The Irish Famine Landscapes

Pre-Famine Landscape
The pre-famine agricultural systems in Ireland were diverse regionally. By the 18th century well-developed commercial farming regions had emerged: dairying, cattle fattening, tillage, and linen production. Throughout most of Ireland a well developed rural social and economic hierarchy had developed. View slideshow1 and then come back to this page.

In contrast, small family farms dominated the western Atlantic coastal areas. This western small farm fringe was a novel development responding to the increase in the population of Ireland, which expanded from 3 to 8.5 million between 1700 and 1845. This explosion generated intensive reclamation, subdivision of small farms, and expansion into previously unsettled areas. With a mild climate, cheap housing constructed out of local materials, ubiquitous turf for fuel, and a prolific food crop -- the potato -- much of Ireland's Atlantic region was heavily settled as the country's population grew.
View a topographic map of the southwestern corner of Ireland.
View slideshow2 and then come back to this page.

As settlement spread into the glaciated regions of western Ireland, demand for manure intensified, leading to a frantic search for alternatives -- including lime and seaweed Within five miles of the coast, villages were noticeably larger and more frequent because seaweed collection rights provided an alternative source of manure.

The potato crop thrived on seaweed and was grown in lazy beds. Seaweed or manure was covered from both sides with sod and the potatoes were planted in these ridges. Potatoes grown in lazy beds produced three times higher yields than in horse-plowed rows. At its pre-Famine zenith, much of the cultivated land in the west of Ireland was composed of human-made soils, laboriously created by repeatedly adding sand, seaweed, and if available, manure for decades. [See the film, The Field.]

Potatoes had several advantages. They were well adapted to a wet, mild climate with thin, nutrient-poor, acidic soils. Unlike grain, potatoes required no processing to make them edible, saving both work and resources (that would have to be paid to millers, for example). Potatoes were nutritious: with milk added, they formed a balanced diet, containing adequate amounts of protein, carbohydrates, and minerals. Their high energy and low fat content made them a healthy food source.

But two problems existed with potatoes.

1. They could not be stored for more than 3/4 of the year. This made late summer months between crops a hungry period.
2. Potatoes were difficult and expensive to transport. Each region was dependent on its own supply. One variety, the Lumper, became the dominant potato because its yields were the highest with the least amount of manure.

By the late 19th century, the diet of the laboring poor had become more potato dependent; as oats became a cash crop to pay land rents to their landlords; and cows were increasingly beyond their means. Hence their diets were stripped of oatmeal and milk. This pushed them into a monocultural dependence on the potato. By the 1830s, one-third of the population -- three million people -- relied on potatoes for over 90 percent of their calorie intake!

In addition, the abundant bogs provided turf -- the fuel of the poor. In the western coastal areas, "blanket" bogs predominate covering the topography, except on the steepest slopes. These bogs developed after millennia of settlement and are essentially post-Neolithic. They spread in the first and second millennium BC probably because of deteriorating climate and the clearing of forests. Blanket beat closely correspond with over 1,250 mm (49 inches) precipitation per year. In the waterlogged, anaerobic conditions, peat accumulated because of the lack of biological breakdown of plant materials. View slideshow3 and then come back to this page.

Potatoes and turf provided cheap food and fuel. The Irish proverb says: if we have potatoes and turf, we could take life easy. Houses could be built out of local materials: stones (glacial and sedimentary) for walls, shipwrecked timbers for house and barn rafters; oats, bent grasses or reed for roofing thatch.

All these factors resulted in the massive colonization of marginal areas, especially along the western Atlantic coast and in uplands (over 150 meters or 492 feet) and the paradox of Irish population density: the poorer the soils, the denser the population!

Cheap food, fuel, and housing had permitted the population to expand prodigiously between 1760 and 1815. This golden age ended after the Napoleonic wars, when agricultural prices halved, herring deserted the west coast, and the linen industry became factory-based. The effected populations occupied more marginal bog areas and became totally dependent of the potato. The advent of the unprecedented potato blight was utterly devastating.

One million died and two million emigrated (mainly to England and the USA, but also to Canada and Australia) in the 1840s and 1850s, paralleling the three million "potato people" who were totally dependent on the potato. As a result, the rates of vagrancy, prostitution, and prisoners increased dramatically in 1848-1850.

Post-Famine Landscape
The government provided only limited support to the hunger and dying: soup kitchens, work houses, and building projects of piers and roads. The famine (also called "green" because they often just ended in nature) roads provided food for the famine victims in return for working on these projects. These famine roads are still visible and are used today for highways and hiking trails for tourists! Look at a topographic map and a photo of Killary Harbour. View slideshow4 and then come back to this page.

The depopulation of the western parts of Ireland is still visible today. Lazy fields can be seen in the pastures for sheep; the stone walls of cottages still stand; fallen stone walls, which once enclosed potato fields, now are used for pastureland; and abandoned Roman Catholic graveyards, churches, and holy wells dot the remotest parts of western Ireland. View slideshow5 and then come back to this page.

Sources:
1) F. H.A. Aaalen, Kevin Whelan and Matthew Stout (eds.), Atlas of the Irish Rural Landscape. Cork: Cork University Press. 1997.
2) Read Liam O'Flaherty's famine novel, Famine (New York: Random House, 1937) and his post-famine novel, Land (New York: Random House, 1946).
3) The History Place has a good web site on the Irish potato famine.