Poverty has struck Ireland in 1845, which affected almost every single individual living within the country in many different ways. Many people in this era did not have much access to food or even money to live life. In chapter two of the novel, “Transatlantic”, McCann discusses the effects of poverty in Ireland. In the article, “Great Famine”, talks about how people were affected by famine and the exportation of goods. The novel displays different events that convey the tragedies of people living with poverty in 1845, but McCann did not go into depth on how it all started or what really was going on, which the article, “Great Famine”, successfully does.
McCann depicted Ireland’s effects of poverty very thoroughly, which took place in the late 1840s. Throughout the second chapter of “Transatlantic”, we are faced with scenes that depict the horrible living conditions Ireland had to deal with due to the lack of food and money. The Irish had suffered from much famine because of this. One scene from the novel that showed light on the problem was when the main character, Frederick Douglass, was getting a tour of the streets of Ireland. The streets started out clean and leisurely but as they traveled further, the potholes deepened and soon the staggering filth had presented itself. There were piles of human waste flushed down the gutters. In one particular moment in the book, Douglas had witnessed a tribe of boys in rags who jumped onto the side of the carriage and specifically one boy had raw welts running along his neck and face. They were begging for money so they could eat something that day. Webb, the man in charge of Douglass, told him to mind his pockets when Douglas gave the kid a penny. The fact that these kids were living in t...
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...ple of Ireland. They also had a growth in populations, so many people went unemployed and hungry. The British knew that the problem in Ireland was due to them taking the crops, and exporting them back to Britain but they were still reluctant to help. They set up many new laws on all different items, such as the poor law extension act, Corn Law, wheat law and many others. In the end the potato blight was cured and potatoes thrived again in Ireland after many years of famine.
The potato famine of 1845, lead to the death of many Irish people. In the novel it discusses the effects of poverty, in the article “Great Famine” it talks about famine and the exportation of goods. After digging into the poverty that was discussed in the book, the main reason behind why Ireland was dealing with the Poverty and Famine was due to the Blight and its ties with the British exporting.
Frank McCourt’s reputable memoir embodies the great famine occurring in the 1930s of Limerick. During the twentieth century of Ireland, mass starvation, disease and emigration were the causes of numerous deaths. Likewise, food is in high demand in the McCourt family; practically, in every chapter the family is lacking essential meals and nutritious food. However, the McCourt family isn’t th...
middle of paper ... ... n that after nearly seven hundred years of attempted domination, the British oppression of the Irish had deprived them of all but the bare necessities of survival, and caused such destitution that when the potato famine struck, the poor could not avoid the worst privations, given the social and political conditions controlling their lives. The British government’s ineffectual attempts at relieving the situation played a major role in worsening the situation; they allowed prejudice and State and individual self-interest, economic and religious dogma to subjugate even the least consideration for humanity. Ultimately British politicians bear considerable blame because they were not prepared to allocate what was needed to head off mass starvation, and they as the parent government did nothing to protect its subject people.
The analysis of the Irish economic problem, the Great Famine, was a remarkable topic to study by several classical authors such as, Thomas Malthus, John Stuart Mill, David Ricardo or William Senior. A contextualization skim of the economic characteristics of the country is required in order to know about their main ideas with respect to the topic, taking into account the aspects like the land property, the political power and the relation between Ireland and England.
Jonathan Swift says that the people, politicians, and English are all at fault for the terrible state and poverty of Ireland. Swift states that if a poor infant passes the dangerous years of childhood, they would “leave their dear native country to fight for the Pretender in Spain” or “they would sell themselves to the Barbados,” as indentured servants.
The Irish began immigrating to North America in the 1820s, when the lack of jobs and poverty forced them to seek better opportunities elsewhere after the end of the major European wars. When the Europeans could finally stop depending on the Irish for food during war, the investment in Irish agricultural products reduced and the boom was over. After an economic boom, there comes a bust and unemployment was the result. Two-thirds of the people of Ireland depended on potato harvests as a main source of income and, more importantly, food. Then between the years of 1845 and 1847, a terrible disease struck the potato crops. The plague left acre after acre of Irish farmland covered with black rot. The failure of the potato yields caused the prices of food to rise rapidly. With no income coming from potato harvests, families dependent on potato crops could not afford to pay rent to their dominantly British and Protestant landlords and were evicted only to be crowded into disease-infested workhouses. Peasants who were desperate for food found themselves eating the rotten potatoes only to develop and spread horrible diseases. ¡§Entire villages were quickly homeless, starving, and diagnosed with either cholera or typhus.¡¨(Interpreting¡K,online) The lack of food and increased incidents of death forced incredible numbers of people to leave Ireland for some place which offered more suitable living conditions. Some landlords paid for the emigration of their tenants because it made more economic sense to rid farms of residents who were not paying their rent. Nevertheless, emigration did not prove to be an antidote for the Famine. The ships were overcrowded and by the time they reached their destination, approximately one third of its passengers had been lost to disease, hunger and other complications. However, many passengers did survive the journey and, as a result, approximately ¡§1.5 million Irish people immigrated to North America during the 1840¡¦s and 1850¡¦s.¡¨(Bladley, online) As a consequence of famine, disease (starvation and disease took as many as one million lives) and emigration, ¡§Ireland¡¦s population dropped from 8 million to 5 million over a matter of years.¡¨(Bladley, online) Although Britain came to the aid of the starving, many Irish blamed Britain for their delayed response and for centuries of political hardship as basi...
This all came to a head in 1798 when a small rebellion broke out. “It began with a blight of the potato crop that left acre upon acre of Irish farmland covered with black rot. ”(The Irish Famine, 1) This of course is in reference to the Irish Famine. The Irish Famine was another cause of the tensions in Ireland.
