Honor Irish Hunger Anniversary

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.