Matt Walker
41169 Eng. 2010-30
Essay #2
Irish Famine
Nothing like it had ever been experienced before, the crops had failed, but not just any
crop it was the most important crop to the Irish people, the potatoes. It was 1845 and Ireland
was just as green and beautiful as it is today. Until this time the residents there planted the
staple potato crop from year to year and it never ceased to work, providing a nutritious diet to
the people in its variety. But a certain “fog” was the culprit to hindering the growth of the
potatoes in all of Ireland causing many different events for good and for bad (Gaven).
Only about a quarter of the population of Ireland could actually read and write. Most of
the population of Ireland was potato farmers making up most of the lower class. The rich soil
of Ireland allowed farmers to use a form of planting called “lazy bed” planting (Gaven). You can
only imagine what kind of work that would take to fill many acres of land with a healthy crop of
potatoes. According to Phillip Gaven most or all of the farmers would live in a one room mud
house with twelve or fewer occupants along with a few of their smaller livestock all in
communities called “Clachans” (Gaven). Given the circumstances at that time one could say
that, “all was fine and dandy, the crops were growin’ fine, and everyone was chipper.” But we
live in a fallen world where challenges, by nature, are nearly beckoned.
Mysteriously the famine began in September by an airborne fungus, the certain
fog, brought by ships from North America. All the potatoes began to die as spores of fungus
landed atop the leaves and into the potato root itself, destroying the entire plant and rendering
it inedible for human consumption. Many relief programs came from England to support the
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Irish people with food but over time they knew there was not enough food to sustain them for
long (Gaven).
It was the MCcleary family who had come from Northern Ireland that was a part
of my family lineage. (Walker) Among them was a woman named Jesse Pender
whose grandfather lived in Ireland and Scotland. Jesse explained the hardships of
the famine for her grandfather and his family, “They had taken refuge in
Scotland; my grandfather was born when they were on their way back home. His
mother was taken sick in and out of the country, and so the only place available
was the barn. He was born in a cow’s manger, his poor mother didn’t have much
time to rest and was on their way home soon and many people traveled with
them.” (Pender 2)
The McClearys had left Ireland due to a revolution which had previously driven them
out, taking refuge in Scotland. On their way back home to Ireland Jesse’s grandfather was born
in the barn and then lived in Ireland as a child. At the age 12 he joined the Merchant Marines as
a sailor and nearly escaped the famine. It was Jesse’s grandfather’s parents, the McClearys,
who died in the famine when they had returned to Ireland, getting caught up in that
catastrophe. Jesse’s grandfather never returned to Ireland learning that his family died when
he tried to return; he had nothing to return home to, his family was gone. But later Jesse’s
grandfather met his wife when he traveled to Utah and found a happier meaning to life. From
this description you can only imagine the creativity of people when it came to giving their
family a chance at survival, dying or not. (Walker)
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The potato famine or “the blight” as they would always refer to it, changed the lives of
millions of people. From 1845 to 1947 one million people died from starvation and an
additional 50,000 people died of diseases and many more emigrated out of Ireland to escape
the devastation. The population took a steep dive from eight million to six million effecting
close to two million people total (Lee). The change of the natural landscape of Ireland was
virtually catastrophic and put many people and their animals into the ground to be heard of no
more.
The Mccleary family was one of the many victims who had died of starvation. Upon their
return to Ireland they virtually had no clue the fungus was taking over the staple crop, their life
source. But they wanted to return to their small village in Northern Ireland because it was
home. It was a homely village being nearly one of the plushest green and vitalized part of
Ireland just as any part of Ireland could have ever been. The ground was yielding any crop you
wanted to place in it. Life was good for my ancestors but the fungus was far too strong for the
fertile ground (Walker).
It was called “The Great Hunger” to the people of Ireland, almost a process that led to
the many deaths, including a few of my ancestors, from starvation. It started in 1846 as one of
the liberal government leaders of Britain, named Trevelyan, started the process of The Great
Hunger by preventing ships from bringing Indian corn to relieve the people. Trevelyan didn’t
want the Irish population to become “habitually dependent” on the British government and
openly claimed his desire to make “Irish property support Irish poverty”. The domino effect
continued as all government food relief was terminated. The Irish tried to plant diseased potato
sprouts from the previous year to no avail; at first the crops appeared healthy, but by harvest
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time the blight struck ferociously, spreading fifty miles per week across the countryside,
destroying nearly every potato in Ireland (Gaven).
The economy of Ireland was plummeting at a fast rate and the governments of Ireland
and Britain were nearly pushing it along to promote emigration out of Ireland; jobs were losing
their dire interest. Later an act was instituted called the Poor Law Extension Act of 1847
denying aid to tenant farmers with over a quarter of an acre of land. This Act promoted the
emigration and increased land clearance which gave the British land owners a huge benefit, but
it all caused more death than life. From so many deaths and emigration they had to create
“coffin ships” which were wet, leaky holds of wooden ships returning to North America. The
emigrants would ride on these ships and crammed with as many as 900 people with barely
room to stand. Nearly half the people died during the voyage and the other half arrived in
North America unable to disembark, without assistance, due to sickness and starvation (Lee).
Nearly 150 years has passed since the potato famine and it is evident that the spread of
the Irish people is seen all throughout North America. It is humbling to know that my ancestors
went through such a challenge even to leaving one man standing. But there is the example of
persistence and adaption that I see most evident in the lives of my ancestors. Like Jesse
Pender’s great grandmother who gave birth in a barn and trekked parts of Scotland and Ireland
to Pender’s grandfather who didn’t give up living after his whole family was obliterated by a
famine, I see good, hard working people who never gave up. From those examples came
inspiration to the descendants of those ancestors and even to myself. It is those of my Irish
ancestors who persisted, who will never be forgotten.
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Works Cited
Gaven, Philip. The History Place. 12 June 2000. 12 June 2000
<http://www.historyplace.com/worldhistory/famine>.
Lee, Dr. James R. The Mandala Projects. 10 May 1996. 10 May 1996
<http://www1.american.edu/ted/potato.htm>.
Pender, Jesse. "Memoirs." Memoirs (1938): 35.
Walker, Erin. Mother Matt Walker. 9 October 2011.
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