Ghosts of the Great Famine
The History of Ireland
Ireland’s first inhabitants arrived around 8000 BC. Very little is known about pre-Christian Ireland, except what can be gathered from archaeological findings, ancient myths, and a few references to “Hibernia” in Roman texts. After the introduction of agriculture in 4000 BC, small kingdoms filled ancient Ireland. Christianity was introduced in the 5th century and by the year 600 it had become the dominant religion. The first English invasion of Ireland took place in 684 but the invaders soon left and the English did not return until 1169. During those 500 years, Vikings invaded Ireland and established several settlements. Those settlements—including Dublin—continued to thrive even after the Vikings were driven out. When Ireland was invaded in 1169, it was the beginning of a period of English rule that would last for over 700 years.
Between 1534 and 1691, England colonized Ireland by way of plantations, which displaced Irish-Catholics and gave their land to English-Protestant settlers. The 1600s were incredibly violent years in Ireland’s history. Two devastating wars severely depleted the population and Irish slavery reached an unprecedented high. After losing the Battle of Aughrim in 1681, Ireland’s militant forces succumbed to English rule.
Gaelic Ireland was suppressed militarily, politically, and culturally, and the tensions between Irish Protestants and Irish Catholics began to mount. Although the majority of the population was Catholic, they were banned from entering the Irish Parliament. Ireland’s poor, most of whom were Catholic, suffered under the discriminatory Penal Laws, which were designed to encourage Catholics to convert to Protestantism. The Navigation Acts, which taxed Irish products entering English, but exempted English products entering Ireland, worsted the first Irish famine, which occurred between 1740 and 1741. Nearly half a million people were killed and over a hundred thousand left. The Irish Rebellion of 1798 was violently suppressed and in 1801 Ireland officially became part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. Catholics were not granted full fights until 1829 under Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, who had been born in Dublin.
The Great Famine (1845-1849), which is discussed further by author and historian Marianna O’Gallagher above, was caused, in party, by a potato blight. However, the potato blight affected all of Europe and only resulted in Famine in Ireland. The main reason for the famine was its socio-political circumstances, and the result was mass starvation and emigration. When the famine subsided, the population had decreased by nearly half and English had largely replaced the Gaelic language. One of the images displayed in the header is a photograph of a memorial in Dublin, pictured again below, commemorating those who died during the famine.
In 1903, the Wyndham Land Purchase Act allowed large estates to be broken down and transferred to poor Irish tenants, reflecting Ireland’s increasing nationalism and struggle for independence. When the story opens in 1904, the tensions that erupted in the 1916 Easter Rising, the 1922 Irish War of Independence, and the violent conflict in Northern Ireland that lasted until the late 1990s, were already in place.
