During the first decades of this century the Irish total population had grown so much - after the age of marriage sunk down to 15 years - that in 1845 nearly eight million were living in Ireland under bad conditions. They had got no own land and worked on few leased acres of english landlords ; families often called twenty children their own in addition...
When the famine stroke Ireland it was clear what would happen, particulary as the english landlords and government kept ruling Ireland with an iron hand. Despite of hunger and starving people, the evictions - because of not paying the rent for the farms - kept taking place. Thousands of Irish people were forced to beg, steal and wander through the country to the workhouses - where they finally died as well.
Three years the crop failed and at last much more than a million people staved to death or died later in the coming disease. Thousands of tenants were suddenly homeless and brought to their knees by the english government and landlords.
The others who were able to flee took the damned ships to America and Australia which often sunk before reaching their destinations.
Who can imagine this dreadful time...?
Memorial plate of the famine in Donegal City, erected in the 1990s beside a mass grave of the famine, just next to the street....
(Photo by Ute Oettel)
>> In loving memories of those who died of hunger and disease in the Great Famine of 1845 - 1848 and were buried in this cemetery <<
Graveyard of the famine in Donegal
(Photo Ute Oettel)
A populus Irish village, Gweedore, County Donegal
A homeless woman who has been evicted from her cottage
A starving Irish family from Carraroe, County Galway, during the famine
A family evicted by their landlords
Photos: National Library of Ireland
Link: Famine in Irish history