centre for economic research working paper series 2004.pdf

CENTRE FOR ECONOMIC RESEARCH WORKING PAPER SERIES 2004 Ireland’s Great Famine: An Overview Cormac Ó Gráda, University College Dublin WP04/25 November 2004 DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMICS UNIVERSITY COLLEGE DUBLIN BELFIELD DUBLIN 4 1 IRELANDS GREAT FAMINE: AN OVERVIEW Cormac Ó Gráda, University College Dublin The proximate cause of the Great Irish Famine (1846-52) was the fungus phythophtera infestans (or potato blight), which reached Ireland in the fall of 1845. The fungus destroyed about one-third of that years crop, and nearly all that of 1846. After a seasons remission, it also ruined most of the 1848 harvest. These repeated attacks made the Irish famine more protracted than most. Partial failures of the potato crop were nothing new in Ireland before 1845, but damage on the scale wrought by the ecological shock of potato blight was utterly unprecedented (Solar 1989; Bourke 1993; Clarkson and Crawford 2001). However, the famine would not have been nearly so lethal had Irelands dependence on the potato been less. The experience of other European economies in the 1840s is telling in this respect. In Ireland the daily intake of the third or so of the population mainly reliant on the potato was enormous: 4-5 kilos daily per adult male equivalent for most of the year. After allowing for non-human consumption and provision for seed, the 2.1 million acres (or 0.8 million hectares) under potatoes in the early 1840s produced 6.2 million metric tons for human consumption. That amounted to an average d