The Historian\ · 1st Year

Active learning ideas

The Great Famine: A Time of Hunger in Ireland

Active learning helps students grasp the human impact of the Great Famine by making abstract events tangible. When students analyze primary sources, simulate decisions, and map historical flows, they connect broad historical forces to personal stories, deepening empathy and understanding.

• NCCA Curriculum Specifications
• NCCA: Primary Curriculum - Myself and the Wider World - Life in the 19th Century
• NCCA: Primary Curriculum - Myself and the Wider World - Exploring Local History

• 20–40 min
• Pairs → Whole Class
• 4 activities

Activity 01

• 30 min · Small Groups

Sorting Activity: Famine Life Changes

Prepare cards with images and descriptions of daily life before and during the Famine, such as full potato fields versus barren ones, healthy families versus evictions. Students in small groups sort cards into 'Before' and 'After' piles, then share one key change with the class. Follow with a class discussion on causes.

What was the main food for many people in Ireland a long time ago?

Facilitation Tip

For the Famine Life Changes sorting activity, provide actual potato slices or images of pre- and post-Famine foods to anchor the discussion in sensory details.

What to look for

Provide students with a card asking: 'What was the most significant challenge faced by Irish people during the Great Famine, and why?' Students write a brief response citing at least one specific detail from the lesson.

Activity 02

• 35 min · Pairs

Role-Play: Famine Family Decisions

Assign roles like farmer, child, or landlord with scenario cards describing hunger and blight. Pairs discuss options such as staying, emigrating to America, or seeking work in cities, then present decisions to the group. Debrief on real historical choices.

What happened to the potato crop during the Famine?

Facilitation Tip

During the role-play, assign roles with specific constraints, like limited food rations or eviction notices, to heighten the pressure students feel.

What to look for

Pose the question: 'Imagine you are a tenant farmer in 1847. What difficult choices might you have to make regarding food, shelter, and your family's future?' Facilitate a class discussion where students share their imagined decisions and reasoning.

Activity 03

• 40 min · Small Groups

Mapping Exercise: Emigration Paths

Provide outline maps of Ireland and the world. Small groups mark Famine-affected regions, draw arrows to destinations like Canada and Australia, and add statistics on numbers who left. Students label push factors like starvation.

How did the Famine make people feel and what did they do?

Facilitation Tip

For the emigration paths mapping exercise, have students use colored yarn to trace routes, which helps them visualize movement and population shifts.

What to look for

Display a map of Ireland. Ask students to point to or name regions that were particularly hard-hit by the Famine, based on information presented. Follow up by asking why those areas were so vulnerable.

Activity 04

• 20 min · Whole Class

Blight Demonstration: Potato Experiment

Show healthy and blighted potatoes side-by-side; place one in a damp, warm bag to simulate rot over days. Whole class observes changes daily, records notes, and connects to crop failure impacts.

What was the main food for many people in Ireland a long time ago?

Facilitation Tip

In the blight demonstration, have students touch and smell the infected potatoes to make the disease's devastation immediate and memorable.

What to look for

Provide students with a card asking: 'What was the most significant challenge faced by Irish people during the Great Famine, and why?' Students write a brief response citing at least one specific detail from the lesson.

A few notes on teaching this unit

Teachers should emphasize that the Famine was not just a crop failure but a human-made disaster compounded by policy and economics. Avoid framing it as inevitable; instead, use primary sources to show how landlord actions and government responses shaped outcomes. Research shows that focusing on human agency helps students see history as a series of choices, not just events.

Students will recognize the Famine as more than a natural disaster by identifying economic and social pressures that worsened its effects. They will articulate how reliance on a single crop, landlord policies, and emigration shaped Irish society during this crisis.

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Watch Out for These Misconceptions

• During the Sorting Activity: Famine Life Changes, watch for students attributing the Famine solely to potato shortages worldwide.

  After examining the sorting cards, direct students to compare Ireland’s potato dependence with other countries’ farming practices using the provided data table. Ask them to explain why Ireland’s reliance was uniquely vulnerable.

• During the Role-Play: Famine Family Decisions, watch for students believing that everyone in Ireland died during the Famine.

  Use the role-play debrief to tally the outcomes students chose. Then, display the class’s emigration and death totals on the board to contrast with the myth, grounding the numbers in their own decisions.

• During the Sorting Activity: Famine Life Changes, watch for students assuming only the poorest ate potatoes before the Famine.

  Have pairs present their sorted artifacts and explain which social classes their items represent. Ask them to justify why potatoes were a staple for all classes, using the population and land scarcity data provided.