Who made the famine in Ireland?

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Is máith liom cáca millís!

No one made it but a nation caused it

i know

Well, the potatos failed, but there was other food like corn, fish, oats, wheat, milk etc, but the English lanlords took it and sold it in England so the could make more money.

So

Number 1 - English landlords
Number 2 - The potato

twoforthepriceofone

In short, a disease killed off the majority of that year's harvest, and England didn't offer rations.

So as for the question "who" I would have to say the English, even though I'll recieve a shower of thumbs down simply for saying it.

As for the question "what caused the famine?", I would have to say it was the disease that killed off most of the year's harvest on the isle. If that didn't happen, the Irish would have had enough food.

Doc

Aya and i know are correct; there was a blight on the potatoes brought about by a fungus that attacked the crops. It was first noted in 1845, and it destroyed the crops of 1846 and 1847.
An Gorta Mór, the Great Hunger, happened for several reasons; the blight was only the initial and most obvious cause.
Potatoes were the major crop, because of economic necessity. Catholics were not allowed to purchase land due to the Penal Laws enacted by the British; but land already owned by a family could be subdivided between a man's heirs. Land parcels became progressively smaller, and potatoes were a useful solution--highly nutritious, and they didn't require large amounts of land to raise enough to feed one's family. When the blight struck for three years, most poor and rural people couldn't produce enough food to feed their families at all.
There were of course other food crops being produced in Ireland, but these crops were grown on lands largely owned by wealthy Protestant (and therefore loyal British), and they were administered by the British government. It was decided that the Irish would be best helped by helping themselves and not coddling them by actually feeding them, as the British saw the Irish as generally lazy and shiftless.
Thousands attempted emigration to Canada and the United States; provided that the immigrant survived the journey aboard an overcrowded "coffin ship", they wouldn't necessarily be treated better here in the U.S. than they were by the British. Between 1845 and 1880, the population of Ireland plummeted from eight million to four million. To this day, Ireland's population on the entire island is about five million.

pimlicoboi

i know and Doc have given the best answers so far.Its too simple to state that the poato blights caused it, this is only one and certainly not the most important factor in relation to The Great Famine.

Of course the potato crop failed due to a mssive widespread blight, however we live on an island of very fertile land, so what about fish? other crops? Corn, Oats, Wheat? or other vegetables? Well simply, these were not allowed to be taken by the irish, whom were at the mercy of the English Planters/Landlords. If we took the other crops that we ourselves had grown, we would have been prosecuted for stealing and deported to England or Australia, as many were, hence the famous Irish ballad, The Fields of Athenry "for you stole Trevelyn's corn, so the young might see the morn, Now a prison-ship lies waiting in the bay" So basically if you tried to get other crops/food for your famaily it was deemed as stealing as the English Landlords owned the land, and you would be prosecuted and most likely deported.

If you fished to try and provide for your family you were deemed as a poacher, as the only people that had rights to fish were the English Landlords, and you would be prosecuted and again deported!

So you see, we were fecked if we did and fecked if we didnt, hence the mass emegration on the so called coffin ships to England, The U.S.A, Canada and Australia.

So In a not so simple answer to your not so simple question, First and foremost it was ultimately the English occupation of Ireland that caused the famine. The blight caused the potatoes to fail, but the English made the people starve, therefore causing the famine.

dermotpurcell24

THE BRITISH MONARCHY AND GOVERNMENT, not a bleeding potato

Misty Blue

Blight caused the potato crops to fail.The direct actions of the British Government caused the Irish Holocaust.Turkey sent aid which the British Navy tried to bar.People starving and yet they tried to turn away aid.Who made the famine?I think we all know the answer to that.

http://irishholocaust.org/

“ Weary men, what reap ye? Golden corn for the stranger.
What sow ye? Human corpses that wait for the avenger.

Fainting forms, Hunger—stricken, what see you in the offing
Stately ships to bear our food away, amid the stranger’s
scoffing.

There’s a proud array of soldiers—what do they round your
door?
They guard our master’s granaries from the thin hands of the
poor.

