TED-Ed

What really caused the Irish Potato Famine - Stephanie Honchell Smith (2023x88)

Air date: Nov 02, 2023

For over 200 years, potatoes thrived in Ireland; roughly half the country’s residents lived almost entirely on potatoes. But when harvesting began in 1845, farmers found their potatoes blackened and shriveled. While this failed harvest created a crisis, the government’s response turned it into a national catastrophe. Stephanie Honchell Smith digs into Ireland's Great Famine. Lesson by Stephanie Honchell Smith, directed by Denys Spolitak.