Editing Great Famine (Ireland) (section)

===Blight in Ireland===
[[File:Suggested paths of migration and diversification of P. infestans lineages HERB-1 and US-1.jpg|thumb|Suggested paths of migration and diversification of ''P. infestans'' lineages HERB-1 and US-1]]

Prior to the arrival of ''[[Phytophthora infestans]]'', commonly known as "blight", only two main potato plant diseases had been discovered.{{sfn|Donnelly|2005|p=40}} One was called "dry rot" or "taint", and the other was a virus known popularly as "curl".{{sfn|Donnelly|2005|p=40}}{{sfn|Kinealy|1994|pp=32–33}} ''Phytophthora infestans'' is an [[oomycete]] (a variety of parasitic, non-photosynthetic organisms closely related to [[brown algae]], and not a fungus).{{sfn|Paddock|1992|pp=197–222}}

In 1851, the Census of Ireland Commissioners recorded 24 [[harvest failure|failures]] of the potato crop going back to 1728, of varying severity. General crop failures, through disease or frost, were recorded in 1739, 1740, 1770, 1800, and 1807. In 1821 and 1822, the potato crop failed in [[Munster]] and [[Connacht|Connaught]]. In 1830 and 1831, counties [[County Mayo|Mayo]], [[County Donegal|Donegal]], and [[County Galway|Galway]] suffered likewise. In 1832, 1833, 1834, and 1836, dry rot and curl caused serious losses, and in 1835 the potato failed in Ulster. Widespread failures throughout Ireland occurred in 1836, 1837, 1839, 1841, and 1844. According to Woodham-Smith, "the unreliability of the potato was an accepted fact in Ireland".{{sfn|Woodham-Smith|1991|p=38}}

Experts are still unsure of how and when blight arrived in Europe; it almost certainly was not present prior to 1842, and probably arrived in 1844.<ref name="Bourke">{{cite journal |last1=Bourke |year=1964 |title=The Emergence of Potato Blight 1843–1846 |journal=[[Nature (journal)|Nature]] |volume=203 |issue=4947 |pages=805–808 |doi=10.1038/203805a0 |bibcode=1964Natur.203..805A |s2cid =4157856}}</ref> The origin of the pathogen has been traced to the [[Toluca Valley]] in Mexico,<ref>{{cite book |last=Neiderhauser |first=J. S. |date=1991 |chapter=Phytophthora infestans: the Mexican connection |pages=25–45 |title=Symposium of the Mycological Society |editor1-last=Lucas |editor1-first=J. A. |editor2-last=Shattock |editor2-first=R. C. |editor3-last=Shaw |editor3-first=D. S. |editor4-last=Cooke |editor4-first=L. R. |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]]}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Goss |first1=Erica M. |last2=Tabima |first2=Javier F. |last3=Cooke |first3=David E. L. |last4=Restrepo |first4=Silvia| author-link4=Silvia Restrepo|last5=Fry |first5=William E. |last6=Forbes |first6=Gregory A. |last7=Fieland |first7=Valerie J. |last8=Cardenas |first8=Martha |last9=Grünwald |first9=Niklaus J. |date=17 June 2014|title=The Irish potato famine pathogen Phytophthora infestans originated in central Mexico rather than the Andes |journal=[[Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences]] |language=en |volume=111 |issue=24 |pages=8791–8796 |doi=10.1073/pnas.1401884111 |issn=0027-8424 |pmc=4066499 |pmid=24889615 |bibcode=2014PNAS..111.8791G |doi-access=free}}</ref> whence it spread within North America and then to Europe.<ref name="Bourke" /> The 1845–1846 blight was caused by the HERB-1 strain of the blight.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.redorbit.com/news/science/1112852633/cause-irish-potato-famine-revealed-052113 |title=Cause Of The Irish Potato Famine Revealed |website=Redorbit.com |date=21 May 2013 |access-date=17 April 2017 |archive-date=14 June 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170614115335/http://www.redorbit.com/news/science/1112852633/cause-irish-potato-famine-revealed-052113/ |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |title=Historic Late Blight Outbreaks Caused by a Widespread Dominant Lineage of Phytophthora infestans (Mont.) de Bary |journal=[[PLOS ONE]] |volume=11 |issue=12 |pages=e0168381 |date=28 December 2016 |doi=10.1371/journal.pone.0168381 |pmid=28030580 |pmc=5193357 |last1=Saville |first1=Amanda C. |last2=Martin |first2=Michael D. |last3=Ristaino |first3=Jean B. |bibcode=2016PLoSO..1168381S |doi-access=free}}</ref>

[[File:Potatoes Production Great Famine en.svg|thumb|left|upright=1.3|Potato production during the Great Famine.<ref>{{Citation |last=Bourke |first=P. M. Austin |year=1960 |title=The Extent of the Potato Crop in Ireland at the time of the Famine |journal=Dublin: Journal of the Statistical and Social Inquiry Society of Ireland |volume=XX, Part III |pages=1–35 |publisher=Statistical and Social Inquiry Society of Ireland |issn=0081-4776 |location=Dublin |url=http://www.tara.tcd.ie/jspui/bitstream/2262/4522/1/jssisiVolXXPart3_0135.pdf |access-date=10 April 2011 |archive-date=14 May 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110514151827/http://www.tara.tcd.ie/jspui/bitstream/2262/4522/1/jssisiVolXXPart3_0135.pdf |url-status=live}}</ref> Note: years 1844, 1845, 1846, and 1848 are extrapolated.]]

