1. The Great Famine By Robert W. Carleton

2. Population before the famine In 1800, some five million people lived in Ireland. By the Autumn of 1845, when the great famine struck Ireland, there were more than eight million.

3. The Poor Many of them were wretchedly poor, eking out a precarious living on tiny plots of land, and dependent on each year's potato crop. Hunger was no novelty to peasant families, for there had been partial failures of the potato crop in other years.

4. How long was the Famine? However, these had always been of limited duration, and confined to a small number of counties. The Great Famine lasted from 1845 to 1848, and crop failure affected the whole island.

5. The Cause The cause of the famine was a fungus disease which made the potato plants to rot in the ground, giving off an appalling stench. The blight first destroyed crops on the eastern seaboard of America in 1842, then appeared in England in the summer of 1845.

6. The British Prime Minister In September, the counties of Wexford and Waterford reported the disease. More than half the Irish potato crop failed in 1845. Sir Robert Peel, the British prime minister, appointed a commission to investigate the problem, but scientists were unable to explain the disease, let alone find a cure In 1846, the potato crop was a total failure.

7. Getting Grain Peel, to his credit, also introduced relief measures. In November 1845, the government spent £100,000 on buying grain from America, in the hope of keeping food prices down in Ireland.

8. The Cheap imports He appointed a relief commission which set about forming local committees to raise money and to distribute food. At Westminster, in part prompted by Ireland's problems, Peel succeeded in repealing the protectionist corn laws in June 1846. This opened up the prospect of cheap imports from America.

9. Soup Kitchens In the summer of 1847, the government set up some soup kitchens to give the starving people hot soup. A group called the Society of Friend, or the Quakers, did a lot of work to feed the poor. They bought huge boilers in which to cook the soup.

10. Soup Kitchens (2) By August 1847, about 3 million people were being fed each day in total. However, in the Autumn of 1847, the government shut down the soup kitchens. They expected that the next crop of potatoes might be good and told poor people that they could go to the workhouses for help.

11. Work Houses Workhouses were places where the very poor, known as paupers, could go to live. Once they entered the workhouse, people had to wear a uniform and were given a very basic diet. The main food they were given was called stirabout, which was similar to a weak oatmeal porridge. Families were split up once inside. Men, women, girls and boys were all forced to stay in different parts of the building.

12. Workhouses (2) There were strict rules in the workhouse such as keeping silence at certain times. Inmates were not allowed to play cards, disobey orders or try to escape from the workhouse.

13. Credits *Written by Robert W. Carleton *Scenery by Robert W. Carleton *Animations/Transitions by Robert W. Carleton *Edited by Robert W. Carleton *Colours by Robert W. Carleton Next slide!

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