Definition of Irish potato famine (1845-1849)

The Great Irish Famine (known as The Great Hunger, An Gorta Mór in Irish, or An Drochshaol, the Bad Life), refers to a famine, and its aftermath, in Ireland between 1845 and 1851. The famine was caused initially by potato blight, which almost instantly destroyed the primary food source for the majority of the Irish people. The blight explains the crop failure but the dramatic and deadly effect of the famine was exacerbated by other factors of economic, political, and social origin. The impact of the Great Famine in Ireland remains unparalleled, in terms of the demographic decline, the Irish population falling by approximately 25 percent in just six years, due to a combination of “excess mortality and mass emigration.”