The Irish Famine is a controversial debate, addressing the response to the English government’s malfeasance. The debate concerns whether the English government should be held liable for the hunger and sorrows of Irishmen. Liam O’Flaherty contributes to this debate through his novel Famine; in it he defines who is to blame for the hunger of the 1840’s. Through his depiction, he suggests that the best response to ease the problem of the famine is by rebelling against the English government. In the novel, there are characters that choose to live in a passive matter and fail at attaining prosperity, while those who rebel get it. O’Flaherty presents three Kilmartin generations, in which we witness differences in character traits and beliefs. For instance Martin Kilmartin, second generation, takes on the role of a rebel and chooses to defy Black Valley’s tycoon, Chadwick. Siding with a solution of aggression to meet justice, O’Flaherty identifies survivors as rebellions, and victims of the famine as pacifists. Furthermore, in his novel, O’Flaherty suggests that the best response to the Irish Famine is through aggression.
Ireland is a beautiful country in Europe, about the size of Maine. Today, Ireland is mostly populated with middle-class families. Irish is famous for its potatoes, but in 1845 a disease attacked the potato crops. The potatoes were what most of the Irish families lived on. They ate and sold potatoes in order to make a living, so when the potatoes stopped growing, people ran out of money. This is known as "The Great Potato Famine". It was so bad; people were actually starving to death. Two million people died. There was almost no help from the British government. Often people rebelled against the government, angered by its carelessness. Many people didn't want to leave their beloved country, afraid of change. With no food to eat, emigration seemed to be the only solution for most of the population. People often talked about "streets paved with gold" in a country called America. There was said to be many job opportunities in this new country. America seemed like the best choice to settle down and finally start a new life.
The Irish people did the most amount of work for the least amount of pay. They would build canals, roads, train tracks, and worked mines and quarries. They worked under the worst conditions, and many died during work. The women worked as house servants, in laundries, and factories. Many of the Irishmen went from job to job, not being able to keep one for long. Letters that they wrote home expressed their experiences and what America was really like, as demonstrated in the poem ‘I Am the Little Irish Boy’ by Henry David Thoreau. I am the little Irish boy; That lives in the shanty; I am four years old today; And shall soon be one and twenty; I shall grow up; And be a great man; And shovel all day; As hard as I can. Down in the deep cut; Where the men lived; Who made the Railroad. For supper; I have some potato; And sometimes some bread; And then if it’s cold; I go right to bed. I lie on some straw; Under my father’s coat; My mother does not cry; And my father does not scold; For I am a little Irish Boy; And I’m four years old. The poem puts in words what the Irish Americans experienced every day. The everyday struggle for life affected families, and everyone worked no matter their
During the mid 1840’s, blight in the potato crops in Ireland caused widespread starvation and migration of Irish citizens to the United States. Yet, the massive loss of life and massive exodus could have been avoided if British taxation upon the working class of Ireland was nullified. Though the struggle for liberation was already taking place, the potato famine furthered the cause and helped spread awareness. Furthermore, the potato famine made the average Irish family more reliant upon the government for subsidies and supports to get by.
The Great Famine of 1845 With 3 million either gone or dead from the island of Ireland, 1845 was possibly the most painful year in its history. It was also obvious that something was afflicting Ireland, with the smell and sight of the crops. Death rates grew high, and immigration even higher during this time period of the famine. The Great Potato Famine of 1845 had a massive effect on Ireland in population decrease, the reactions of the people, and effects it had on the future of Ireland. One of the biggest, and nastiest, effects of the famine was population decrease.
INTRODUCTION The history of Ireland "that most distressful nation" is full of drama and tragedy, but one of the most interesting stories is about what happened to the Irish during the mid-nineteenth century and how millions of Irish came to live in America (Purcell 31). Although the high point of the story was the years of the devastating potato famine from 1845 to 1848, historians have pointed out that immigrating from Ireland was becoming more popular before the famine and continued until the turn of the twentieth century. In the one hundred years between the first recording of immigrants in
In 1848, there was a man by the name of Patrick. He owned his own farm but then a fungus started to spread around his farm spoiling all of his potatoes. Patrick took a boat to live Ireland and the boat was crowded of people and many people where dying on the boat from hunger.
In Ireland, at the time, there was only one strain of potatoes being grown. At the time, citizens of Ireland were mainly eating potatoes and drinking milk. These two menu items provided them with all the necessary nutrients required for a healthy diet(History Magazine). The Irish were only growing one strain of potatoes at the time. When a fungus came through Ireland that only affected that strain of potatoes, it wiped out the entire potato population in Ireland, causing a famine to occur. This famine killed one million people and caused two million to move out of Ireland in a quest to find food. Potatoes killed one million people, or should I say the lack of potatoes killed one million people. This famine became one of the deadliest famines in history. After the potatoes were wiped out, the Irish started growing more than one strain of potatoes in order to ensure that another famine similar to the Irish Potato Famine of 1845 could not happen again. The Irish Potato Famine led to the Industrial Revolution(Ted Talks). When 2 million people were forced out of Ireland while the famine was going on, they moved to European countries. This boost in population aided the Industrial Revolution because now there were enough people to sustain the positions needed to run factories. We do not know where the world would be if the famine had not happened, but it definitely would not be in the same place it is
During the 18th century Ireland was in a very serious crisis. Jonathan Swift decides to write “A Modest Proposal” as a satirical response to this crisis. In that essay he gives a solution to each of the problems that Ireland was having during that time. The main points that he wanted to discuss were domestic abuse, overpopulation, poverty, theft, and the lack of food. This crisis led the great nation of Ireland into economic struggles.