The Great Irish Famine

1. What caused so great a famine?
2. What help was given to its victims?
3. What can we learn from this calamity?

To appreciate the answers to these questions, let us first briefly examine what Irish life was like in the years before the famine.

By the start of the 19th century, Britain had extended its dominion over a large part of the earth. That included Ireland. Much of Ireland was owned by English landlords, many of whom resided in England. These absentee landlords extracted high rents from their Irish tenants and paid low wages for their labor.

Thousands of small farmers, or cottiers, lived in abject poverty. Unable to buy meat or many other foods, the people grew the cheapest, easiest, and most substantial crop they could under these circumstances, the potato.

The potato was introduced into Ireland about 1590. It was very successful because Ireland's wet and mild climate suited its growth and the potato could be grown in very poor soil. It was used as food for both man and animal. By the mid-1800's, just under a third of all arable land was being used to grow potatoes. Almost two thirds of them were for human consumption. The average Irish male ate potatoes every day - and little else!

Since so many people were totally reliant on the potato for food, that situation was a recipe for disaster. What would happen if the crop failed?

The famine started in September 1845 when blight was first noted in the country and by November half the potato crop was ruined.

The origin of Phytophthora infestans, can be traced to a valley in the highlands of central Mexico. The first recorded instances of the disease were in the United States, in Philadelphia and New York City in early 1843. Winds then spread the spores, and in 1845 it was found from Illinois to Nova Scotia, and from Virginia to Ontario. The disease crossed the Atlantic Ocean with a shipment of seed potatoes destined for Belgian farmers in 1845.

Symptoms of the potato blight were then recorded in Belgium in 1845. According to W.C. Paddock, Phytophthora infestans (which is an oomycete, not a fungus) was transported on potatoes being carried to feed passengers on clipper ships sailing from America to Ireland.

The poor-quality seed potatoes that could be rescued were sown the next year, 1846, but blight also destroyed this second crop. As there was nothing left worth harvesting, many farm workers lost their jobs. Farm owners simply could not afford to pay them.

The government set up various relief works, hiring many of these poor folk, mainly for road building, so that they could provide for their families.

Some could only get work in workhouses. These institutions employed destitute people. In return for their labor, workers received food and lodging. The work was harsh. Often, the food was rotten, and the accommodations were very primitive. Many workers did not survive.

These measures did provide some relief. But there was worse to come. The winter of 1846/47 was extremely cold, and it curtailed most of the outside work. Various government agencies distributed free food. After two years, however, government funds for this relief work began to run out, and all the aid provided was hopelessly inadequate for the ever-increasing flood of physically weakened people. Then another devastating blow hit Ireland.

Absentee landlords, many facing large debts themselves, continued to demand their rents. Many of the tenants were unable to pay, and as a result, thousands were evicted from their land. Some tenants simply left the land and went to the cities hoping for a better life. But with no food, no money, and no housing, where were they to go? For growing numbers, emigration became the only option.

A few landlords assisted their former tenants. One, for example, chartered three ships and contributed toward the passage of a thousand of his tenants. Most emigrants, though, had to struggle to find their own fare. Often only one or two from a large family could afford the passage. Imagine the heartbreak at the dockside as thousands of family members said farewell, likely never to see one another again.

The picture below shows emigrants waiting on a quayside looking for passage to America. The signs are advertising services to Boston, New York and Quebec. Some were cheated out of the little money they had brought, to pay their fares, by "fast-talking rogues". In many cases, getting passage on a ship seems to have been a matter of waiting for an opportunity rather than booking tickets in advance.

Immigration was not new. Since the beginning of the 18th century, there had been a steady trickle of immigrants from Ireland to Britain and America. After the winter of 1845, the trickle became a torrent! By 1850, 26 percent of the residents of New York were Irish - there were more Irish-born citizens there than in Ireland's capital city, Dublin.

*During the six years of the famine, five thousand ships made the hazardous 3,000-mile [5,000 km] journey across the Atlantic. Many of the ships were old. Some had previously served as slave ships. They only continued in service because of the emergency. Little improvement had been made in their claustrophobic living quarters. There was no sanitation, and passengers had to survive on only the barest rations.

