The troops were placed in depots, ships, and harvest fields. This action was taken by the British to ensure that the peasants did not keep their produce. During the same year, an Irish physician by the name of Dr. Dominic Corrigan wrote,.
"Starve in the midst of plenty, as literally as if dungeon bars separated them from a granary. When distress has been at its height and our poor have been dying in our streets, our corn has been going to a foreign market. It is to our own poor, a forbidden fruit.".
By August of 1849, some relief from the crop failure finally came, but the potato harvest was limited. By this time, at least one million had already died and just as many had fled the country. The death rate of people without food, money, or shipfare continued to rise, as another winter came and went. By the spring of 1851, the famine began to lift, but thousands still remain at high risk.
II. Social, economic, and political factors that predisposed Ireland to starvation.
There were many repressive societal conditions under which the Irish peasants were forced to live and as a result became dependent on the potato. "Prior to 1845, Pre starvation Ireland was characterized by primitive technology, a colonial social organization dictated by an exploitive political policy, and an economic system that did not reinvest in Ireland.".
Under the colonial system, the rents became extremely costly, in which individuals were often faced with a choice to pay rent or buy food for their families. The relatively cheap and easy to grow potato was encouraged as a dietary staple and Irish peasants were forced to use the potato for survival purposes. Technology used for agriculture was also lacking. Quality lands were being used for grain, livestock, and flax forcing many families to use the barest lands for subsistence. Irish farmers were forced to farm on wastelands and marginal croplands, and the potato was the only crop that would flourish in these conditions.
