The potato, (Word comes from Spanish word Patata ) was to the Irish, before the Great Famine and indeed still is, the most universally useful of foods. In days gone by, pigs, fowl and cattle were fed by boiling or serving raw the small tubers useless for the kitchen table. However the potato does have drawbacks, for example it does not keep perfectly from season to season.
For this reason the ‘growing‘ months of June, July and August used to be called the “meal months” or the “hungry months” when meal would have to be bought for consumption instead. The peasant Irish class had to buy this meal, usually on credit, in their towns and villages, from dealers, the hated “Gombeen Men“. The peasant class each year sowed their potato seed with a certain anxiety. There had been 24 failures of the potato crop between 1728 and 1844. These failures were brought about by vagaries in the weather, e.g. dry rot, frost, etc. which had in the past caused great hardships, but nothing to what they would experience between 1845 and 1848.
The potato is one of the cheapest foods on which a human being could keep alive and healthy. It contains most of the necessary vitamins e.g. Vitamin C 45%, Thiamin 10%, Niacin 8%, Vitamin B6 14%, Folacin 14%, Panthothenic Acid 6%, Phosphorous 6%, Magnesium 12%, Iron 9%. There was one exception, vitamin A, but the latter was obtained by the drinking of milk or buttermilk. The Irish peasant had wisely chosen the potato as his stable diet. With just one acre of potatoes he could feed a family of 5 adequately for 1 year, and thatch his 14ft x 10ft, (the latter however never with much long term success) one roomed mud cabin. With an acre of wheat or oats he could only expect to feed a family of 2 or 3, for about 10 months.
At meal time then the usual garnish with the potato was simply salt, washed down with water or buttermilk. Some men, to assist in removing the skin from the potato, grew the thumb nail on their right hand especially long and hooked for this purpose.
There were several varieties of potato sowed in Ireland at this time:- Rocks, Cups, Skerry Blues, Codders, Thistlewhippers and Minions to name but a few varieties. The variety ‘Rocks‘ were known as ‘Protestants‘ because they were first introduced by the protestant land owners.
By the mid 1840′s previous variety diversity disappeared and mainly two cultivars, Cups and Lumpers were 
being grown, with the Lumpers predominating and said to be the most prolific, but the worst tasting. Then in 1845 the blight or Phytopthora infestans fungus landed in Ireland from South America, just as a season of warm damp weather also hit. The result for the Irish people, was disaster. The ‘Lumpers‘ variety consisted of only 16% dry matter, the rest water. Popular varieties bred today, consist of 20% to 24% dry matter.
Only a spade called a ‘Loy‘ was needed for the primitive method of cultivation practised. The potato was laid on the ground and earthed over with clay from trenches on either side forming ‘Lazy Beds‘ as they were called. This suited the moist climate of Ireland, with the trenches providing drainage. When land became scarce, it allowed the growing of potatoes in bogs as well as on mountain slopes where no other cultivation could take place. Pre-famine times saw potatoes in abundance. People did not know what to do with their surplus stocks and anecdotes are told of potatoes unsold in market being dumped into ditches or cut up and used as manure.
The varieties known as ‘Cups‘, ‘Scotch Downs‘ and ‘Lumpers‘ are usually those said to have failed causing ‘The Great Famine’.
A rhyming dialogue between the `Scotch Down,` and the ‘Champion,’ the latter imported into Ireland as a strong seed potato after the famine, reads:-
“You dirty clown”, says the Scotsdown,
How dare you me oppose!
Twas I supported Ireland
When you dare’nt show your nose.
Outspoke the noble Champion
With courage stout and brave:
Only I happened to sail over here
There’d be thousands in their graves“.
When the blight struck in 1845 there was but slight alarm at first. Panic however later spread quickly as whole fields were laid waste in a few hours. People who had gone to bed, leaving fields green as holly, awoke to find them black as soot or to see a brown swath of decay spreading rapidly from field to field. This was combined with the heavy smell of decay as the potato pits sagged. This peasant class now blamed ‘static electricity‘ caused by the recent introduction into the Irish countryside of trains for the first time, as the cause of “This Great Calamity.”
Now the potato, whose surplus, a short time previously men had despised, became a prized possession. In Spring, now, for the next few years, in order to stretch out the seed , the ‘eye’ of the potato with a small part of the ‘flesh’ only adhering to it , would be picked out with a goose quill to be planted while the rest would be hungrily eaten.
The lesson of thrift, which this time of scarcity taught, was to be remembered a century later when old people would burst into tears at the sight of a good dish of flowery potatoes.
It would be discovered, to late for the Irish nation, that the Blight could be prevented by spraying the potato crop with a mixture of copper sulphate and lime or washing soda.
Hello
Have you any idea which varieties of potato were grown in Co Londonderry before the famine? I have heard Cork Red and Mullans were before the famine. I did hear of others but cannot remember the varieties and can’t source the information. I would be very grateful if you could help,
Thanks
Laura
Hi Laura,
“Cruffels”, is the name of one old variety in cultivation in Co Londonderry and Antrim and probably gets its name from the German “Kartoffel” or the Italian “tartaffel” meaning ‘potato’.
Other names for potato varieties of this period, but not necessarily associated with Co Londonderry are:-
Skerries, Cups, Scotsdown, Champion and Lumper.
