Cecil Woodham-Smith says that the great historical result of the famine was the foundation of Irish America. The famine changed the social structure of Ireland whereby many smaller absentee landlords collapsed to be replaced by commercial landlords who were in many respects worse. When the potato crop failed, it hit Ireland worst.Ī catastrophe of a size which one can never exaggerate. She explains that the Irish people had been reduced to a state where they lived almost exclusively on the potato. Why did the failure of the potato prove so fatal in Ireland? When younger, she was involved in a number of semi-revolutionary societies. The book provides a history of the Irish famine the role the British government played.Ĭecil Woodham-Smith's ancestors came from the Fitzgerald family and she has always been very interested in her Irish roots. Cecil Woodham-Smith talks about her book on the great Irish famine.īritish historian Cecil Woodham-Smith explains how she came to write 'The Great Hunger: Ireland 1845-1849' (1962).
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