Great Famine (Ireland)

A catastrophic famine in Ireland from 1845 to 1852, caused by repeated potato crop failures and intensified by political and economic conditions under British rule.

Phytophthora infestans: A water mold that causes potato late blight, producing dark lesions and rapid decay in potato crops. Its arrival in Ireland triggered the successive potato harvest failures that began the famine.
Irish diaspora: Communities of Irish origin living outside Ireland, formed through centuries of migration. Famine-era departures greatly enlarged Irish communities abroad, especially in Britain and North America.
Potato: A starchy tuber domesticated in the Andes and cultivated worldwide as a food crop. Its high yield on small plots made it indispensable to many Irish households before the blight.
Charles Trevelyan: A senior British Treasury official who administered famine relief policy in Ireland. His influence over relief administration made him a central and controversial figure in famine debates.
Skibbereen famine: The severe famine conditions experienced around Skibbereen in County Cork during the Great Famine. Reports from Skibbereen became stark evidence of mortality and destitution in the hardest-hit districts.
Potato dependence in Ireland: The reliance of much of Ireland’s rural population on potatoes as its primary food source. Dependence on a single crop made blight a direct threat to household survival.
Irish emigration: The movement of people from Ireland to settle in other countries. Mass departure became a principal response to hunger, eviction, and the collapse of rural livelihoods.
Irish potato famine of 1740–1741: A severe Irish famine caused by cold weather and crop failures in 1740–1741. It shows that Ireland had experienced catastrophic scarcity before the nineteenth-century blight.
John Mitchel: An Irish nationalist journalist who condemned British policy during the famine. His writing helped popularize the charge that British actions aggravated the disaster.
Grosse Île: An island in the St. Lawrence River that served as a quarantine station for immigrants to Canada. Many famine emigrants passed through its crowded station, where disease caused extensive deaths in 1847.

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