The Legacy Of The Great Famine
The Great Famine of 1845 to 1849 marked a watershed in Irish and Scottish history when both nations suffered from a series of potato crop failures due to blight. The consequences of the Famine were met with hardship, eviction, death and disease and had a great impact on social indicators such as mortality rates, migration, and emigration. The famine accelerated changes taking place in the Irish and Scottish nations and for those whose lives were affected, it left a legacy of mordancy which to this day influences political and popular ideologies. There are several contrasting views on why the impact of the famine was as severe as it was in Ireland. One popular view took an ideological stance that the Famine was validated and intensified by the widespread belief that the potato blight had been sent by God and it was His will that so many Irish Catholics should lose their lives. Yet another popular theory was that the Famine was a classic example of a ?Malthusian check upon a p! opulation which had outstripped its resources.? This paper looks to the attitudes adopted towards the poor in the context of the time, and asks what responsibility the Scottish and in particular British governments bore for what happened in each nation respectively. It will also combine an analysis and overview, focusing on the worst-hit areas - the regions of Connaught and Munster in Ireland, and to a lesser extent the Scottish Highlands. Finally it will look to statistics to determine the scale of disaster of these regions and show the migration and emigration numbers of those most severely affected. In Ireland, the famine was most severe in the history of European agriculture. In its wake, it brought death, starvation and severe destitution to over three million people. The census records show that a significant number of the population in Ireland was reduced from 8,414,836 in 1841 to 5,344,293 in 1851. Statistics reveal that the losses in Ireland were greatest in...
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