The Labour Rate Winter
The cause of the immediate disaster was Phytophthora infestans, the potato blight first recognised in Ireland in 1845. In 1846 it returned with devastating effect. Contemporary reports during the summer and early autumn recorded the disease’s spread, while officials and relief committees began to understand that the expected harvest would not restore normality. The damage was not uniform in every place or to every variety, and contemporaries could not yet measure the final shortfall with modern precision. Yet there is no serious doubt that the crop on which the poorest households relied was, in practical terms, ruined over very wide areas.