Life During the Famine

Painting a picture of the living conditions during the Potato Famine is not a pretty one. Filled with many brown, blacks, and grays, the famine was a perfect storm of horrible occurrences. As stated before, British involvement in the famine was not positive at all. However, there were more immediate problems the Irish people had to live with.

A starving family in their home

Understanding the Irish way of living is important. The mass population relied on bartering as a means of economy, simple fishing equipment, and growing everything they ate (mostly potatoes). When the famine hit full force, the Irish had no money to buy expensive food, there was not enough government work provided, and people traded everything they owned for food. Quickly, material items ran out and with no money, work, or possessions, whole families were forced to starve. Near the coasts, fisherman were only able to catch a limited amount of fish (which could not be transported to inner Ireland) and even the fishermen were forced to sell their nets and boats to buy food. As people starved in the streets, they watched ships of food leave Ireland for the British ports. This sparked many food riots and the Irish tried, and failed, to confiscate the boats. The people tried to survive off of anything they could find, even eat green grass. Finally, in the winter of 1846-47, the worst weather Ireland has ever seen was reported. In a land that rarely sees snow, a multitude of blizzards occurred, barring houses and people alike.

Memorial in Dublin about the famine

In addition to the debilitating hunger, many people died from diseases spread across the land. One of the main killers was "Black Fever" or typhus. It was spread from person to person by body lice often carried by the homeless. As kind people tried to help the sick, they got infected themselves and continued to spread the disease.

References:

Information: http://www.historyplace.com/worldhistory/famine/hunger.htm

Staving family: http://www.myguideireland.com/images/stories/Ireland/about-ireland-2/history/famine/starving-family.jpg

Memorial: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/93/Famine_memorial_dublin.jpg/275px-Famine_memorial_dublin.jpg