# Irish Potato Famine
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/irish-potato-famine/316785
**Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports
**Created:** [August 12, 2005, 9:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/irish-potato-famine/316785 "2005-08-12T21:39:03Z")
**Posts on this page:** 11
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@grrrace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/grrrace)
#### Post date: [August 12, 2005, 9:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/irish-potato-famine/316785/1 "2005-08-12T21:39:03Z")
I’m not an expert on the subject or anything, but wasn’t the Irish Potato Famine mentioned in this column:
[http://www.straightdope.com/columns/050812.html](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/050812.html)
a prototypical example of a famine that was _not_ principally of natural origin? Or at least, was allowed to continue because of social irresponsibility, rather than natural forces?
my refs: [http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/historyonline/irish\_potato\_famine.cfm](http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/historyonline/irish_potato_famine.cfm)
and that sinead o’connor song, famine
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### Author:  [@Cecil\_Adams](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cecil_Adams)
#### Post date: [August 13, 2005, 12:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/irish-potato-famine/316785/2 "2005-08-13T00:46:36Z")
The proximate cause of the famine was a potato blight. It may well have been exacerbated by British policy. I was attempting to draw a distinction between “natural” famines and those that would not have occurred had it not been for human foolishness or iniquity.
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### Author:  [@saoirse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/saoirse)
#### Post date: [August 13, 2005, 5:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/irish-potato-famine/316785/3 "2005-08-13T05:11:45Z")
And on the subject of Irish rockstars, I wonder to which of the two categories the Ethiopian famine of the mid-eighties belonged.
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### Author:  [@Jake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jake)
#### Post date: [August 14, 2005, 9:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/irish-potato-famine/316785/4 "2005-08-14T21:52:27Z")
Hey! Cecil’s a '99er too. I think he’s been on this board a little longer than that, though. 🙂
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### Author:  [@rjk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rjk)
#### Post date: [August 15, 2005, 4:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/irish-potato-famine/316785/5 "2005-08-15T04:11:44Z")
The blight would probably not have been so devastating if the potato crop had not been based on the few individuals brought back by one of Sir Walter Raleigh’s expeditions. The original South American potato populations show a lot more variety than cultivated forms. (Many other crops these days are selected strongly or multiplied from a very small group, and have the same vulnerability.)
That dependence on monoculture could be called a human error.
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### Author:  [@flodnak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flodnak)
#### Post date: [August 15, 2005, 6:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/irish-potato-famine/316785/6 "2005-08-15T06:44:16Z")
> [@saoirse](#):
>
> And on the subject of Irish rockstars, I wonder to which of the two categories the Ethiopian famine of the mid-eighties belonged.
The whole thing started with a drought, but the situation was made much, much worse by human activity. Ethiopa was also experiencing a civil war at the time (which would ultimately lead to Eritrea becoming a separate nation) and both the government and the rebels were far more concerned with getting the weapons and other materials they needed to keep fighting than with feeding the civilian population or even allowing food aid through, particularly when the food was intended for the population of areas controlled by the other side. I’d call it a natural crisis, turned into a catastrophe by government policy.
Actually not all that different from most if not all of the other famines that have occured since that time - I’m making an exception for the current situation in Niger and surrounding countries, which may have been exascerbated by government incompetence rather than outright malice.
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### Author:  [@John\_W.Kennedy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_W.Kennedy)
#### Post date: [August 15, 2005, 12:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/irish-potato-famine/316785/7 "2005-08-15T12:12:30Z")
> [@rjk](#):
>
> The blight would probably not have been so devastating if the potato crop had not been based on the few individuals brought back by one of Sir Walter Raleigh’s expeditions. The original South American potato populations show a lot more variety than cultivated forms. (Many other crops these days are selected strongly or multiplied from a very small group, and have the same vulnerability.)
>
> That dependence on monoculture could be called a human error.
And we’re about to go through it again with [bananas](http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/13/business/media/13offline.html).
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### Author:  [@saoirse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/saoirse)
#### Post date: [August 15, 2005, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/irish-potato-famine/316785/8 "2005-08-15T19:52:21Z")
It had seemed to me that some sort of governmental involvement is needed to get the kind of death tolls listed in the Column, at least in the modern era.
> [@](#):
>
> And we’re about to go through it again with bananas.
On a brighter note, it may be possible to bring the [chestnuts](http://www.apsnet.org/online/feature/chestnut/) back, finally. It’s only been a century.
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### Author:  [@C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/C_K_Dexter_Haven)
#### Post date: [August 15, 2005, 10:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/irish-potato-famine/316785/9 "2005-08-15T22:15:26Z")
I’m astounded. **Cecil Adams** His very Own Self comes to comment, and everyone just takes it in stride.
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### Author:  [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)
#### Post date: [August 16, 2005, 12:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/irish-potato-famine/316785/10 "2005-08-16T00:16:37Z")
> [@C K Dexter Haven](#):
>
> I’m astounded. **Cecil Adams** His very Own Self comes to comment, and everyone just takes it in stride.
Me, too. Why, back when I was a kid, we didn’t lock our doors. And kids respected their teachers. And…
But, don’t expect me to tell you what this means. I’m sure it means something, but I ain’t no board psychologist. I’m just one of the inmates. 🙂
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### Author:  [@saoirse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/saoirse)
#### Post date: [August 16, 2005, 4:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/irish-potato-famine/316785/11 "2005-08-16T04:37:05Z")
I would think he wouldn’t want to be poked and prodded like some hyperintelligent dancing bear.
“Hey, Smart Guy. Do so¿'m smart. Gwan, do so¿m smart.”