Senate Resolution No. 2952

BY: Senator KENNEDY

COMMEMORATING the 175th Anniversary of the Great
Irish Hunger

WHEREAS, In the course of history, certain events have truly
affected a population of people, and forever changed their lives and
their country as a whole; today we must remember such events, and pay
tribute to those individuals who endured such human tragedy; and

WHEREAS, Attendant to such concern, and in full accord with its
long- standing traditions, this Legislative Body is justly proud to
commemorate the 175th Anniversary of the Great Irish Hunger; and

WHEREAS, In most famines in the contemporary world, only a small
fraction of the population of a given country or region is exposed to
the dangers of death from starvation or infectious diseases, and then
typically for only one or two seasons; however, during the Great Hunger,
the fungus Phytophthora infestans robbed more than one-third of the
population of their usual means of subsistence for four or five years in
a row; and

WHEREAS, The Great Famine or the Great Hunger, was a period of mass
starvation and disease in Ireland from 1845-1849, with the most severely
affected areas in the west and south of Ireland, where the Irish
language was dominant; and

WHEREAS, The proximate cause of the famine was a natural event, a
potato blight, which infected potato crops throughout Europe; the
infestation ruined up to one-half of the potato crop in 1845, and about
three-quarters of the crop over the next seven years; and

WHEREAS, Unfortunately, the crisis was greatly compounded by the
social and political structure in Ireland in the 1840s; most poor
farmers and agricultural labourers lived at a subsistence level and had
little to no money to buy food, which was widely available for purchase
in Ireland throughout the famine years; and

WHEREAS, They did however, have to continue to pay rents either in
cash or in kind, to landlords, and failure to do this saw many thousands
being evicted, greatly worsening the death toll; and

WHEREAS, This immediately plunged the rural poor into a crisis as
they depended almost solely on the potato as their source of food; and

WHEREAS, The failure of potato crops in 1845 caused great hardship
but not yet mass death, as some stores and seed potatoes from the
previous year still existed and farmers and fishermen could sell
animals, boats or nets or withhold the rent to pay for food, for at
least one season; and

WHEREAS, In 1846, the potato crop not only failed again, but did so
much more severely, with very few healthy potatoes being harvested that
autumn; this time the food crisis was much worse as most poor tenant
farmer families now had nothing to fall back on; and


WHEREAS, What followed was a period of mass starvation and death,
made even worse by an unusually cold winter; most deaths were not from
starvation but as a result of diseases such as typhus and dysentery
which took hold among malnourished and weakened people; and

WHEREAS, The following year, 1847, known as Black '47, marked the
worst point of the Famine, and for the second year in a row, hardly any
potatoes were harvested; and

WHEREAS, Hungry people began to wander the countryside and towns,
begging for food; many flocked to the workhouses where they were granted
food and shelter in exchange for work, but due to insanitary conditions,
many died there; and

WHEREAS, During the Great Famine, approximately one million people
died, or about 12-15% of the population, and millions fled the country
in search of a better life; and

WHEREAS, This Legislative Body recognizes the epic devastation
caused by the Great Hunger in Ireland, and the far-reaching loss of life
and livelihood that was sustained by the victims of this tragedy; now,
therefore, be it

RESOLVED, That this Legislative Body pause in its deliberations to
commemorate the 175th Anniversary of the Great Irish Hunger; and be it
further

RESOLVED, That a copy of this Resolution, suitably engrossed, be
transmitted to the NYS Ancient Order of the Hibernians.