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Introduction
The Great Irish Potato Famine starts due to the potato blight/disease, also known as Phytophthora infestans. This is the beginning of a long, terrible decade for the Irish, in which over a million lives are taken and twice that number leave the country seeking refugee. -
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The Great Irish Potato Famine
The Great Irish Potato Famine (also known as the Great Hunger) lasted from 1845 to 1851, and was probably one of the worst timespans in the history of Ireland. -
The Society For Friends (Quakers)
The Society For Friends (Quakers) helped a lot of Irish who would have otherwise died of starvation, since they made a large amount of contributions to the poor people of Ireland, such as providing them with soup kitchens, clothing, equipment, and money. They also brought in huge boilers to prepare the soup in. -
The Workhouses
The government eventually stopped funding the soup kitchens, and decided to create jobs for the poor Irish. The villagers usually lived in the workhouses since most of them had lost their homes to the harsh landlords, but the workhouses were extremely overcrowded and unsanitary, which caused many deaths. The workers salary was also usually late or just not given to them, so they were basically doing all the hard work for free. -
Coffin Ships - Picture
This is a picture that represents the overcrowded conditions which the Irish came to Canada in. -
Black '47
1847 was considered the worst year of the famine (which is why it was called Black '47) with over a million Irish dying due to starvation and poverty. Almost 100,000 Irish also arrived in Canada in just 1847. -
Grosse Ile
Grosse Ile was where many Irish immigrants used to land after sailing across the ocean in their "coffin ships" and usually was overflowing with Irish people due to all of them wanting to escape the famine in their home country. -
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Coffin Ships
Irish immigrants traveled to Canada by sea, in “Coffin Ships”, which got their name due to the huge amounts of people who died on these unsanitary and overcrowded boats because of all the diseases on board at the time. -
Irish Impact in Canada
As the Irish population in Canada was increasing day by day, they definitely made a huge impact on Canada. The Irish community in Toronto built the first cathedral called St. Paul’s Basilica in about two years, and also built the St. Michael’s Cathedral which was recently renovated. -
The Irish Census of 1851
The Irish Census of 1851 was what documented the impact of the famine, showing that millions of people had either died due to starvation and disease or left the country seeking help. -
The End of The Great Irish Potato Famine
1852 is considered the end of the potato famine, since by then most crops had started to recover and the worst years of the famine had passed.