In the mid-19th century, a microscopic invader swept across Ireland, leaving a trail of devastation in its wake. The potato blight, caused by the fungus-like pathogen Phytophthora infestans, triggered ...

The Great Hunger was a modern event, shaped by the belief that the poor are the authors of their own misery and that the ...

Exploring the socio-economic, political and ideological systems that made the Irish poor vulnerable to disaster ...

By 1845, one-third of U.K. residents lived in Ireland and nearly all of them relied on a single potato strain—a disaster ...

Happy St. Patrick’s Day. On Monday, many will pretend to be Irish, wear green and maybe find an excuse to drink green beer ...

However, the famine worsened when the potato harvest failed again in 1846 due to the potato blight. The British government did try and help a little. In 1846, Prime Minister Robert Peel ordered £ ...

As spring approaches, farmers across the state prepare for potato season — the planting process begins after the last hard ...

There are few events in Irish history as evocative or politically potent as the Great Famine. The blight that destroyed potato crops in the late 1840s reduced the island’s population by almost ...