Thousands of passengers, already weakened by the famine, became sick. Many died while at sea. In 1847, ships bound for Canada came to be called "coffin ships." Of the 100,000 or so emigrants they carried, over 16,000 died either at sea or soon after landing. Letters sent back to friends and relatives in Ireland told of these perilous conditions, but still the emigrants left in droves.

"Ireland is in your hands, in your power. If you do not save her, she cannot save herself. I solemnly call upon you to recollect that I predict with the sincerest conviction that a quarter of her population will perish unless you come to her relief." Daniel O'Connell to the British House of Commons, 1847.

After two successive failed potato crops and mass evictions, the decimated population had to contend with yet another savage blow. Disease! Typhus, dysentery, and scurvy claimed more lives. Many of the survivors must have thought that things could not possibly get worse, but they were wrong.

Encouraged by a successful crop in 1847, farmers trebled the acreage of potato planting in 1848. Then came catastrophe! That summer proved to be very wet. Blight struck once more. The crop was lost for the third time in four seasons. Government agencies and charities were stretched to the breaking point. Even then, the worst was not over. In 1849 a cholera epidemic claimed the lives of a further 36,000.

That epidemic, however, marked a turning point. The next potato crop was successful. Slowly, things improved. The government enacted new laws that canceled all debts resulting from the famine. The population began to grow once more. Although the blight affected a few crops in following years, there was never again anything approaching the scale of the horrors that accounted for the loss of over a quarter of Ireland's population during these tragic years of famine.

Today, all over Ireland, broken-down stone walls and ruined houses stand as stark reminders of the harsh times that resulted in the widespread Irish diaspora. In the United States alone, over 40 million can claim Irish descent. U.S. President John F. Kennedy as well as Henry Ford, inventor of the Ford motor car, were directly descended from emigrants who sailed from Ireland on famine ships.

The repeated failure of the potato crop was, of course, a major factor in this sad story of death and emigration. Another important factor was what the ancient Bible writer described as 'man dominating man to his injury.' (Ecclesiastes 8:9)

The Great Famine of Ireland is memorialized in many locations throughout Ireland, especially in those regions that suffered the greatest losses, and also in cities overseas with large populations descended from Irish immigrants.

Whereas the landlord class had the resources to leave an indelible mark on the landscape, the Irish tenants lived in poverty and nothing of a physical nature has survived to commemorate their lives. Many memorials now serve to do just that.

Below you will find a list of memorials to all the sufferers of the great Irish famine. Not all are pretty but neither was the famine and what my Irish ancestors went through. Many questions are still asked about, how and why this happened. Were there people in high places who helped plan these horrific events as some believe? Or was it just time and unforseen circumstances which tossed the dice with the wrong numbers for the Irish? A long time has gone by since this happened and it is not likely that we will become more enlightened than we already are, but perhaps we may learn something from the past . That is my prayer.

The Irish-Australian community's desire to place a sculpture at the Hyde Park Barracks to commemorate the passage of 150 years since the Great Irish Famine represented a huge challenge. The Barracks in Sydney is imbued with so much of this nation's history that it has almost sacred status in the minds of many Australians and was not taken lightly. The monument erected to the Great Irish Famine is an exception.

Famine Remembrance
Fatherless and motherless, no brothers have I
And all my little sisters in the cold grave lie
Wasted with hunger I saw them falling dead
Lonely and bitter are the tears I shed

To this haunting Irish air, 32 'orphan' girls carrying candles and lilies, and representing an orphan girl from each county of Ireland, walked in procession to the sanctuary. Accompanying each girl was a descendant of the original orphan girls. From the dais each girl read out the name of the orphan she was representing e.g. Catherine Naughton, 18, Galway; Catherine Kean, 17, Clare; Margaret Devlin, 16, Armagh; Anne Bracken, 16, Roscommon; Mary Cassidy, 15, Longford etc

The memorial, sculpted by Angela and Hossein Valamanesh, symbolizes the experiences of young Irishwomen fleeing the Great Irish Famine of 1845-49.

