10/09/2026
September 9th 1845, A Potato Blight In Ireland, Is Reported In Irish Newspapers.
By the 1840s, the population in Ireland rose to 8.75 million, the highest ever recorded, but the vast majority of people, especially in rural Ireland, lived in abject poverty.
For most people, the only work available was labouring on large farms, which grew crops and reared livestock for export to England, but wages were very low.
High rents imposed by absentee landlords meant that most people could only afford to live on small tenant farms, holdings were so small and the soil so bad that no crop other than potatoes would suffice to feed a family.
Potatoes were easily grown but very prone to disease, before 1845 the potato crop had failed at least 24 times, this was widely known but the Irish poor had no choice but to rely on this very unreliable crop.
In 1843 a potato blight hit the USA and spread to Europe, By mid-August 1845 France, Belgium, England & the Netherlands had been hit by the blight. By September 1845, the potato blight hit Ireland with devasting effects.
On previous occasions, when the potato blight hit, the British closed the ports and banned all exports of food so the people could eat, no such export ban occurred this time.
Thousands of tons of food were exported between 1845 and 1851 while hundreds of thousands of people starved, and thousands of families too poor to pay their rent were evicted from their homes.
Between the landlords and the British government, the plan seems to have been to let the people die, Charles Trevelyan, who was in charge of the administration of government relief said at the time, "The judgement of God sent the calamity to teach the Irish a lesson".
Between 1845 and 1851 between one million - two million died of starvation and disease and the same amount were forced to emigrate with many not making the journey on the "coffin ships".
To call what happened in Ireland between 1845 and 1851 a famine is an insult to those who died and those forced to leave Ireland, There was plenty of food but it was exported under armed guard.
It was genocide, not a famine.
