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The Great Famine

The Great Famine was a period of mass starvation, disease and emigration in Ireland between 1845 and 1852. It is sometimes referred to, mostly outside Ireland, as the Irish Potato Famine because one-third of the population was then solely reliant on this cheap crop for a number of historical reasons. During the famine approximately 1 million people died and a million more emigrated from Ireland, causing the island’s population to fall by between 20% and 25%. The proximate cause of faminewas a potato disease commonly known as potato blight.

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  1. Policy could have been instituted in the form of loans to build housing and start businesses in addition to aid. Circumstances such as this are preventable. And it there would not have had to be such a deluge of people in the cities looking for food and medicine. Churches could have a massive drive for alms and the government could have purchased food on their behalf and given them a form of welfare. This is where we learn what food policies and which don’t.