🇮🇪 The Irish Famine🇮🇪

Question 1

What were tenant farmers?

Answer 1

They rented a farm (often less than 10 acres), they were often very poor and used subsistence farming (they grew enough food to pay their rent and feed their family)

Question 2

What were middlemen?

Answer 2

Usually a defendant of a pre-penal laws wealthy catholic landowning class, they divided up their land and rented it for s profit.

Question 3

What were cottiers?

Answer 3

They worked for tenant farmers and rented a small patch of land ( conacre) from them where they would build their house.

Question 4

Why was the potato so important?

Answer 4

• it was highly nutritious.
• many potatoes could be grown in a relatively small patch of land.
• the potato suited the damp Irish climate

Question 5

What was the worst year of the famine?

Answer 5

1847 ( black ‘47)

Question 6

How did the British Government respond to the famine?

Answer 6

• they set up work schemes eg. Building famine roads, workhouses, famine walls.
• British Prime Minister Robert Peel ordered Indian Maize to be distributed to the poor but they didn’t know how to cook it so they died.

Question 7

What were the results of the famine?

Answer 7

• The population was halved due to death and emigration.
• Cities like Boston and New York were over run with immigrants.
• The use of the Irish language was greatly reduced.
• There is an increase in political activism.
• Subdivision came to an end.