One of the most appalling bits of history we learned about in Ireland was the potato famine. England appears to have tried mightily to decimate the population of Ireland. Any Irish who practiced Catholicism—the majority of Ireland’s native population—were initially prohibited from owning or leasing land, voting or holding elected office under the so-called Penal Laws. Catholics had their land taken by the British and could not be employed or educated or practice their faith. The potato crop on which they relied for income and food was wiped out by disease two years in a row. As a result, as many as 1 million Irish men, women and children perished during the Famine, and another 1 to 2 million emigrated from the island to escape poverty and starvation.
Pictured below is the famine graveyard in County Donegal, one of many mass graves of victims of the Great Famine.
The Irish fled persecution on boats were often unseaworthy and overcrowded. Owners of these so-called "coffin ships" provided as little food, water and living space as was legally possible, if they obeyed the law at all. Historians estimate that up to 100,000 people died trying to escape famine and disease on these rickety vessels. The photos below were taken at the National Famine Monument at the base of Croagh Patrick in Murrisk, County Mayo, Ireland. The bronze statue - the largest in Ireland - depicts a coffin ship with skeletons and bones as rigging.
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| Croagh Patrick, viewed from the National Famine Monument |