The Great Irish Famine
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss why so many were vulnerable to the failure of the potato crops in Ireland in the 1840s, what relief was given and why so many died or left.
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss why the potato crop failures in the 1840s had such a catastrophic impact in Ireland. It is estimated that one million people died from disease or starvation after the blight and another two million left the country within the decade. There had been famines before, but not on this scale. What was it about the laws, attitudes and responses that made this one so devastating?
The image above is from The Illustrated London News, Dec. 29, 1849, showing a scalp or shelter, "a hole, surrounded by pools, and three sides of the scalp were dripping with water, which ran in small streams over the floor and out by the entrance. The poor inhabitants said they would be thankful if the landlord would leave them there, and the Almighty would spare their lives. Its principal tenant is Margaret Vaughan."
With
Cormac O'Grada
Professor Emeritus in the School of Economics at University College Dublin
Niamh Gallagher
University Lecturer in Modern British and Irish History at the University of Cambridge
And
Enda Delaney
Professor of Modern History and School Director of Research at the University of Edinburgh
Producer: Simon Tillotson
Last on
LINKS AND FURTHER READING
听
READING LIST:
John Crowley, Michael Murphy and William J. Smith (eds.), Atlas of the Great Irish Famine (Cork University Press, 2012)
Enda Delaney,听The Great Irish Famine: A History in Four Lives听(Gill & Macmillan Ltd, 2014)
Enda Delaney and Breand谩n Mac Suibhne (eds.), Ireland's Great Famine and Popular Politics (Routledge. 2016)
James S. Donnelly, The Great Irish Potato Famine (Sutton Publishing, 2002)
R. D. Edwards and T. D. Williams (eds.), The Great Famine: Essays in Irish History (first published in 1956; Lilliput Press, 1995)
Peter Gray, The Irish Famine听(Thames and Hudson Ltd, 1995)
James Kelly (ed.), The Cambridge History of Ireland, Volume 3, 1730-1880. Vol. 3 (Cambridge University Press, 2018), especially 鈥楾he Great Famine, 1845-1850鈥� by Peter Gray
Christine Kinealy, The Great Irish Famine: Impact, Ideology and Rebellion (Palgrave, 2001)
Breand谩n Mac Suibhne, Subjects Lacking Words? The Gray Zone of the Great Famine (Cork University Press, 2017)
Cormac 脫 Gr谩da, Ireland鈥檚 Great Famine: Interdisciplinary Perspectives (University College Dublin, 2006)
Cormac 脫 Gr谩da, Famine: A Short History (Princeton University Press, 2010)
Ciar谩n 脫 Murchadha, The Great Famine: Ireland鈥檚 Agony 1845鈥�1852 (Continuum, 2012)
Cecil Woodham-Smith, The Great Hunger: Ireland 1845-1849 (first published 1962; Penguin, 1991)
听
Broadcasts
- Thu 4 Apr 2019 09:00大象传媒 Radio 4
- Thu 4 Apr 2019 21:30大象传媒 Radio 4
Featured in...
![]()
Victorian—In Our Time
Browse the Victorian era within the In Our Time archive.
![]()
19th Century—In Our Time
Browse the 19th Century era within the In Our Time archive.
![]()
History—In Our Time
Historical themes, events and key individuals from Akhenaten to Xenophon.
In Our Time podcasts
Download programmes from the huge In Our Time archive.
The In Our Time Listeners' Top 10
If you鈥檙e new to In Our Time, this is a good place to start.
Arts and Ideas podcast
Download the best of Radio 3's Free Thinking programme.
Podcast
-
![]()
In Our Time
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the ideas, people and events that have shaped our world.
