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When it comes to food there are three major periods in Irish history, before the potato
arrived, after the potato arrived and after the potato failed.
The potato arrived in Europe in 1570, from South America. The Irish took to it quickly.
It grew well in Irish conditions because it could be easily stored and eaten during the
winter months. With access to this new food the Irish population began to grow, and
grow extremely rapidly. When the potato arrived in 1580 there were fewer than 1
million people living in Ireland, by 1840 the population had exploded to more than 8
million, most of them poor. The population lived on a diet formed mainly of potatoes
and milk, which if eaten in sufficient quantity is a surprisingly nutritious diet. It is also
relatively tasty. Milk was not always available and herring was a popular and cheap
substitute, with oatmeal replacing or supplementing potatoes when they were scarce.
They also ate what they could find in the wild: berries, nuts, nettles, wild mushrooms
and now and then a rabbit or bird. The richer people had access to cultivated vegetables
and regularly ate meat, primarily pork and mutton with rather less beef. However these
foods were expensive and even in the homes of the rich they were replaced with potato.
In towns, shops began to appear from the early 1600s, primarily butchers and bakers,
where before only open markets would have taken place.
There was effectively no potato crop in 1845 and 1846 and nothing for the poor to eat.
Although many had enough land to grow crops other than potatoes, they had to sell
these crops to pay rent or face eviction. More than a quarter of a million farmers were
evicted between 1845 and 1854 and more than that number simply walked away from
their homes, never to return, rather than face certain starvation. Thousands of evicted
families roamed the country in search of food. More than 1 million people died of
starvation or disease and more than 2 million others emigrated over a six year period.
Instead of retaining crops and other food which was already being produced in Ireland,
cheaper Indian corn was imported in various efforts at relief. This corn was regarded
with suspicion by the Irish who looked on it as animal feed and had no idea how to
prepare and cook it properly. Being accustomed to a diet of potatoes, they had great
difficulty digesting this tough grain.
The most successful relief measure of all was soup kitchens, which were originally set
up by the Quakers and later also funded by various charitable organisations in England
and America. However even they were too few to meet the incessant and ever
increasing demand.