Event Type: Local / Community

Takes Place: 8th May 2025

Time: 12:30

Venue: The London Archives

Description: The decade known as the ‘Hungry Forties’ saw Europe ravaged by crop failures. The potato harvests were decimated by ‘blight’, and nowhere in Europe was more reliant on the potato than Ireland. The result? Starvation, disease and mass emigration. This talk will discuss the history of an Gorta Mór (the Great Hunger) to give context to the mass emigration of Irish people escaping the devastation in their country. Despite the bleak situation in Ireland being well known and widely reported at the time, many of the Irish who emigrated to escape the situation found themselves deported back to their homeland. Focusing on the Irish who fled to London, the reaction to their arrival will be discussed, the laws of poor relief and settlement examined, and documents from The London Archives' collections used, to reveal the reasons and processes behind the removal of Irish paupers from London. You can attend this talk in-person or online.

How to book: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/famine-and-the-removal-of-irish-paupers-from-london-in-person-tickets-1252738106399?aff=oddtdtcreator

Price: £5

Organiser: The London Archives

Lecturer: Rachel Barrett

Region: London