Answer:
The Great Famine was a period of starvation, disease and massive emigrations in Ireland between 1845 and 1849. During the famine, about one million of people died and a million more emigrated from Ireland, causing the population of the island to fall between 20% and 25% .
The immediate cause of the famine was the potato blight, which devastated potato crops throughout Europe during the 1840s. However, the impact on Ireland was disproportionate, as one third of the population depended on the potato.
The famine was a milestone in the history of Ireland, which was then part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. The famine and its effects permanently changed the demographic, political and cultural landscape of the island. For both Irish natives and those in the resulting diaspora, famine entered into popular memory and became a rallying point for Irish nationalist movements. Relations, already strained between the Irish and the British crown, soured even more, increasing ethnic and sectarian tensions, and the momentum of Irish nationalism and republicanism in Ireland and among Irish emigrants in the United States and elsewhere.
