Irish Potato Famine

Irish Potato Famine

The Great Famine stands as one of the most devastating humanitarian disasters of the 19th century. Lasting from 1845 to 1852, it reshaped Ireland’s demographic, social, and political landscape forever. What began as a natural crop failure quickly spiralled into a catastrophe of starvation and mass emigration. Read on to learn about the famine and its huge effect on St Ives.

Background

In the early 1800s, Ireland's population grew fast and relied heavily on farming. Wealthy British landlords owned most of the land, leaving Irish families to rent tiny plots. To survive, they grew a single, highly productive crop, the Lumper potato. By 1845, nearly four million people, about half the population, depended almost entirely on potatoes to eat.

The famine began when potato blight, a destructive mould, accidentally arrived from North America in 1845. It spread rapidly through the damp air, turning healthy fields of potatoes into rotting mush within days. Because farmers grew just one potato variety, the entire crop was vulnerable. The human cost was catastrophic, bringing immediate acute starvation to millions and spreading deadly diseases like typhus and cholera through weakened communities

British Government response

During the famine, Ireland was governed directly from London under the 1800 Acts of Union. Local charities, religious groups, and relief committees did what they could, setting up soup kitchens and giving out clothes, but they didn't have the political power or money to change land laws or stop food exports.

The British Government response was slow and heavily flawed, driven by the belief that the free market should be left alone. While Prime Minister Sir Robert Peel initially bought American corn to help, his successor, Lord John Russell, shifted the focus to crowded workhouses and local market forces. Crucially, Ireland continued exporting grain, cattle, and dairy to Britain throughout the worst years, causing deep bitterness.

Effects

Between 1845 and 1852, roughly one million people died from starvation and disease. Hundreds of thousands of tenant farmers were evicted by landlords when they could no longer pay rent. Over two million people fled the country on overcrowded, disease ridden coffin ships bound for North America and Britain. Within a decade, Ireland lost a quarter of its population. The catastrophe accelerated the decline of the Irish language and fuelled the push for Irish independence in the early 1900s.

Famine emigration to the UK

A million people crossed the Irish Sea to Great Britain. Since Ireland was part of the United Kingdom, no passports were required, making it the cheapest route for the poorest families. Liverpool became the main gateway, overwhelmed by 300,000 arrivals in 1847 alone.

Survival meant getting onto cargo ships even if you couldn't afford a ticket. Merchant vessels returning to Britain empty needed weight to stabilise them. In a grim compromise, captains gave destitute families free passage to serve as human ballast in dark, filthy cargo holds. This saved captains paying for heavy stones or gravel. Packed into spaces without light or sanitation, these families were treated as little more than self loading freight.

Arriving with nothing, many migrants crowded into unsanitary cellars and tenements in cities like Manchester, London and Leeds. They unknowingly brought typhus with them, which became known as Irish fever and triggered major public health crises.

This sudden influx of poor workers created social tension and discrimination. However, these migrants provided the essential labour that built Victorian Britain, including its railways and canals. Over time, they reshaped the culture of British cities, creating deep rooted Irish British identities that survive today.

Route to St Ives

Thousands of penniless families arriving in Liverpool decided to look for work away from crowded cities. Their only option was to try to catch a ride on a carriers cart or a coal barge, or to walk, spreading across the heart of England along the old turnpike roads.

Families walked from village to village, looking for seasonal farm work or casual labour to earn enough food to survive. Some Irish men found immediate employment as navvies, building railways and clearing drainage canals across East Anglia and the Fens.

Effect on St Ives

St Ives Union Workhouse records show that the Irish Potato Famine directly impacted the local economy and social fabric by the 1850s. Between 1841 and 1851, the number of inmates inside the workhouse almost quadrupled from 88 to 320. Poverty was already rising because of new farm machinery, but the arrival of displaced Irish families made the crisis much worse.

Some of those who walked deep into England looking for work arrived in St Ives. The 1851 St Ives Workhouse census captures this, listing four occupants as Irish tramp. Many more arrived in the surrounding Fens for seasonal farm work.

This influx of desperate workers destabilised the local labour market. With so many willing hands available, farmers could cut wages drastically. Local agricultural labourers, already struggling against mechanisation, could no longer afford rent or food. The impact was clear by 1851. A decade earlier, the workhouse held no complete family groups. By 1851, entire families were were forced into the workhouse to survive. Children under twelve made up 40 percent of the workhouse population. 

Although inmate numbers halved by 1851, it was still well above normal levels. Only one resident was of Irish descent, a vagrant collier from Kilkenny. Some of today's St Ives residents with an Irish surname may be able to trace their lineage back to this desperate period of Irish migration.