THE FAMINES A few days ago some of us had a FB conversation on Thom Fitzgeralds timeline about the decline in population in the West of Ireland as a result of the potato famines. From a high of 8.2 million the population fell until, today, its is about 4.5 million. Thoms people came from County Kerry where the population dropped from more than 300,000 in the mid 1800s to half that when Thoms grandfather left for the New World. And Kerry fared better than many other counties. The west coast of Ireland today is sparsely populated and in places you can drive for miles without seeing a person or a house. But prior to 1841 Munster, Connacht and West Ulster were designated the congested areas by the government because so many people lived there, crowded cheek-by-jowl. Some years ago I had a book which contained large numbers of extraordinary photographs (staggering and heartbreaking in equal measure) from the famine years, but I have lost it. Mores the pity because there are very few available on the internet. At least 1,000,000 died of starvation in those years and more than 2,000,000 were forced to emigrate.
Posted on: Sun, 23 Mar 2014 10:36:47 +0000
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