2023-12-12 05:26:00
What happened during those five years in the middle of the 19th century was so brutal that the Spanish press recounted it in its pages in complete detail. Not a week went by without a new article being published on ‘Hunger in Ireland’, as the newspaper titled, for example. ‘Constitutional newspaper of Palma’ on January 22, 1847. The report included a letter sent to the editor by an Irishman, in which he described the situation in that region as follows:
«This is a funeral catalog of hunger and death, from beginning to end. In this unfortunate city, the poor die like poisoned beasts. A horrible apathy like that which characterizes individuals affected by the plague makes them lethargic. Hunger has destroyed all the germs of generous sympathies, despair has plunged the inhabitants into starvation; Everyone awaits death with indifference and without any fear. There is not a single cabin into which death has not entered.
Entire families are seen lying on miserable pallets of rotten straw, devoured by fever, and no one manages to moisten their lips or give them the slightest help. The husband dies next to his wife and she follows him shortly after. The same cloth covers the corpses and the living without them knowing it or deploring it. The mice come to look for their prey in the midst of so many horrors and no one disturbs their feast. Parents bury their children in some hidden corner and breathe a sigh. Ignored graves that will never be watered with the tears of a mother or a friend.
It all began in 1845, the first year of that food disaster from which it did not manage to emerge for the next five years, permanently changing the demographic, political and cultural landscape of the island. It became known as the “Great Irish Famine,” which killed nearly two million people and drove another million and a half into exile. Of the 8.5 million inhabitants of this region that was part of the United Kingdom and lacked its own government, only the approximately 4.5 million that it currently maintains survived. That is, almost half perished.
American Indians
The famine was so prolonged that when the impoverished Choctaw people in the United States heard about it, they were so moved that they gathered all the money they could and sent it to the Irish, even though they had no money left over. It was only 170 dollars at the time, about 5,000 today according to ‘Time’ magazine, but it was enough for Iralan to be twinned with the indigenous American communities ever since. A very different measure to the proposal made by Queen Victoria on March 25, 1847, which ‘The Catholic’ collected like this:
«Today will be memorable. The scarcity of basic necessities, the horrendous hunger and the devastating plague that reigns, especially, in Ireland have been the cause that the Queen of Great Britain has issued this singular mandate, in accordance with her privy council, of a fast. general of all his subjects in order to humble himself in the presence of God and thus appease his just anger.
But what caused this tragedy that is commemorated every May 16 in Ireland with the National Great Famine Memorial Day? It actually began rather mysteriously in September 1845, when the leaves of the potato plants turned black and curled and then rotted. In October, news of this strange plague reached London and British Prime Minister Robert Peel quickly established a Scientific Commission to examine the problem. The first conclusion was alarming: more than half of the harvest of the Irish peasants’ main food could perish due to this “wet rot”, as they called it at the beginning.
The mushrooms
The situation was much more complex, but not much was done from London to help the Irish. At that time, English landowners were the only ones who could profit from Irish lands, which mainly grew grain. The problem is that these were exported directly to England, protected by the laws imposed from the capital of the Kingdom, while the peasants of those lands were allowed to supply themselves solely and exclusively with potatoes and milk.
Before they were forced to maintain this potato-based diet, the traditional Irish diet was based not only on cereals, but also on meat, vegetables and fruits, but all these basic foodstuffs left daily from the Irish ports to England in large quantities. quantities. In this way, the potato blight of 1845 was fatal for ordinary mortals in Ireland, that is, for more than 95% of the population, so that, as winter approached and the fungus advanced, An increasing number of families began to lose their crops.
As a result, jobs were destroyed, food disappeared and farmers began to lose their homes and wander the countryside in search of a place to sleep. Workhouses became makeshift shelters. When they were saturated, the shops and old buildings abandoned by the first emigration were quickly occupied. It is estimated that 150,000 Irish sought shelter in these ghost buildings, while the Government of London stood by.
«Late blight»
Shortly afterwards it was learned that the terrible plague was caused by the so-called “late blight” (Phytophthora infestans), which spread at full speed through the potato crops, while the wheat crops continued at their normal pace. This potato fungus had arrived from North America in the holds of ships and, once there, they were exported by southern winds to the area around Dublin. The spores settled on the leaves and multiplied. Under ideal humidity conditions, it is estimated that a single plant could infect thousands of others in a few days. The strangest thing of all, besides the fact that it was a completely new fungus, is that from the outside it could not be detected at first if the plant was affected.
The only measure taken from London was to send 200,000 soldiers to Ireland to keep the situation under control and prevent the uprising of the increasingly hungry Irish population. As expected, clashes soon began. On October 17, 1846, he counted again the ‘Constitutional Diary of Palma’: «The famine that desolates Ireland has already given rise to very sad scenes. In Dungarvan a conflict has occurred between the people and the troops, a detachment of dragoons having been attacked with stones. At another point another similar event took place, as a result of which the troops fired at the civilians and wounded several, of whom two succumbed the next day.
«Never has the city of Youghal seen days of fermentation and anxiety like those it is currently experiencing. Since this morning on both banks of the Blackwater River there has been an immense gathering of men armed with clubs and determined to loot the population. […]. The troops still remain under arms. Houses and shops are closed. Only some mutineers from County Waterford are seen on the streets waiting for reinforcements, but their hopes have been frustrated, because far from this, the boats that are going to arrive are the armed launches of the war steamer Myrmidon that are going up the river to escort a ship loaded with grain. Without the arrival of this help, God knows what would happen,” could be read in a letter sent to ‘Time’ magazine during those same days.
Death and exile
Mortality rates reached dramatic figures. The whole world was watching Ireland and even Queen Victoria changed her mind and sent an aid of 2,000 pounds, although out of pride she did not accept the money offered by the Ottoman sultan, 10,000 pounds, nor the Sorciere ship sent by the United States with tons of food. To hunger was later added the cold and the expulsion of thousands more families from their homes who could not pay the rent of the English tenants. A curfew was imposed to prevent any rebellion and penalties of up to three years in prison or fifteen years of exile were imposed for anyone who did not comply, which included, as unusual as it may seem, all those who had been evicted.
An influential British Protestant essayist, Thomas Carlyle, expressed all his hatred of Catholics in the following statement: “Ireland is like a half-starved rat crossing the path of an elephant. What should the elephant do? Crush her, by heaven, crush her. Emigration was the only way out for the Irish, although this also entailed many risks, as was confirmed by the name given to the boats in which the trip was made: the “coffin ships.”
An episode that is very reminiscent of today, with mafias that embarked the largest possible number of passengers at a price of gold, to make the crossing of the Atlantic with the minimum amount of water and food. After several weeks crammed together like animals, many died during the trip, when the ships did not sink due to excess weight. It is estimated that 30% of the Irish who dared to make that trip died before reaching their destination. And those who did, did not have a better life, since they were equally poor, illiterate and suffered rejection from the American population.
«The pages of the English newspapers are not enough to contain so much misery and misfortune that has weighed on unhappy Ireland for months. A feeling of deep pain, we should even say horror, takes over the spirit. “That long catalog of misfortunes, that funereal procession of emaciated beings, the elderly, children and women, the rest, all overcome by the same feeling, hunger, join their voices to launch from their island the same cry: ‘Bread or revenge'”, could be read in ‘The Spanish’ on January 14, 1847.
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