Irish-American History

Lesson 6: The Political Situation

The Role of the Potato

The Potato was introduced into Ireland from America during the 16th Century (reputedly by Sir Walter Raleigh, who brought it to his estate in Cork). It took very little to produce the crop , a spade and some manure or seaweed , both readily available.

‘ It rapidly established itself as the principal food of the Irish poor, probably in response to the horrific conditions of life as the country was ravaged by the armies of James 1 , of Cromwell and of William III. The potato survived , concealed underground as soldiers laid the land waste , seizing or destroying cattle or grain crops.’ (7)

Because of the continued subdivision of land and clearances of ground for animal grazing, there was nothing for the cottier and his family to eat during the 1840s but potatoes . It made a nutritious meal and was eaten at every meal and by everyone; from the oldest adult down to the youngest child with a little milk or buttermilk. Any surplus was fed to the pigs. With the potatoes for food and turf to burn, families had a subsistence level of living. Even in a good year, however,the Cottier and his family had to get through the ‘hungry months’, June – August , when the old crop was eaten and before the new crop was ready. Cottiers from the poorer areas travelled to England and Scotland for labouring work during the Summer months. To my own knowledge , this custom prevailed in Gaeltacht areas of Donegal up until the 1960s.

Hire Me

Hire me , Hire me
I will work for you gladly
A pound for 6 months is small price to pay
So hire me today

I cannot go home
There’s no food to go round
But I can tend cattle
Can plough up your ground
If a pound is too much
Then 10 bob and all found
Please Hire me today

You’ll surely find no better worker than me
But times have grown hard in this poor old country
If you give me my board then I’ll labour for free
Only Hire me today

It was the eternal struggle to grow enough potatoes to feed the family, and heavier cropping strains such as the ‘lumper’ or ‘horse potato' were planted in greater numbers. The potato is rich in vitamin C , and vitamin deficiency diseases were rare in Ireland.

‘Travellers in Ireland noted the healthy appearance of a people nourished almost entirely on the potato .A people described as being the most wretched in Europe were also regarded as among the best nourished , the most physically robust and the tallest. ’ (9))

Irish Soldiers in Wellington’s armies had been seen to be on average two inches taller than their English counterparts.

The same travellers made comment on the appalling conditions which already existed in the 1830s:

‘The hovels which the poor people were building as I passed , solely by their own efforts, were of the most abject description; their walls were formed, in several instances , by the backs of fences; the floors sunk in the ditches; the height scarcely enough for a man to stand upright; poles not thicker than a broomstick for couples; a few pieces of grass sods the only covering; and these extending only partially over the thing they called a roof; the elderly people miserably clothed ;the children all but naked.’ (10) While the ‘lumper’ was immune from other diseases such as dry rot , it was very susceptible to ‘blight’ , when it arrived on the scene. A new form of potato blight was identified in America in 1844. It was an air carried fungus , called ‘Phytophhora infestans’ . It turns potatoes into a mushy mess which is completely inedible. It was first identified in France and the Isle of Wight during 1845. The potato crop in Ireland for that year was expected to be very good , as the plants looked healthy in the fields , but when dug up most of the potatoes were already inedible. Almost 50% of the crop was lost.

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