1845 AD–1852 AD
The Great Famine transforms Ireland and the Atlantic
British Empire · Migration & diaspora · Famine, health & environment
Potato blight repeatedly destroyed the crop, but unequal landholding, dependence, and state policy magnified the catastrophe. Roughly one million died and another million emigrated—estimates rather than exact counts—accelerating depopulation, diaspora, and nationalism under Union government
Precision, calendar, and review
- Start
- year · no uncertainty qualifier in this record
- End
- year · no uncertainty qualifier in this record
- Calendar and convention
- Historical-era years; the source calendar is not identified. No conversion of days is assumed.
- Year zero
- The scale goes from 1 BCE to 1 CE without year zero. Changing era names changes labels only.
- Documentary review
- Date not recorded
Reading the date: duration of a process.
Sources
- nationalarchives.ie (opens in a new tab)
Source provenance and scope
- Publication date
- 2024-12-11
- What this date describes
- The cited source or edition; it may postdate the historical event.
- Source updated
- 2026-04-12
- Bibliographic date checked
- 2026-09-23
- Date evidence
- Declared in the cited source’s publisher metadata.
The correspondence between this reference and individual claims has not yet been itemized.
This record is an editorial synthesis. Consult the sources to check claims and their limits. Chronological relationships alone do not establish causation.