great hunger
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The Great Hunger
In the century before the great famine of the late 1840's the Irish people, as well as the poor people, became soley dependent on the potato crop for their food. In September 1845, a strange disease struck the potato fields across Ireland resulting in what is called "The Great Hunger". When the potato blight struck, causing the potato tubers to rot in the ground, the result was one of the worst disasters in history today (Donnelly 22). The famine resulted in the death of about one million people. The famine was largely responsible for the conjunction with British government policies, for one of the great international human migrations of modern history (Donnelly 53).
During the year of 1845 in Ireland, the condition of the people took a sharp turn for the worse. Between one-third and half of the potato crop was destroyed by the potato disease, which became known as 'potato blight'. Many of the potatoes found in Ireland were black and most of the potatoes were rotten with their leaves dried out. It was not possible to eat the blighted potatoes. The smell of the rotten potatoes could be smelled for miles...