In 1844, Irish newspapers carried reports concerning a disease that had attacked the potato crops in America for two years.{{sfn|Kinealy|1994|p=31}} In 1843 and 1844, blight largely destroyed the potato crops in the Eastern United States. Ships from [[Baltimore]], [[Philadelphia]], or [[New York City]] could have carried diseased potatoes from these areas to European ports.{{sfn|Donnelly|2005|p=41}} American plant pathologist William C. Paddock<ref>William Carson Paddock (1921 (Minneapolis, Minnesota) – 2008 (Antigua, Guatemala)), American plant pathologist:
* {{cite news |last1=Holley |first1=Joe |title=Obituary: William Paddock, 86; was leading plant pathologist |url=http://archive.boston.com/bostonglobe/obituaries/articles/2008/03/17/william_paddock_86_was_leading_plant_pathologist/ |work=[[The Boston Globe]] (Boston, MA) |date=17 March 2008 |access-date=21 January 2019 |archive-date=13 May 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200513043532/http://archive.boston.com/bostonglobe/obituaries/articles/2008/03/17/william_paddock_86_was_leading_plant_pathologist/ |url-status=live }}
* [https://www.encyclopedia.com/arts/educational-magazines/paddock-william-1921-2008-william-c-paddock-william-carson-paddock "Paddock, William 1921–2008 (William C. Paddock, William Carson Paddock)" Encyclopedia.com] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200511055753/https://www.encyclopedia.com/arts/educational-magazines/paddock-william-1921-2008-william-c-paddock-william-carson-paddock |date=11 May 2020 }}
* [https://www.legacy.com/obituaries/nytimes/obituary.aspx?n=william-carson-paddock&pid=105720484 "Obituary: William Carson Paddock" Legacy.com] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200512190244/https://www.legacy.com/obituaries/nytimes/obituary.aspx?n=william-carson-paddock&pid=105720484 |date=12 May 2020 }}</ref> posited that the blight was transported via potatoes being carried to feed passengers on [[clipper ship]]s sailing from America to Ireland.{{sfn|Paddock|1992|pp=197–222}} Once introduced in Ireland and Europe, blight spread rapidly. By mid-August 1845, it had reached much of northern and central Europe; Belgium, The Netherlands, northern France, and southern England had all already been affected.{{sfn|Donnelly|2005|p=42}}

On 16 August 1845, ''[[The Gardeners' Chronicle|The Gardeners' Chronicle and Horticultural Gazette]]'' reported "a blight of unusual character" on the [[Isle of Wight]]. A week later, on 23 August, it reported that "A fearful malady has broken out among the potato crop&nbsp;... In Belgium the fields are said to be completely desolated. There is hardly a sound sample in [[Covent Garden|Covent Garden market]]&nbsp;... As for cure for this distemper, there is none."{{sfn|Woodham-Smith|1991|p=40}} These reports were extensively covered in Irish newspapers.{{sfn|Kinealy|1994|p=32}} On 11 September, the ''[[Freeman's Journal]]'' reported on "the appearance of what is called 'cholera' in potatoes in Ireland, especially in the north".<ref>{{cite news |title=Disease in the Potato |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/913553/disease_in_the_potato/ |access-date=25 August 2014 |work=[[Freeman's Journal]] |location=Dublin |page=2 |via=[[Newspapers.com]] |archive-date=9 October 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141009043219/http://www.newspapers.com/clip/913553/disease_in_the_potato/ |url-status=live}} {{Open access}}</ref> On 13 September,{{refn|Kinealy put the date at the 16th.{{sfn|Kinealy|1994|p=32}}|group=fn}} ''The Gardeners' Chronicle'' announced: "We stop the Press with very great regret to announce that the potato [[Murrain]] has unequivocally declared itself in Ireland."{{sfn|Woodham-Smith|1991|p=40}}

Nevertheless, the British government remained optimistic over the next few weeks, as it received conflicting reports. Only when the crop was harvested in October did the scale of destruction become apparent.{{sfn|Woodham-Smith|1991|pp=40–41, 43}} Prime Minister [[Robert Peel|Sir Robert Peel]] wrote to [[Sir James Graham, 2nd Baronet|Sir James Graham]] in mid-October that he found the reports "very alarming", but allayed his fears by claiming that there was "always a tendency to exaggeration in Irish news".{{sfn|Woodham-Smith|1991|pp=41–42}}

Crop loss in 1845 has been estimated at anywhere from one-third{{sfn|Ó Gráda|2006|p=7}} to one-half of cultivated acreage.{{sfn|Kinealy|1994|p=32}} The [[Mansion House and Guildhall Meetings|Mansion House Committee]] in [[Dublin]], to which hundreds of letters were directed from all over Ireland, claimed on 19 November 1845 to have ascertained beyond the shadow of a doubt that "considerably more than one-third of the entire of the potato crop ... has been already destroyed".{{sfn|Donnelly|2005|p=42}}

In 1846, three-quarters of the harvest was lost to blight.{{sfn|Kennedy|Ell|Crawford|Clarkson|1999|p=69}} According to [[Cormac Ó Gráda]], the first attack of potato blight caused considerable hardship in rural Ireland from the autumn of 1846, when the first deaths from starvation were recorded.{{sfn|Ó Gráda|2006|p=9}} Seed potatoes were scarce in 1847. Few had been sown, so, despite average yields, hunger continued. 1848 yields were only two-thirds of normal. Since over three million Irish people were totally dependent on potatoes for food, hunger and famine were widespread.{{sfn|Kennedy|Ell|Crawford|Clarkson|1999|p=69}}