Between the years of 1845 and 1849, Ireland experienced a devastating natural disaster known as the Potato Famine. During this period and in the succeeding years, living conditions in Ireland were so terrible that Irish citizens emigrated in droves. Their experiences as immigrants to Australia were not all good, even though at the time Australia was a developing nation wanting more immigrants to make their home on its shores. Despite this, there is Irish blood in many modern day Australian citizens.

In the harvests of the early 1840s, a new fungoid disease appeared in the potato crops of North America. The disease, phytophthora infestans, commonly known as blight, quickly spread to Europe. It was, at the time and for many years thereafter, an incurable plant disease, so when it hit Ireland in September 1845, panic rippled through the country. Succeeding its arrival, it rapidly destroyed most of the crops still in the ground, which totalled a massive half of the total area of the country. In the year that followed, failure was nearly complete in the majority of regions throughout Ireland, a misfortune that was to be mirrored two years later in 1848, and nearly achieved in 1847 and

Today there are many Australians who are descendants of Irish people who immigrated to Australia during the years of the Potato Famine. This is clearly displayed by the number of Irish Hotels and shops we have and the importance days like St. Patrick's Day have in Australian culture. After the controversy surrounding cases like the Irish orphans has been forgotten, it is obvious that today Irish people fit into Australian culture as easily as any descendant of English, Scottish or other European immigrants. This is a fair indication that the Irish immigrants in the 1840s would have fit in just as easily. This may be due to the fact that today, more than 90% of the Irish are Roman Catholics , and this figure may pehaps have been even higher during the Potato Famine. It may also be because Australian culture is not very different from Irish culture, as our society was based on English society. Whatever the reason, today Irish people have a reputation for being amiable and friendly, and this character trait would have helped them to assimilate to living with new people in a different country enormously.

Even though there were so many Irish people wanting to come and live in Australia, the famine had little direct effect on Australia. At the time, immigration to Australia was still governed by the demand for residents, rather than the plight of Irish emigrants escaping the famine. In fact, the number of Irish people coming to live in Australia declined rather than increased during the famine years. One exception was the importation of approximately 4,000 orphan girls from Irish workhouses into New S

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Approximate Word count = 1089
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)