Why Didn't Irish People Eat Fish During the Great Hunger?

Irish History Podcast

Fin Dwyer

Ireland, Irish History, Norman Invasion, Great Hunger, Vikings, Interviews, History, War Of Independence, Great Famine

4.7 • 1.6K Ratings

🗓️ 27 November 2024

⏱️ 33 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

During the Great Hunger of the 1840s, one million Irish perished from starvation and hunger-related diseases. However, Ireland is surrounded by some of the best fishing grounds in Europe. This begs the question: why didn't the Irish turn to the sea to survive?

Some have argued that our ancestors didn't know how to fish or that they didn't like fish. The answer is, unsurprisingly, a little more complicated.

This podcast delves into the complex historical, economic, and social factors that contributed to the tragic paradox of people starving in a sea of plenty.

All 23 chapters of my book Life in Medieval Ireland is available for show supporters on Patreon here https://www.patreon.com/posts/life-in-medieval-116757407.

(If you support the show on Acast+ I will post the book tomorrow. Its a little tricky to post 23 chapters without clogging up your feed!)

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Transcript

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0:00.0	The future is unpredictable at times, that the Open University are the experts in distance learning, allowing you to fit study around your life.
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0:16.1	Now, suddenly your possibilities are open.
0:20.2	Search the Open University to find out more the open university
0:26.6	the future is open there's no question that the great hunger was a turning point in Irish history like no other.
0:42.5	The island and indeed large parts of the world were transformed by the catastrophic events
0:48.4	that played out in Ireland in the late 1840s, which saw about a million people perish from starvation or related diseases. However,
0:57.3	one of the most confusing aspects of the history of the Great Hunger is the fact that Irish
1:02.7	people were surrounded by some of the richest fishing grounds in Europe, yet fishing went into
1:08.1	decline. The Irish people starved in a literal sea of plenty.
1:13.9	Now, this aspect of the great hunger, oddly enough, doesn't feature prominently in wider histories
1:20.2	of the 1840s.
1:22.2	And this has led to bizarre and strange explanations as to why Irish people didn't eat fish after the failure of
1:29.6	the potato crop. You'll read that Irish people didn't know how to fish or that they simply
1:34.6	didn't like the taste of fish. Now these are completely inaccurate. A starving person doesn't
1:40.4	have the luxury of choice. However, it is true that contrary to what we might expect,
1:45.7	after the potato crop failed, and Irish people began to starve, fishing actually decreased.
1:51.6	And in this episode, I'm going to explain why this happened and why Irish people didn't eat fish
1:57.4	to survive the Great Famine.
2:09.9	Hello and welcome to the Irish History podcast. My name is Finderwer. Now if you're tuning in for the first time and you enjoy this episode, why not subscribe to the show and
2:14.4	check out the series on The Great Hunger. It begins back in 2017.
2:19.8	In terms of sources that I used for today's episode, this aspect of the Great Famine
	...

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