Saint Patrick’s Day

Why is St Patrick’s Day so popular around the world?

Because there are many Irish communities around the world! People have moved from country to country around the world for centuries, to explore, and to search for a better way life, and the Irish are no exception to this. What really started the mass exodus from Ireland in comparatively recent times however, was the Great Potato Famine of 1845-6.

Over half a million Irish ended up in the United States.

Many people know the basic outline of the story of that terrible time. The potato was the staple food for many poorer Irish at that time, perhaps more importantly too, it was a cash crop that many of these families relied on to bring them enough money to clothe and feed and house themselves with.

When the crop failed, and they had no money to pay the rent, their often ruthless, usually English, landlords simply threw them out on the street to starve to death, and many did.

Something that many people probably don’t know is that the fungus that destroyed the crops, didn’t originate in Ireland, but came from the Americas – Mexico to be precise. It was transported to Europe in an order of seed potatoes for a Belgian farmer, and after ravaging Belgium and Holland, swept across the North Sea into England, and then across the Irish Sea and into Ireland. What made it such a tragedy in Ireland, was that for many of those families mentioned above, it was their ONLY source of income.

The British Government of the time, under Peel, tried to help by repealing the Corn Laws to help bring in cheap imports to Ireland to stave up the worst of the starvation the people were facing there.

One effect was that the price of grain rose, as speculators bought and solf grain futures. In 1847 the Irish potato crop was successful, the price of grain dropped dramatically, and many of the speculators were ruined, and the British banking system teetered on the verge of collapse.

Nothing like that was to happen again, for over 150 years, until the American-led sub-prime mortgage crisis has lead to Bank of England intervention in Northern Rock (along with Federal Reserve help for major banks such as Bear Stearns in the US).

At least we’ve got plenty of potatoes to go round now.