“One Potato, Two Potato…”

Three potato four, five potato six potato, seven potato–NO MORE.  My great, great grandfather, along with a million other Irish folks, emigrated to foreign lands during the Great Potato Famine…and they were the fortunate ones. Over one million who remained died of starvation and disease.  When researching my family ancestry I kept wondering to myself;

 

How could the innocent root vegetables cause so much devastation?

 

It seems the answer is complex, and all of it really sad.   There were factors leading up to the famine–and a poor response from the British during the blight. The results of the famine, of course, reshaped Ireland forever. In my research and through talking with historian John L. O’Sullivan I discovered these important factors in how the Famine came about:

 

Political reasons:

Back in 1800 the British passed the Act of the Union. It took away Irish Parliament and gave sole power to the British Parliament. In other words, the Irish had little representation, and the Irish Ambassadors they did have were wealthy men living far away in Britain; not aware of the social, religious, political or agricultural issues in Ireland.

Corn laws-Designed to help British growers and consumers against foreign corn imports; it placed a high tariff on imported corn, including Irish grown corn. So Ireland could not compete in the important British market. The Irish ditched corn for potatoes and thus became much more dependent on this cheap, profitable crop.

Pre-Famine landowning:

Wealthy landlords who resided in England owned much of the farmland. They didn’t have direct contact with the tenant farmers or laborers; they hired middlemen to allocate land to and manage the farmers. The farmers in turn subdivided their holdings into very small plots where one family or laborer would farm an acre or less of land. So, the absentee landlords did not know (or care) what was going on in the property they owned, and the small plots called for crop choice.

Potato is the perfect crop because…

They grow well on rocky soil, they produce high yields (farmers could grow more potatoes on one acre than corn, rice or wheat) they did not have a history of blight before the famine, and they could feed the farmer’s family cheaply. The potato, with a bit of milk, had enough protein, starch, vitamins, and minerals to keep a family energized, healthy and satisfied to work and live a good life. In some cases, the potato was grown for family consumption and other crops were grown to sell and turn a profit.

 

All was going well in the years leading up to the famine, the population was increasing and crops were yielding adequate profits. Let’s not forget who benefited from these profits though: the absentee landlords in England, the middlemen and maybe a little went to the farmers. However, the tenant farmers or laborers were still very poor and only subsisted on the crops they grew. When the potato crop became blighted (nasty fungus killed them) things turned bad, but after three years of spoiled crops (from 1845-1848) things turned utterly tragic.

 

During the famine-Where was the help from the British Parliament?

 

Even before the famine, the Irish had begged to ban the exportation or certain foods, but the British refused. During the famine the starving Irish watched their precious crops being shipped to England and other countries. The money they may have earned from these crops did not help them when there was so little food to find.

Poor laws-The British built workhouses and made the Irish work long hours with little pay and very little food. They also established the Relief Works program, again making them endure hard labor for minimal wages and sustenance. When things got out of hand and people were dropping dead on the roads, the British created soup kitchens and passed a terrible new amendment to the Poor law. At this point only the Irish who owned less then a ¼ acre could go to the Workhouses.  Those who owned some land were not allowed to get relief of any kind.  Some desperate folks abandoned their land (they could not pay the landords) to join the Workhouses, while others refused to give up what little they had and died on their barren farms. Workhouses had no better survival rates- and many proud Irishmen did not want to be separated from their families and forces to live in unsanitary conditions crammed together in a hellhole.

The absentee landlords didn’t do much to help either. They insisted on payment of the rent, and if it was not received they sent the middlemen out to their farm to evict them off their land. That created more–out-of work, starving, panicked people. They flocked to the cities with soup kitchens and workhouses; or if they were lucky and had enough money for a ship ticket: they fled Ireland.

The Result of the Famine: 

The numbers seem to be pretty much the same, about a million died and a little over a million people left Ireland. This began the great immigration of the Irish, and this pattern continued on for many years.  My great, great grandfather, Florence Burke was among the fortunate farmers to escape the dying Nation. I still find it mind-boggling that the potato, the same vegetable that Americans take for granted every day, caused so much death and devastation.  But we can’t blame a root vegetable, can we? I think it seems obvious who the culprits were.