Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
The Great Famine, also known as the Great Hunger (Irish: an Gorta Mór [ənˠ ˈɡɔɾˠt̪ˠə ˈmˠoːɾˠ]), the Famine and the Irish Potato Famine, [1] [2] was a period of mass starvation and disease in Ireland lasting from 1845 to 1852 that constituted a historical social crisis and had a major impact on Irish society and history as a whole. [3]
The Irish Famine of 1740–1741 (Irish: Bliain an Áir, meaning the Year of Slaughter) in the Kingdom of Ireland, is estimated to have killed between 13% and 20% of the 1740 population of 2.4 million people, which was a proportionately greater loss than during the Great Famine of 1845–1852.
An 1849 depiction of Bridget O'Donnell and her two children during the famine. The chronology of the Great Famine (Irish: An Gorta Mór [1] or An Drochshaol, lit. ' The Bad Life ') documents a period of Irish history between 29 November 1845 and 1852 [2] during which time the population of Ireland was reduced by 20 to 25 percent. [3]
The European potato failure was a food crisis caused by potato blight that struck Northern and Western Europe in the mid-1840s. The time is also known as the Hungry Forties . While the crisis produced excess mortality and suffering across the affected areas, particularly affected were the Scottish Highlands , with the Highland Potato Famine and ...
Ongoing – Great Hunger: The first deaths from hunger take place early in the year. [1] Phytophthora infestans almost totally destroys the summer potato crop and the Famine worsens considerably. [2] By December a third of a million destitute people are employed on public works. [2]
9–10 November – Peel orders the secret purchase of £100,000 worth of maize and meal from the United States for distribution in Ireland. [5] [7] [8] 15 November – scientific commissioners (appointed in October) report that half the Irish potato crop has been destroyed by the blight. [5] 20 November – a relief commission for Ireland ...
From 1840 to 1845 the labour force involved in agriculture was 1.6 million people. The Great Famine caused the death of an estimated 1 million people. Potato acreage, over 2 million acres in 1845, reduced more than half to a little over 1 million acres in 1846, to 0.3 million in 1847 and back up to 0.7 million acres in the year 1848. [7]
January–February: the 'Great Frost' continues: unusually harsh winter [1] followed by a Spring drought. April – citizens of Drogheda prevent food being exported from their town to Scotland. [2] 31 May – 2 June: bread riots in Dublin. [3] June–December – exceptionally cold weather, leading to the Great Irish Famine (1740–1741). [3]