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.

• 1st Year
• The Historian\
• 4 activities
• 20 min–40 min

Learning Objectives

1. Classify the primary causes of the Great Famine, distinguishing between crop failure and underlying socio-economic factors.
2. Analyze primary source accounts to describe the daily experiences and emotional responses of individuals during the Famine.
3. Compare the impact of the Great Famine on different social classes within Ireland.
4. Explain the immediate and long-term consequences of the Great Famine on Irish society and emigration patterns.
5. Evaluate the effectiveness of relief efforts during the Famine period based on historical accounts.

⏱ 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.

Prepare & details

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.

⏱ 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.

Prepare & details

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.

⏱ 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.

Prepare & details

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.

⏱ 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.

Prepare & details

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.

Teaching This Topic

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.

What to Expect

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.

Watch Out for These Misconceptions

Common Misconception

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

What to Teach Instead

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.

Common Misconception

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

What to Teach Instead

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.

Common Misconception

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

What to Teach Instead

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.

Assessment Ideas

Exit Ticket

After the Blight Demonstration: Potato Experiment, provide students with a card asking: 'What was the most significant challenge faced by Irish people during the Great Famine, and why?' Students must cite evidence from the experiment, such as the rapid spread of blight or the inability to store rotten potatoes.

Discussion Prompt

During the Role-Play: Famine Family Decisions, 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, then assess their ability to connect choices to broader historical factors like eviction or emigration.

Quick Check

After the Mapping Exercise: Emigration Paths, display a map of Ireland and ask students to point to or name regions that were particularly hard-hit by the Famine based on their maps. Follow up by asking why those areas were so vulnerable, assessing their understanding of geographic and economic factors.

Extensions & Scaffolding

• Challenge early finishers to research and present on how one country’s potato varieties or farming techniques prevented blight.
• Scaffolding for struggling students: Provide sentence starters for the role-play, such as 'I am considering... because...'.
• Deeper exploration: Invite students to compare Irish Famine emigration data with another historical migration, like the Highland Clearances, to identify patterns.

Key Vocabulary

Potato Blight	A disease caused by an oomycete, Phytophthora infestans, that destroyed potato crops across Ireland and Europe, leading to widespread starvation.
An Gorta Mór	The Irish name for the Great Famine, meaning 'The Great Hunger'.
Eviction	The act of removing tenants from their homes and land, often by force, by landlords who could no longer collect rent due to the crop failure.
Emigration	The act of leaving one's own country to settle permanently in another, a common response for many Irish people during and after the Famine.
Workhouse	Institutions established under the Poor Law Amendment Act where the destitute could receive basic food and shelter in exchange for hard labor, often overcrowded and disease-ridden.