Chronology of The Great Famine

The Chronology of the Great Famine (Irish: An Gorta Mór or An Drochshaol, litt: The Bad Life) documents a period of Irish history between 1845 and 1852 during which time the population of Ireland was reduced by 20 to 25 percent. The proximate cause was famine resulting from a potato disease commonly known as late blight. Although blight ravaged potato crops throughout Europe during the 1840s, the impact and human cost in Ireland – where a third of the population was entirely dependent on the potato for food – was exacerbated by a host of political, social and economic factors which remain the subject of historical debate.