"The table, split in two, has on one end a simple bowl with a void in its base that continues through the table. At the other end is a simple institutional table-setting, with bread and utensils also cast in bronze. This further symbolizes the contrast between hunger and comfort, which underpinned the role of the Barracks as shelter. The suggestion of continuity in the two ends of the table represents the continuous and evolving relationships between the site and the lives of those who immigrated. The table and the more intimate spaces created within the rotated wall evoke the domestic nature of life and work for the majority of Irish women migrants while their simplicity and sparseness allude to the subject of the Famine." WGT

Hyde Park Barracks, Sydney, drawing by Hardy Wilson. National Library Australia

~ In Boston, Massachusetts, a bronze statue located at the corner of Washington and School Streets on the Freedom Trail depicts a starving woman, looking up to the heavens as if to ask "Why?", while her children cling to her. A second sculpture shows the figures hopeful as they land in Boston.
~ Buffalo, New York has a stone memorial on its waterfront.
~ Cambridge, Massachusetts has a memorial to the famine on its Common.
~ Chicago, Illinois has a Famine Memorial at Chicago Gaelic Park.
~ Cleveland, Ohio A 12-foot (3.7 m) high stone Celtic cross, located on the east bank of the Cuyahoga River.
~ In Fairfield, Connecticut a memorial to the Famine victims stands in the chapel of Fairfield University.
~ In Hamden, Connecticut, a collection of art and literature from the Great Famine is on display in the Lender Family Special Collection Room of the Arnold Bernhard Library at Quinnipiac University.
~ Irish Hills, Michigan - The Ancient Order of Hibernian's An Gorta Mor Memorial is located on the grounds of St. Joseph's Shrine in the Irish Hills district of Lenawee County, Michigan. There are thirty-two black stones as the platform, one for each county. The grounds are surrounded with a stone wall. The Lintel is a step from Penrose Quay in Cork Harbour. The project was the result of several years of fundraising by the Ancient Order of Hibernians in Lenewee County. It was dedicated in 2004 by AOH Divisional President, Patrick Maguire, and many political and Irish figures from around the state of Michigan.
~ Keansburg, NJ has a Hunger Memorial in Friendship Park on Main Street.
~ New York, New York has the Irish Hunger Memorial which looks like a sloping hillside with low stone walls and a roofless cabin on one side and a polished wall with lit (or white) lines on the other three sides. The memorial is in Battery Park City, a short walk west from the World Trade Center site. Another memorial exists in V.E. Macy Park in Ardsley, New York about 32 km north of Manhattan.
~ Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
~ Phoenix, Arizona has a famine memorial in the form of a dolmen at the Irish Cultural Center.
~ Hackensack New Jersey has a large stone located on the front corner of the Bergen County Government Court House on Main Street, honoring all of those who perished in the famine. Every year in October, numerous Irish-American organizations from northern New Jersey hold a ceremony to remember all of those who perished.

The Boston Irish Famine Memorial is a tribute to an entire generation of Irish men, women and children whose lives were disrupted by a series of events that took place 150 years ago. Nearly one million Irish died of starvation and disease, and another two million fled the country, emigrating largely to North America. The remaining population was left to contend with death, dislocation, poverty, and the near ruination of a culture that had flourished for centuries.

Over 100,000 Irish refugees landed in Boston, taking a perilous voyage across the Atlantic Ocean. So many Irish died at sea that poet John Boyle O'Reilly called the Atlantic Ocean upon which they traveled "a bowl of tears."

Settling into overcrowded, unsanitary tenement housing along Boston's waterfront and in the North End, this generation of Irish endured great hardship and humiliation, plagued by poverty and disease. The average life span of an Irish immigrant in Boston was 14 years. They were met with a mixture of compassion and resentment. "Native Bostonians might have been willing to send money and food to aid the starving Irish as long as they remained in Ireland," wrote historian Thomas O'Connor. "But they certainly didn't want them coming to America." 'No Irish Need Apply' signs in newspaper ads and storefront windows were common, as native Americans, strenuously opposed to foreigners, continued to harass the struggling Irish.

emigration
specifically denoting the leaving of a country to settle in another
immigration
the coming into the new country
migration
to move from one place to another; esp., to leave one's country and settle in another.

In writing this lens, I tried to use the proper wording .. at times it was almost impossible to decide.