Pale mothers, wherefore weeping? ‘Would to God that we were dead—
Our children swoon before us, and we cannot give them bread."( Miss Jane Francesca Elgee )

boofuswoolie

The POTATO famine was caused by a fungal blight
The resultant FOOD famine arose from the English planters which banished land ownership from the IRISH people The rack-renting English landlords, aided by the TITHING imposed Anglican church and the penal laws on even owning a horse drove the people into complete dependence on the potato. .. the meagre corn was confiscated by the absentee landlords to "pay" rent (on the peoples confiscated properties) Travellan a notorious name in Ireland , decreed "laizfare" policy ..market forces ..finally importing Indian maize to be worked as "wages"Maize of course is inedible .. Victoria (the famine Queen) donated £5 to the relief of her Irish "subjects" (the Jacktaw indian tribe donated multiples of that!!!!)
"and that is boy, the reason why,
I left old Skibbereen"

Italian Guy

The Great Hunger (Irish: An Gorta Mór or An Drochshaol, litt: The Bad life) is a highly contentious period of history between 1845 and 1852 during which the population of Ireland was reduced by 20 to 25 percent.

It is known by various names, such as The Great Famine in Ireland itself and The Irish Potato Famine internationally. The proximate cause[2] of the famine was a pathogenic water mould, Phytophthora infestans, the disease it causes is commonly known as late blight of potato. Though P. infestans ravaged potato crops throughout Europe during the 1840s, its human cost in Ireland was exacerbated by a host of political, social, economic, and climatological factors which remain the subjects of heated historical debate.

The famine was a watershed in the history of Ireland. Its effects extended well beyond its immediate demographic impact and permanently changed the island's political and cultural landscape.

For both the native Irish and those in the resulting diaspora, the famine entered folk memory and became a rallying point for various nationalist movements.

Virtually all modern historians of Ireland regard it as a dividing line in the Irish historical narrative, referring to the preceding period of Irish history as "pre-Famine."

Orla C

The potatoes got blight, and as the peasants ate potatoes pretty much exclusively, they starved. All the wheat, etc. was being shipped to England and other places.

Anna

No one. The proximate cause of the famine was a pathogenic water mould, Phytophthora infestans, the disease it causes is commonly known as late blight of potato.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irish_Potato_Famine_(1845-1849)

submissivmsle36

hi you
the questions you have asked is answered well by now so i would give you the answer again but some how i can see what you asking jumping out at me here its not that i dont want to answer your question the way i think you meant it i just want to be sure that you do if you like e-mail me on submissivemale36@yahoo.co.uk and with what you want to know and i will try and let you know

Roxy's mommy

no one.
a disease came on all the potatoes.
It was called blight.

MUSICGUY

nobody
it was potato blight

no one person can cause the crop of an entire country to fail

only a disease can i.e. potato blight

Ryans Nanna

No body made it, the potato crops failed

deburca98

Mcguyver

Trish D

The dependence of such a large section of the Irish population on one crop (the potato) caused the famine. Had people not relied so much on one crop, the failure of the potato crop in those years could have had less drastic effects.

lotg_4eva

the blight came 4m canada....but then england wer lyk 'oh if we giv em food, they'll get lazy so we'll just leave em be!!' so canada, england and rish irish people...they wudn't giv any money etc 2 us!! scabby no ceard???

star74

Shame on you if your Irish & asking this question. Every Irish person who has learned history in school knows that the potatoe crop failed & thats how the famine started.

..ღஜღ.Brown♡Eyed♡Girl.ღஜღ..

The potatoes did!

Ella's Mamaí

potatoes failed.... no one "made" the famine!

((LOON))

Wasn't it Oliver Cromwell???? im thinking of the BRILLIANT Pogues song "Young Ned of the hill"... Check the song out if poss? its angst and vigour is a one off. A TRULY GREAT SONG... YO! I just found the song...
Have you ever walked the lonesome hills
And heard the curlews cry
Or seen the raven black as night
Upon a windswept sky
To walk the purple heather
And hear the westwind cry
To know that's where the rapparee must die

Since Cromwell pushed us westward
To live our lowly lives
There's some of us have deemed to fight
From Tipperary mountains high
Noble men with wills of iron
Who are not afraid to die
Who'll fight with gaelic honour held on high

A curse upon you Oliver Cromwell
You who raped our Motherland
I hope you're rotting down in hell
For the horrors that you sent
To our misfortunate forefathers
Whom you robbed of their birthright
"To hell or Connaught" may you burn in hell tonight

Of one such man I'd like to speak
A rapparee by name and deed
His family dispossessed and slaughtered
They put a price upon his head
His name is know in song and story
His deeds are legends still
And murdered for blood money
Was young Ned of the hill

You have robbed our homes and fortunes
Even drove us from our land
You tried to break our spirit
But you'll never understand
The love of dear old Ireland
That will forge and iron will
As long as there are gallant men
Like young Ned of the hill

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