Potato Blight appears- 180 years ago this month

The Irish Newspaper Archive contains millions of newspaper articles, reports, advertisements etc but few had the impact that this piece in the Cork (later Irish) Examiner on 10 September 1845. 180 years ago this month the first signs of potato blight were reported in Ireland. It would lead to devastating consequences. Within six years one million people were dead and another one million had emigrated. The potato blight or Phytophora infestans to give it the scientific term wreaked havoc on Ireland and on a population almost entirely dependent on the potato. The newspaper reported the following:

The Potato Blight: All that we see, hear, or read of the Potato Crop, convinces us that the extent of injury which has befallen it is in no degree exaggerated, but the contrary, and that there is no present help for it We see no prospect of stopping the murrain by human agency, and we believe that the best thing to do. under the circumstances, is to let the crops alone, unless means can be found of consuming them immediately; and in that case they should be taken up and dried. Much will be found not worth the digging. In other cases, where a part only of the tubers are attacked. It will be better for the symptoms to become mere distinct before what remains are sorted and pitted. If any means exist for consuming those which are just beginning to decay, it will be prudent to take advantage of them ; for unless the rot has eaten deep into the tubers they may certainly be given to pigs or other animals, with safety, provided they arc boiled or steamed, and mixed with a little salt. This has been done within our own knowledge ; and we have ourselves eaten roasted Potatoes, in which the canker was only skin deep. Many idle reports are current on this subject, which deserve no attention.

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