The Irish Famine

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A peasant family preparing to eat a dinner of boiled potatoes Pictorial Times February 28, 1846

Potatoes did not win over European tastes quickly. When potatoes first arrived, many countries paid little attention to the tubers because they grew enough to feed their populations. Ireland, however, faced a different situation. In the 1500s, Irish nobles fought each other and the English who wanted to conquer them. With near constant warfare, Irish peasants found it difficult to grow enough food to eat.

Then, around 1600, the potato arrived in Ireland. Nobody is quite sure how it traveled there. Some say that English adventurer Sir Walter Raleigh planted potatoes on land given to him in Ireland. (English rulers rewarded their favorites with Irish land.) But nobody has proven this. Another story says that potatoes washed up on Irish shores when English ships, led in part by Sir Walter Raleigh, sunk the potato-carrying Spanish Armada. This tale has not been proven either.

What historians know for sure is that when potatoes did arrive, they took root quickly. Peasants learned that potatoes produced more food per acre than other food crops. Plus they provided a healthy, easy-to-grow food. Finally, when armies marched through the Irish countryside, they did not destroy potato crops-it took too long to dig up the potato hills.

By the 1800s, potatoes had become the main food eaten by poor Irish families. With better diets, the population grew to more than eight million by the early 1840s. Some experts at the time called it a population explosion.

The Great Famine greatly reduced the Irish population. (It did not reach the eight million mark again until the early 1900s.) Yet despite the Great Famine, the Irish never lost their taste for potatoes. Many popular dishes today still include potatoes. These are but a few popular ways to cook potatoes.