How is it possible that a disease which spread across potato crops of Ireland led to over 2 million deaths in Ireland in the mid-19th century? Ireland was renowned for a diverse array of crops including what, oats, barley and livestock, so how is it possible that the loss of one crop caused such death? It is often forgotten that the entirety of mainland Europe was struck by a similar disease of potato crops, and yet no more than 100 thousand deaths resulted across a surface area and population density several orders of magnitude larger than the tiny island nation of Ireland. So what really happened?

On Sunday September 25, 2022, The Rising Tide Foundation weekly lecture was delivered by historian Christopher Fogarty, author of “The Perfect Holocaust, Ireland 1845-1850” on the topic of ‘An Officially Concealed Genocide: British Malthusianism and the True Story of the ‘Irish Potato Famine’”.

Click here to purchase a hardcopy of Chris Fogarty’s book

Read the book online for free here