Abstract
This review chapter of the Great Irish Famine (1845–1850) discusses the famine onslaught in terms of uneven “famine vulnerabilities”: pre-existing social and spatial disparities that characterized pre-famine Ireland and exacerbated the famine hardship experienced by poorer classes in rural areas. More generally, this chapter advocates that episodes of famine be understood in terms of a complex interaction between the immediate catalyst of famine and the pre-existing social and spatial variations that define the local context in which the dire consequences of famine unfold.
“Several persons, residents of Castlebar, have informed us that while digging potatoes in their fields they encountered an intolerable stench, which, after examination, they found to proceed from the putrid state of the esculents they were in the act of unearthing […] Should this fearful malady spread among the crops of the rural population, dreadful indeed must be the consequences to the poor, whose sole dependence in this country is the potato crop.”
[Excerpt from Mayo Telegraph, reprinted in Freeman’s Journal, Friday 19 September 1845, p. 4]
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Curran, D. (2019). The Great Irish Famine 1845–1850: Social and Spatial Famine Vulnerabilities. In: Preedy, V., Patel, V. (eds) Handbook of Famine, Starvation, and Nutrient Deprivation. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-55387-0_47
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