Ireland_as_History

It brought a change but not for all peasants. 'No other single person has left such an unmistakable mark on the history of Ireland' (J.C Beckett) O'Conell greatest sucess was undoubtelly the passing of the Roman Catholic Emancipation Act 1829. Next event which can be seen as a turning point in Irish history was the Great Famine 1845-9.Mainly the consequences of this were profound socially economically and politically.Ireland in 19th century had a complete dependence on the potato as the main food source for the majority of the population.So the potato blight in 1847 had a devastating effect.The Irish didn't change the question betwen the Famine and the war of independence any more than they had changed it between the Union and Famine. The Famine was real disaster, which led to consequences of disease and massive emigration most peasants went to USA..It reduced population by some two milion inside a single decade.Furthemore, Irish immigrants living in USA ,incensed by the Brithish desertion formed their own radical groups that encouraged anti-British sentiments amongs the Irish -American Community. It caused even worst Irish attitude to Britain -' To break the connection with England , the never -failing source of all political evils' F.S.L Lyons ) but not only in the political way ' It still remains an appalling phenomenon , etching itself ineradicably on the hearts and minds not only of those who experienced it , but of all the generation that had lived in Ireland since those terrible years' F.S.L Lyons . There were a few main results of the Great Famine the population and the economy as I said above the population get a big hit. Also the land , the demographic changes had a powerful impact on the pattern of landholding.The aftermath of Famine also saw the emrgence of a more balanced farming system with less concetration on tillage, and especially on potato.However it has a ' possitive ' results as well -a rise in average living standarts of people.Anyway, the failure of O' Conell's Repeal campaign and his death in 1847 led to create a more extreme group of Irish Nationalists with the ' Young Ireland ' movement . American Irish help to shift nature of the Irish Question by providing funds and armaments for subsequent generations of nationalists particulary the Fenians, which was the most important Irish revolutionary group in 1860.It was actually a revolutionary society organised in 1858 in Ireland and USA to achieve Irish independence from England by force. --->' The Famine' was in F.S.L Lyons ' deeply significant also for subsequent economic and social configuration '