under 5 acres. In Connacht 64% below 5
acres
- Cottiers were subsistence-based often working laboring the land in return for a
generally bad plot of land. Hand-to-mouth living. 300,000 cottiers in Ireland in 1940s,
poorest members of society.
- This farming exhausted the land drawing out vital nutrients, and potatoes wouldn’t
last in the event of a bad harvest
Monoculture and Blight
- The premium on land meant few farmers could diversify = monoculture
- Potato produced high yield compared to grain crops. Potato 1/5 of country’s total
agricultural output.
- ‘Lumper’ potato grown due to high yielding qualities – 6-8 tons per acre. Families
consumed 10-15 per day. But perishable
- July 1845 long spell of wet weather. August 1845 England suffered potato blight.
September spread to Ireland.
- 1845 1/3 harvest destroyed, 1846 ¾, 1847 average, 1848 1/3 lost.
Key impacts
- RURAL worst affected e.g. Cavan 42.7% mortality rate
- SMALLHOLDINGS (64% less than 5 acres so significant problem)
- COTTIERS most affected as they relied on small plots and the potato – often became
homeless or travelled to find food / work. Cottier social group declined irretrievably
- Wealthier farmers also affected by ¾ million acre drop in potato
- Disease – relapsing fever and typhus. Young and old esp. vulnerable
- 1847 worst year – “Black 47” but 1845-8 all harvests affected (ended 1851)
- 1 million deaths by 1851 (20% of population)
- Revealed vulnerabilities in Irish agricultural system
- Over 1 million migrated to US / UK by 1851
Can be summarized as…
1. Social = loss of life
2. Economic = fewer workers / lack of trade due to death
3. Political = British response / Cottiers dying out / migration leads to British
resentment
The Irish Famine 1843-51
Causes of the Famine
Absentee Landlords – landowners that often moved to England so let middlemen rent and
look after land
- Significance = landlords had regular income as leases were usually for at least 21
years, middle man could then subdivide between tenant farmers to earn back rent
- This instituted a continual subdivision into smaller and smaller parcels led to rent
to cottiers usually 1-3 acres and leasing for short term only about a year.
- Absentee landlord had no reason to make improvements, Irish agriculture stagnated
with little or no substantial improvement undertaken in the pre-famine period.
Landholdings
- Only 7% of landholding over 30 acres, 45% under 5 acres. In Connacht 64% below 5
acres
- Cottiers were subsistence-based often working laboring the land in return for a
generally bad plot of land. Hand-to-mouth living. 300,000 cottiers in Ireland in 1940s,
poorest members of society.
- This farming exhausted the land drawing out vital nutrients, and potatoes wouldn’t
last in the event of a bad harvest
Monoculture and Blight
- The premium on land meant few farmers could diversify = monoculture
- Potato produced high yield compared to grain crops. Potato 1/5 of country’s total
agricultural output.
- ‘Lumper’ potato grown due to high yielding qualities – 6-8 tons per acre. Families
consumed 10-15 per day. But perishable
- July 1845 long spell of wet weather. August 1845 England suffered potato blight.
September spread to Ireland.
- 1845 1/3 harvest destroyed, 1846 ¾, 1847 average, 1848 1/3 lost.
Key impacts
- RURAL worst affected e.g. Cavan 42.7% mortality rate
- SMALLHOLDINGS (64% less than 5 acres so significant problem)
- COTTIERS most affected as they relied on small plots and the potato – often became
homeless or travelled to find food / work. Cottier social group declined irretrievably
- Wealthier farmers also affected by ¾ million acre drop in potato
- Disease – relapsing fever and typhus. Young and old esp. vulnerable
- 1847 worst year – “Black 47” but 1845-8 all harvests affected (ended 1851)
- 1 million deaths by 1851 (20% of population)
- Revealed vulnerabilities in Irish agricultural system
- Over 1 million migrated to US / UK by 1851
Can be summarized as…
1. Social = loss of life
2. Economic = fewer workers / lack of trade due to death
3. Political = British response / Cottiers dying out / migration leads to British
resentment
