# Irish famine
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/irish-famine/164102
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [March 25, 2003, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/irish-famine/164102 "2003-03-25T19:58:56Z")
**Posts on this page:** 6
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@DobryDen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DobryDen)
#### Post date: [March 25, 2003, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/irish-famine/164102/1 "2003-03-25T19:58:56Z")
During the Irish famine of the 1840s, why didn’t people eat fish? No point in Ireland is more than 70 miles from the sea. I’ve heard this question raised many times, usually with the implication that the starving Irish peasants were pretty dim not to take advantage of an obvious remedy.
But I’m guessing there are good reasons why fish couldn’t alleviate the suffering very much. Perhaps it’s that Ireland then didn’t have roads good enough for transporting fish even a short ways inland. And there was no fishing industry with boats – people standing on the shore with fishing poles could hardly feed 8 million people (the population at the time).
I do know the British helped institute a fishing industry on the west coast of Ireland in the late 19th century. One wonders why doing so during the famine wasn’t part of the relief efforts.
Anyone know? Thanks,
Dennis Moran
Pacific Grove, California [dobrydennis@yahoo.co](mailto:dobrydennis@yahoo.co)
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### Author:  [@ruadh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ruadh)
#### Post date: [March 25, 2003, 8:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/irish-famine/164102/2 "2003-03-25T20:09:42Z")
Hi Dennis. You can find some answers on [this thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=141336) from a few months ago. (For future reference, the mods like you to do a search before posting a question to this forum 🙂 )
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### Author:  [@bryanmaguire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bryanmaguire)
#### Post date: [March 25, 2003, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/irish-famine/164102/3 "2003-03-25T20:19:08Z")
Quick history of the famine :
Potato blight. Crops fail. Peasant farmers lose only source of income. No income = cant pay the rent . Mass evictions. No work for the evicted people. No work = no money = starve to death.
Even if a fishing industry had sprung up overnight the people who had been evicted would still have no money and therefore be unable to pay for the fish.
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### Author:  [@TGWATY](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TGWATY)
#### Post date: [March 25, 2003, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/irish-famine/164102/4 "2003-03-25T20:23:01Z")
I once saw figures that indicated that the population of Ireland today is still less than pre-famine. Can anyone here confirm?
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### Author:  [@bryanmaguire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bryanmaguire)
#### Post date: [March 25, 2003, 8:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/irish-famine/164102/5 "2003-03-25T20:27:34Z")
Pre-famine population of Ireland was 8m ( 32 counties)
Present population is 3.5m (26 counties), 1.5m(6 counties)
So it is still considerably less. In fact it is only now getting back to post-famine population levels.
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### Author:  [@CBCD](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CBCD)
#### Post date: [March 25, 2003, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/irish-famine/164102/6 "2003-03-25T20:51:01Z")
An excellent account of the Irish Famine is The Great Hunger, by Cecil Woodham-Smith. Well-written and informative.