8 - Explaining the Famine

Summary

The Arrival of Blight

The Great Famine is, by virtue of its catastrophic nature, guaranteed a central place in any account of modern Ireland. The narrative may be simply recounted. A warm summer in 1845 gave every sign that there would be a good harvest of potatoes that August. ‘The doomed plant’, wrote Fr Mathew in retrospect, ‘bloomed in all the luxuriance of an abundant harvest.’ Nobody reckoned on the appearance of a blight, Phytophthora infestans, which within months had destroyed three-quarters of that year's yield. Stores were quickly used up and the prospects for those dependent on the potato began to look bleak indeed. 1846 brought no improvement – the fungus throve in the mild moist climate. The realities became even bleaker as thousands succumbed to starvation and disease. In 1847, there was a small yield but in 1848–49, the blight struck again and the burden fell, heavier than before, on a debilitated population. This was a subsistence crisis on a catastrophic scale, leading to over a million excess deaths. The Ireland of 1851 was a much reduced place.

Famine as Heritage

The Famine's status as global calamity has been confirmed by the proliferation of ‘places of memory’ – Canada's Grosse Île in the St Lawrence River which acted as quarantine station for the thousands entering Quebec, the good ship Jeannie Johnston, the National Famine Monument in the shape of a sculpted coffin ship and the yearly Famine walk in May from Doolough to Louisburgh.