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Ireland is an island nation in Europe and part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain from 1801 to 1922.

History[]

In relation to Canada and Murdoch Mysteries: one of the most prominent occurrences in relation to Ireland is that of The Great Famine (Irish: an Gorta Mór also known as the Great Hunger, the Famine (mostly within Ireland) or the Irish Potato Famine (mostly outside Ireland), was a period of mass starvation and disease in Ireland from 1845 to 1849. During the Great Hunger, about 1 million people died and more than a million fled the country, causing the country's population to fall by 20–25%, in some towns falling as much as 67% between 1841 and 1871. Between 1845 and 1855, no fewer than 2.1 million people left Ireland—one of the greatest exoduses from a single island in history.

The proximate cause of the famine was a potato blight which infected potato crops (a monoculture) throughout Europe during the 1840s, causing an additional 100,000 deaths outside Ireland and influencing much of the unrest in the widespread European Revolutions of 1848. From 1846, the impact of the blight was exacerbated by the British Whig government's obstinate adherence in laissez-faire economic policy, free from intervention by government, with some members of Parliament declaring the fate of the Irish peasants, mostly suffering from blight, to have been a judgement upon them for their rebellious nature. Longer-term causes include the system of absentee landlordism and single-crop dependence.

The Great Hunger, is not therefore regarded as a true Famine, as there was a great deal of other foodstuffs in Ireland, which the British ruling Government did not put to the help of starving populace, rather continuing to see it exported and going so far as to reject help from other countries for the Irish from places such as North America and as far afield as the Ottoman Empire. Aside from the horrendous number of deaths, it caused the second wave of Irish immigration after the first migration during colonial times (1700s).

The blight and starvation came some 50 years after the 1798 Irish rebellion, led by both Protestant and Catholics, the United Irishmen, angry at being shut out of power by the Anglican establishment, and how Ireland and the Irish people were treated. It's failure leading to Ireland being incorporated, against it's native leaders will, into the UK in 1801. The 'famine' and the fate of the Irish and the treatment of its people by the British government during the Great Hunger, brought much of the warnings of the United Irishmen home to roost and 'The Famine' became a defining moment in the history of Ireland, For both the native Irish and those in the resulting diaspora, the famine entered folk memory. The strained relations between the native Irish and the ruling British government, already punctuated by frequent widespread rebellions through history, worsened further because of the 'famine', heightening ethnic and sectarian tensions and boosting nationalism and republicanism both in Ireland and among Irish emigrants around the world, including Canada.

The Fenians were committed Irish nationalists who attempted a rebellion in the 1860s. They were unsuccessful, but leaders of the movement would continue to harass the British for decades. The late 19th and early 20th centuries Ireland witnessed a vigorous campaign for Irish Home Rule, the continuous shelving and prevarication of which only served to antagonize and polarize the Irish further. While legislation enabling Irish Home Rule was eventually passed, militant and armed opposition from Irish unionists, particularly in parts of Ulster, opposed it. The Irish Home Rule Proclamation was shelved following the outbreak of World War I, that and the ill met attempts to force conscription of the Irish to fight in the British Army, further angering Irish politicians, and galvanizing the Fenian elements within the country.

Appearances & Mentions[]

The Prince and the Rebel (mentioned)

Winston's Lost Night (mentioned)

On the Waterfront Part 1 (mentioned)

Rigid Silence (mentioned)

See Also[]

Irish Republican Brotherhood

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