The Great Irish Famine

The Great Irish Famine – Cathal Póirtéir

Between 1845 and 1852, Ireland suffered one of the worst catastrophes in modern European history. A blight destroyed the potato crop on which millions of the poorest people depended, and over the following years around a million people died of starvation and disease, while a million or more emigrated. The Great Famine transformed Ireland’s population, society, politics and culture, and its memory continues to shape Irish identity at home and across the diaspora.

The Great Irish Famine, edited by Cathal Póirtéir, a writer and broadcaster with Irish public radio, brings together essays by leading historians and scholars based on a series of radio lectures produced to mark the famine’s 150th anniversary. Together, they offer a wide-ranging introduction to the subject.

The essays examine the causes of the famine, including the dependence of so much of the population on a single crop, the system of landholding and the poverty of rural Ireland before the blight. They explore the responses of the British government and its policies of relief, public works, soup kitchens and workhouses, and the debates about how much more could have been done. Other contributions discuss the role of landlords and evictions, the experiences of different regions, disease and mortality, emigration to Britain, North America and elsewhere, and the famine’s long-term demographic, economic and political consequences, as well as how it has been remembered.

Clear, authoritative and accessible, The Great Irish Famine is a valuable read for students and general readers interested in Irish history. It includes harrowing accounts of suffering and death.