The Great Famine in Ireland

What happened

A strain of the water mould Phytophthora infestans, causing potato blight, reached Ireland in 1845 and destroyed much of the crop that a third of Ireland's population relied on as its primary food source. The blight recurred across the whole country over the following years, at its worst in 1847, remembered as Black '47. Although Irish MPs and landowners in Parliament were aware of the unfolding crisis, large quantities of food continued to be exported from Ireland to Great Britain throughout the blight years. Roughly one million people died of starvation and related disease, and at least another million emigrated, reducing Ireland's population from about 8.5 million before the famine to 4.4 million by 1901.

How we know

The UK Parliament's own historical account acknowledges that food exports continued during the blight, and the National Archives of Ireland holds the Distress Papers, the correspondence and petitions that the Chief Secretary's Office, Poor Law Commission, and Relief Commission received from famine-stricken areas from 1846 onward.

Sources

• UK Parliament. The great famine · Reputable sourceparliament.uk · The domain "parliament.uk" is on our Reputable source registry.
• The National Archives of Ireland. Famine Records and Distress Papers · General sourcenationalarchives.ie · Cited as a "reference" source (no stronger domain match). · Link is live and its text matches the event's key terms (Jul 2026)