There are possibly 80 different varieties available today including:
Anya, Arran Victory, Atlantic,
Belle de Fontenay, BF-15, Bintje
Cabritas, Camota, ChelinaChiloé, Cielo, Clavela Blanca
Désirée
Fianna,Fingerling, Flava
Golden Wonder
Jersey Royal
Kerr’s Pink, Kestrel, King Edward, Kipfler
Lady Balfour
Maris Piper
Nicola
Pachacoña, Pink Eye, Pink Fir Apple, Primura
Red Norland, Red Pontiac, Rooster, Russet Burbank, Russet Norkotah
Shepody, Spunta
Vivaldi
Yukon Gold
Hope this is of some help to you.
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Hello there
My name is Angela and I am trying to find a packet of potatoe seeds for my 81 year old father from Ireland.
He lives in Birmingham now and we were talking about a potato that he grew as a boy called; CHAMPION.
Do you know where I could get this today or the best way to go about it??
I have searched the internet and its no go.
Many thanks
Angela Purcell
East Finchley
London
Carroll’s Heritage Potato Seed, Tiptoe Farm, Northumberland, could have this variety and sell on-line. If you have any questions then please ring their office on 01890 883060 or 01890 883833. See http://www.heritage-potatoes.co.uk/shop.php?main_page=contact_us
Just discovered your reply to my question. Please forgive my long standing omission of thanks for your helpful reply. I hope it is accepted even as late as this.
Rip Van Winkle -aka Laura.
Hi ,
Can you tell me please what is the name of the potato that displaced Banner in the export of seed pototoes to Egypt?
Laura
Egypt supplies Europe with much of its winter potatoes – 400,000 Tons per year. The potatoes are grown in the desert sand using water sprinkler and fertiliser systems. Sand has no nutrients.
Varieties grown are Scottish seed such as British Queens, Duke of York, Epicure, but mainly I understand Golden Wonder .
When packed in Egypt for export interestingly Irish peat is used in the packing process to keep the potatoes moist and from rubbing together during their over 2000 mile plus journey to our supermarkets.
Trusting this info is of assistance.
Thank you for the information. it is very interesting and helpful but not quite on the point at issue. In the early seventies Arran Banner was exported to Egypt in the same way as the varieties you have mentioned but it lost out to a new variety developed in the Irish Republic. It is the name of this variety that I am trying to ascertain. Any further help on this matter would be much appreciated.
Yours as ever,
Laura
In very recent years the new Irish variety Cara replaced the traditional Arran Banner, because it has a better supermarket appearance (pink eyes and makes a better baked potato). But this is not necessarily applicable to Egypt alone.
Is this any help?
I do know about Cara which is a main crop variety but I have a memory of a potato by a different Irish name taking the place of Arran Banner. It is this that I want to identify. I think it was a first or second early.
Thank you for your efforts on my behalf.
Laura
Can you tell me where I could buy good seed potatoes in Ireland ?
Laura
Can you please tell me where I can buy Skerry Blue seed potatoes.
Type Skerry Blue seed potatoes into your Internet search engine – several companies are advertising sales of same.
Thank you for your reply but I have already tried these sites without success. That is why I contacted you for help.
Laura
I am wondering why the Irish people who were starving during the famine didn’t hunt wild game in Ireland? Any resources that might help answer this question would be appreciated.
DEAR ADMIN.
I WAS WONDERING IF YOU COULD PUT ME IN TOUCH WITH LAURA ELLIOTT RE; MESSAGES DATED 6TH DECEMBER 2011 ONWARDS.
NOTICED SHE WAS VERY INTERESTED IN SKERRY BLUE POTATOES AND I WOULD REALLY LIKE TO CONTACT HER. LOOKING FORWARD TO HEARING FROM YOU. ALEXANDRA COMPTON
Hi Alexander,
We have contacted Laura on your behalf. Because of security we are not at liberty to give you her contact details, however we have passed your Email address to her in accordance with your wishes. Kindest regards, George.
The rights and privileges of land landownership in Ireland were owned & occupied by about 30% of the population. Game & Fishing rights were therefore owned by landowners, & to take advantage was therefore to be guilty of stealing. The equipment necessary to fish & shoot was also scarce and of course refrigeration and preservatives were almost non existent.
Around our coasts fishermen sold their boats and fishing tackle in favour of a job on the Bord of Works schemes, where pay was small but accessible. Recommend you read “The Great Hunger,” by Cecil Woodham-Smith. Your local library would help you to locate same.
DEAR GEORGE,
THANK YOU FOR CONTACTING LAURA ELLIOTT FOR ME. WE HAVE BEEN IN TOUCH. REGARDS ALEXANDRA
Hi there,
My Name is Tara and i am a 3rd year student of Humanities, majoring in English and History, in Carlow College. However, i am originally from Cashel. At the moment i am doing a type of mini thesis on the Great Irish Famine paying particular attention to the diseases which people suffered from during that time. i was wondering if you could provide me with any ideas as to where to find information, and in particular, primary sources with regards to the famine (although i am aware that such sources are few and far between)
Thanks in advance,
Tara
Hello,
I would just like to thank you for the tour of the famine museum last Friday. I got some amazing photos and information! I just had a quick question, the book you recommended to get called ‘The Great Hunger‘, is the author Cecil Woodham-Smith? Looking forward to hearing from you again.
Tara.
Tata – Correct – The book is called ‘The Great Hunger‘, & the author is Cecil Woodham-Smith.
A lot of the information you seek is contained. Check index for Skibbereen (Irish: An Sciobairín)
Painting on Stained Glass is Holman Hunt’s ” The Light of the World” referencing Revelations 3:20 “Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.”
Luke 13:25 -When once the master of the house is risen up, and hath shut to the door, and ye begin to stand without, and to knock at the door, saying, Lord, Lord, open unto us; and he shall answer and say unto you, I know you not whence ye are.
If you require more info, come back to me.