n Ireland, the Great Famine was a period of mass starvation, disease and emigration 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 islands population to fall by between 20% and 25%. The proximate cause of famine was a potato disease commonly known as potato blight.
Posted on: Sun, 09 Feb 2014 17:20:39 +0000
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