~ Strokestown Park Famine Museum, Ireland
~ Custom House Quays, Dublin, Ireland. Painfully thin sculptural figures, by artist Rowan Gillespie, stand as if walking towards the emigration ships on the Dublin Quayside.
~ St. Stephen's Green, Dublin, Ireland. "Famine", a sculpture by Edward Delaney.
~ Limerick, The 'Broken Heart' Famine memorial, Lower Mallow Street. The sculpture is a fountain in the shape of a broken heart in memory of the forced emigration of several thousands who fled to America and beyond from nearby Steamboat Quay. Also in Limerick city, the Pauper's Graveyard (now known as St Brigid's cemetery) in Killeely. Here a large timber cross was erected on the site of this mass graveyard. There are no headstones.
~ Murrisk, County Mayo, Ireland. This sculpture of a famine ship, near the foot of Croagh Patrick, depicts the refugees it carries as dead souls hanging from the sides.
~ Donaghmore Famine Museum - set in Donaghmore Workhouse in County Laois.
~ Doolough, County Mayo. A memorial commemorates famine victims who walked from Louisburgh along the mountain road to Delphi Lodge to seek relief from the Poor Board who were meeting there. Returning after their request was refused, many of them died at this point. This became known as the Doolough Tragedy.
~ Doagh Island, Inishowen, County Donegal, Ireland. Doagh Visitor Centre and Famine Museum has exhibits and memorial on the effects of the famine in Inishowen, Donegal.
~ Ennistymon, County Clare, Ireland. This was the first memorial in Ireland to honour those who suffered and were lost during the Great Famine. It is erected across the street from an abandoned workhouse where an estimated 20,000 Irish died and a mass graveyard for children who perished and were buried without coffins.
~ Sligo, County Sligo, has three memorial sculptures erected by the Sligo Famine Commemoration Committee. One is at the quayside, of a family comforting each other, where 30,000 people emigrated between 1847 and 1851. The other two are the gates of a famine graveyard and of a tree (called Faoin Sceach) in the grounds of the graveyard, where approximately 2,000 famine victims are buried.
~ Newcastle West, Co. Limerick, The Famine Graveyard is at the rear of modern day St. Ita's Hospital. Hundreds of people who died during the famine are buried there in unmarked graves. The cemetery is marked by a plain old cross. Close by stands the Workhouse.
~ Kilkenny in the McDonagh Junction complex. The memorial is marked by a small garden, where many bodies were found during an excavation.
~ Ballingarry Famine Warhouse 1848. Widow McCormack's house, the site of the 1848 rebellion, has now been converted into a museum.

Memorial at Ireland Park on Bathurst Quay, Toronto

~ Grosse-Île, Quebec, Canada, the largest famine grave site outside of Ireland. A large Celtic cross, erected by the Ancient Order of Hibernians, stands in remembrance overlooking the St. Lawrence River. The island is a Canadian national historic site.
~ Quebec City, Quebec, Canada, 12-foot (3.7 m) limestone cross donated by the government of Ireland in 1997.
~ Kingston, Ontario, Canada, has three monuments. Celtic cross at An Gorta Mor Park on the waterfront. Another is located at Skeleton (McBurney) Park (formerly Kingston Upper Cemetery). Angel of Resurrection monument, first dedicated in 1894 at St. Mary's cemetery.
~ Maidstone, Ontario, Canada, has a nine foot stone Celtic Cross at the cemetery outside St. Mary's Church
~ Montreal, Quebec, Canada, the "Boulder Stone" in Pointe-Saint-Charles
~ Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Four bronze statues arriving at the Toronto wharves, at Ireland Park on Bathurst Quay, modeled after the Dublin Departure Memorial. List of names of those who died of typhus in the Toronto fever sheds shortly after their arrival. Current memorial plaque at Metro Hall. Also a pieta statue outside St. Paul's Catholic Basilica in memory of the famine victims and Bishop Michael Power, who died tending to the sick.

A special theme of "Bringing them all Back Home," as the Irish Diaspora are invited to come to New Ross for a celebration of Irish - American Culture and the Immigrant Experience, featuring the unveiling of A "Wall of Honour" adjacent to the Dunbrody Famine Ship, dedicated to those who left Ireland's shores in times gone by, and an International Music Festival.

