This is a very broad question. I will focus on the
aspects of Irish society that were most relevant to the famine itself. Some of the most
important aspects of Irish society at the time
include:
- English destruction of Irish
manufacturing. When Ireland and Great Britain joined together in 1801, free trade was
established between the two areas and England started dumping cheap goods on Ireland.
This destroyed Irish manufacturing because Irish goods were more expensive. This put
huge numbers of Irish out of work. - Most Irish farmers
lived and worked on very small plots of land. The farms were so small that only one
crop could typically be grown. This was potatoes. - Many
of these farms were owned by absentee landlords. These people and their agents charged
very high rents and imposed other onerous demands on their
tenants.
These things, put together, meant that
the majority of Irish people were trying to make their living by farming under very poor
conditions in the years leading up to the famine.
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