the famine

• landlords: these were mostly protestants whose ancestors had been given lands during the plantation (protestant ascendancy)
• absentee landlords: people who owned the land but did not live on it. Often absentee landlords lived in dublin or britain
• landlords agent: the officers who collected rent on the landlords behalf
• tenant farmers: farmers who lived on and worked the land but had rented it from the landlord
• large farmers: farmed land over 30 acres. Were usually well-educated and relatively well-off
• farmed land: 5-15 acres. much poorer than large farmers
• cottiers: labourers who rented an acre or two of land in order to feed themselves and their families. they depended almost entirely on the potato crop
• landless labourers: these depended entirely on being hired for work by a farmer
• sailpeens: migran (wandering) labourers would travel wherever they could to get work
• workhouses: large buildings set up by the government to help the very poorest and most distresses people. Conditions were made deliberately harsh to discourage people from using the system
• poor law(1838): the law that set up the workhouse system all over britain
• population increase: cause by increasing birthrate, decreasing death rate
• subdivision: this is where small farmers allowed all their children to inherit a piece of land. after only a few generations, the amount of land being farmed becomes very small
• potato blight: the disease that caused the potato harvest to rot in the field. the blight originated in america and spread to many countries in europe. only ireland experienced a devastating famine
• black 47: the year of 1847 was the worst year of the famine
• sir robert peel: the prime minister at the time of the outbreak of the famine
• peels brimstone: indian corn (powdered maize) brought in to be sold to the starving. called peels brimstone because many people didn't like it
• publics work scheme: schemes whereby people could get paid work labouring on road or similar employment to get money from the government
• lord john russell: took over from robert peel in 1846
• laissez-faire: an approach to governing a country that believes that its a bad idea for any government to interfere with the economy. laissez faire means leaving the economy alone and letting marketing forces run their natural courses
• the society of friends (quakers): the religious group who did the most to help feed the starving by setting up soup kitchens.
• soup kitchens: by 1847 3million people are being kept alive by soup kitchens where they were given food directly. the government shut down the soup kitchens in september 1847
• charles trevelyan: british civil servant in charge of famine relief efforts in ireland
• coffin ships:people who could afford the price of a ticket would buy passage to america, to start a new life there. conditions on board were so bad that these ships quickly became known as coffin ships

  • they were overcrowded
  • you had to bring your own food
  • diseases spread throughout the passengers
  • many passengers were travelling steerage (cheapest fare): kept below deck for weeks at a time
• the irish diaspora: because of the famine over a million irish people left ireland

  many went to america, england, australia, canada etc

  this is known as the diaspora-

  this is why there are irish communities all over the world today

  many of the irish who settled in america retained a resentment for britain

  irish americans have a long tradition of supporting the irish nationalist movement and raising funds for the IRA