There are many events taking place in this year's Festival such as;
- Town Park Open Air Concerts
- Carlsberg pubs music trail
- Sporting events
For this years program of events, please Click Here

Contact
Address:New Ross, Wexford, Republic Of Ireland
Telephone: 051 421284
Web: www.jfkdunbrodyfestival.org

It was an honor to have been chosen to be a featured lens at Lost Art of Reading Group.
Thank you Kevin.

~LaraineRose

by our SQUID TEAM in their lens: BEST of ST. PATRICK'S DAY ON SQUIDOO

Thank you!

~ LaraineRose

I've been wondering if there has been any consideration given to concerns current citizens of Canada and USA have regarding the screening of emigrants into our countries. Although I am all for helping other nations I am happy to note that there are now more precautions taken than ever before. The following article explains what some counties have in place.

Bucks, Montco Join New Immigration Enforcement Program

By Michael P. Tremoglie, The Bulletin
Published: Wednesday, December 24, 2008
The Departments of Homeland Security (DHS) and Justice (DOJ) launched the Secure Communities program this month in Bucks and Montgomery counties. These are the first counties in Pennsylvania to join this program, which is administered by DHS's Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), will enable authorities to better identify and remove criminal aliens from these communities.

They will now be able to check the immigration history of every individual booked into detention facilities in the two counties. Additionally, ICE will be automatically notified when non-U.S. citizens are in custody to determine if follow-up action is necessary.

"Secure Communities will create a constant ICE presence at every local jail, allowing us to identify and ultimately remove dangerous incarcerated criminal aliens from our communities," said Executive Director for ICE Secure Communities David Venturella.

NEW YORK - The immigration story at the Ellis Island Immigration Museum will be broadened to include those who arrived in America before and after the peak years between 1892 and 1954.

The museum foundation announced that it was creating The Peopling of America Center within the existing museum to tell the stories of those immigrants.

Statue of Liberty-Ellis Island Foundation President Stephen Briganti says it will focus on the arrival of Native Americans, Europeans from the 1600s through 1892, slaves brought from Africa and today's immigrants from all over the globe.

Work on the new $20 million exhibition space began in September. Upon its completion in 2011, the museum was renamed Ellis Island: The National Museum of Immigration.

Twenty, fifty or even one hundred years ago imagine looking out of the windows at Ellis Island and seeing a city that you had never seen before and only dreamed about. There you could see tall buildings all lit up with something you had never had, electricity.

Did You Know?
Ellis Island officially opened as an immigration station on January 1, 1892. Fifteen year-old Annie Moore, from County Cork, Ireland was the first immigrant processed at the new federal immigration depot. (Annie Moore statue pictured here.)

Did You Know?
Ellis Island was the busiest federal immigration station in America. On April 17, 1907 Ellis Island processed a record 11,747 immigrants. Today, the US Customs and Border Protection processes over 700,000 aliens daily through 326 official entry points and Ports of Entry.

Did You Know?
During the island's 62 years of operation, over 17 million immigrants were processed at Ellis Island, including those who have become notable in society such as: Frank Capra, Bela Lugosi, Baron Von Trapp, Irving Berlin, Max Factor, Xavier Cugat, Rudolph Valentino, Igor Sikorsky and Bob Hope.

Did You Know?
Ellis Island's south side contains nearly 30 buildings that are unrestored. These structures included hospitals, quarantine and psychopathic facilities for immigrants needing treatment or isolation. The U.S. Public Health Service used these facilities during the station's operation.

This is so lovely - I hope that you will enjoy it as much as I did. Lovely music and big, beautiful pictures of Ireland. Believe me it is worth watching! Enjoy!

A Traditional Irish Blessing For You

The Great Irish Famine - An Epic of Death and Immigration received a Purple Star on October 4, 2010.

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RELATED RESOURCES:

Irish Famine Monument, Sydney, Australia www.irishfaminememorial.org.

Francis Greenway, Wikipedia.org http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_Greenway

More on Australia in WGT's Archives http://www.thewildgeese.com/pages/archives.html#australia

More on An Gorta Mor in WGT's Archives
http://www.thewildgeese.com/pages/famhist.html