Mahon was later murdered by his vengeful tenants. In all over 70, evictions took place during the famine, displacing up to , people. Being evicted often meant that Bailiffs and the Sheriff, usually with a police or military escort, not only ejected tenants from their homes but also commonly burned the cabins to prevent their reoccupation.
Losing a house and shelter in midst of the famine greatly increased the chances of dying. Though some landlords went to great lengths to set up charities and soup kitchens, the popular memory of the famine years was of the tyranny of cruel landlords backed by the British state.
The British administration in Dublin was overwhelmed by the famine crisis, seeing 5 Chief Secretaries and 4 Lord Lieutenants in just six years from Russell and the Treasury official in charge of famine relief, Charles Trevelyan are therefore often seen as being culpable for the worst of the famine. They were reluctant to either stop the export of food from Ireland or to control prices and did neither, in fact deploying troops to guard food that was being exported from Ireland.
They put more faith in the public works scheme, first initiated by the Peel government, by which the destitute poor worked for wages. But many were by this stage too weak and malnourished to work. The Liberal Government cancelled the soup kitchen aid programme at the height of the famine and discontinued direct financial aid from the London government. In January , the Government set up free soup kitchens; which were inexpensive and relatively successful at feeding the poor.
But, worried that the poor, 3 million of whom were attending the soup kitchens by mid , would become dependent on the Government, they discontinued the soup kitchens at the height of the famine in August In June of that year, the Government decided not to use any more Imperial i. It is calculated that only one third of landlords actually contributed at all towards famine relief. Taken together, these decisions had a calamitous impact, not only failing to solve the crisis but undoubtedly making it far worse than it need have been.
Twice a week we compile our most fascinating features and deliver them straight to you. Live TV. This Day In History. History Vault. Recommended for you. Irish Potato Famine. By September , the local relief committees that operated the soup kitchens were almost bankrupt, and the government shut down the soup kitchens after only six months.
With no more soup kitchens to feed starving people, little hope was left. Driven by panic and desperation, a flood of emigrants left Ireland in Many left dressed in rags with not enough food to last the day journey across the Atlantic and not enough money to buy food sold on board. Some went to Great Britain and to Australia, but most intended to go to America.
Because fares on the Canadian ships were cheaper, many emigrants went by way of Canada and walked across the border into Maine and then south through New England. The shipowners were happy to carry human ballast, but their ships were not equipped for passenger travel. The conditions on the timber ships were horrible. One philanthropist, named Stephen de Vere, traveled as a steerage passenger in the spring of and described the suffering he saw:.
Hundreds of poor people, men, women and children of all ages, from the driveling idiot of ninety to the babe just born, huddled together without air, wallowing in filth and breathing a fetid atmosphere, sick in body, dispirited in heart. One expert has calculated that almost 30 percent of the , immigrants to Canada in died on the ships or during quarantine, and another 10, died on their way to the United States.
Others who could afford the fare traveled directly to New York on American ships where conditions were much better. Some were already suffering from fever and were kept in quarantine on Staten Island. But the vast majority of immigrants who came between and did survive the journey. Almost all of the Irish who immigrated to America were poor peasants from rural counties. Most were illiterate, and many spoke only Irish and could not understand English.
And although they had lived off the land in their home country, the immigrants did not have the skills needed for large-scale farming in the American West. The men took whatever jobs they could find—loading ships at the docks, sweeping streets, cleaning stables. The women took jobs as servants to the rich or working in textile factories.
Most stayed in slum tenements near the ports where they arrived and lived in basements and attics with no water, sanitation, or daylight. Many children took to begging, and men often spent what little money they had on alcohol. The Irish immigrants were not well-liked and often treated badly.
Many unskilled workers feared being put out of work by Irish immigrants willing to work for less than the going rate. The Irish also faced religious prejudice as almost all of them were Catholic. With the large number of Irish immigrants flooding into the cities, Catholicism came close to being the largest single Christian denomination in the country.
Many Protestants feared that the Irish were under the power of the Pope and could never be truly patriotic Americans. Large numbers of Irish Catholics who had enlisted in the Union Army and fought bravely at the battles of Antietam and Gettysburg came back from the war and found that things were beginning to change.
As America became more industrialized after the Civil War, Irish laborers found new, and better-paid, work. Many worked building railroads and in factories and mines. They helped organize trade unions and led strikes for shorter hours and better pay. And many became involved in local political machines and began to play a role in city and state politics. The political machines, like Tammany Hall in New York, were associated with the Democratic Party and ran many of the big cities.
In return for their political support, the Tammany Hall bosses helped immigrants through the naturalization process and even provided necessities like food and coal in time of emergency. The Irish Catholics ran Tammany Hall for years and helped many poor immigrant groups, including Poles, Italians, and Jews, as well as their own. The Irish rose out of the ghetto not only because of politics, but also because of education.
As the families of Irish immigrants became more prosperous, they were able to send their children to Catholic parochial schools run by the local parishes.
Although estimates vary, it is believed as many as 1 million Irish men, women and children perished during the Famine, and another 1 million emigrated from the island to escape poverty and starvation, with many landing in various cities throughout North America and Great Britain. However, the significance of the Potato Famine or, in the Irish language, An Gorta Mor in Irish history, and its contribution to the Irish diaspora of the 19th and 20th centuries, is beyond doubt.
Tony Blair , during his time as British Prime Minister, issued a statement in offering a formal apology to Ireland for the U. In recent years, cities to which the Irish ultimately emigrated during and in the decades after the event have offered various commemorations to the lives lost.
In addition, Glasgow Celtic FC, a soccer team based in Scotland that was founded by Irish immigrants, many of whom were brought to the country as a result of the effects of the Potato Famine, has included a commemorative patch on its uniform—most recently on September 30, —to honor the victims of the Great Hunger.
A Great Hunger Museum has been established at Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Connecticut as a resource for those seeking information on the Potato Famine and its impact, as well as for researchers hoping to explore the event and its aftermath. How was Queen Victoria involved, how many people died and when did it happen? But if you see something that doesn't look right, click here to contact us!
Subscribe for fascinating stories connecting the past to the present. About 33 million Americans can trace their roots to Ireland, the small island off the western coast of Europe, which has a population of just 4. The Irish, like many immigrant groups arriving in America, were fleeing hardships at home, only to endure further troubles Scientists have long known that it was a strain of Phytophthora infestans or P. The refugees seeking haven in America were poor and disease-ridden.
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