Legacy of the Great Irish Famine

The legacy of the Great Famine in Ireland (Irish: An Gorta Mór or An Drochshaol, litt: The Bad Life) followed a catastrophic period of Irish history between 1845 and 1852 during which time the population of Ireland was reduced by 20 to 25 percent.

The famine was a watershed in the history of Ireland. Its effects permanently changed the island's demographic, political and cultural landscape. For both the native Irish and those in the resulting diaspora, the famine entered folk memory and became a rallying point for various nationalist movements. Modern historians regard it as a dividing line in the Irish historical narrative, referring to the preceding period of Irish history as "pre-Famine."

Political reaction resulting from the Great Irish Famine was muted, because of the extremely limited electoral franchise that existed at the time. While Irish politics in the 1820s to 1840s had been dominated by the Catholic Emancipation and "Repeal" movements under Daniel O'Connell, it was not until the 1880s under Charles Stewart Parnell, nearly forty years after the Famine, that a major Irish nationalist political movement, the Home Rule League (later known as the 'Parliamentary Party') appeared. Parnell was also instrumental in establishing the Irish Land League, to achieve land reform. (The Independent Irish Party, formed in June 1852, disintegrated within four years, but it was in major decline from 1853 when tenants benefited from a recovery in agricultural prices.)

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