The Blight Bites

Famine’s Onset

“The next morning, a great stench filled the air.  Farmers and laborers hurried to their fields.  With dismay, they saw their plants were covered with black spots… desperately, the people tried to save the potatoes… the potatoes were rotten, black, and slimy… the plants could not be saved” (Bartoletti, 8).  When famine struck, the Irish blamed many sources and desperately searched for food.

Initially, some believed that fairies caused the famine.  “The Irish were devout in their Christian faith, but they also believed that fairies — the ‘good’ or ‘little’ people — lived in abandoned houses, among the rocks and hills, and in the sea” (Bartoletti, 29).   Others believed that God sent famine as a punishment for wasting potatoes in previous years.

Families rushed to save any potatoes.  They cut away rotted sections and cooked what remained.  That caused the first illnesses — potentially fatal stomach cramps and dysentery.  People ate whatever they could —  slaughtered livestock, weeds, roots, nettles, and animal feed.  In desperation, they ate cow tails or cow’s blood cooked into pudding.

(Donnelly, 58)

“The Potato Crop 1846

Alas! the foul and fatal blight
 Infecting Raleigh’s grateful root,
Blasting the fields of verdure bright,
That waves o’er Erin’s favourite fruit.
The peasant’s cherished hope is gone
His little garden’s pride is o’er,
Famine and Plague now scowl upon
Hibernia’s fair and fertile shore.        
-Anonymous”

(Poirteir, 60).

The Great Famine...An Gorta Mor (The Great Hunger)...The Great Starvation...God's Visitation... The Great Calamity... Irish Holocaust