Black Potatoes: The Story of the Great Irish Famine

Type: Book

As of November 2026, Black Potatoes: The Story of the Great Irish Famine has been mentioned in one podcast episode on American History Tellers (Jan 2025). Book recommended for further reading about the Irish famine.

The Great Famine, also known as the Great Hunger, the Famine and the Irish Potato Famine, was a period of mass starvation and disease in Ireland from 1845 to 1852. It constituted a historical social crisis and had a major impact on Irish society and history as a whole. The most severely affected areas were in the western and southern parts of Ireland—where the Irish language was dominant—hence the period was contemporaneously known in Irish as an Drochshaol, which literally translates to "the ba