The Potato Blight
In 1845, it is estimated that about one third of the entire population was totally dependent on the potato, and in poor regions, like Mayo, it was the only food eaten by up to nine tenths of the population. Then in September, 1845 a strange disease struck the potatos. Irish farmers dug up their potatos and found that they turned black and leaves had started to wither. This disease known as 'potato blight' wiped out potato crops. It was not possible to eat the blighted potatoes and the potatoes were the Irish people's main source of food.
Workhouses
Landlords evicted hundreds of thousands of peasants, who then crowded into disease-infested workhouses. Before the famine, workhouses were built around Ireland to house the poor and homeless. They were overcrowded, cold and damp places. The able-bodied were forced to work; the men broke stones and the women knitted. The workhouses were meant for 1% of the population, but during the famine, 50% needed help. There were strict rules in the workhouse such as keeping silence at certain times. Inmates were not allowed to play cards, disobey orders or try to escape from the workhouse. The workhouses could hardly manage. Outdoor relief was brought in to take the strain off the workhouse system. Diseases in the workhouses were common and included typhus, relapsing fever. dysentry, bacillary dysentry, scurvy and Asiatic cholera and there was little or no medication at all.
Soup Kitchens
In the summer of 1847, the government set up some soup kitchens to give the starving people hot soup. A group called the Quakers, did a lot of work to feed the poor. They bought huge boilers in which to cook the soup. By August 1847, about 3 million people were being fed each day in total. However, in the Autumn of 1847, the government shut down the soup kitchens. . They expected that the next crop of potatoes might be good and told poor people that they could go to the workhouses for help.