Irish Immigrants/Potatoe Famine

In the time period between 1845 and 1852 Ireland suffered from loss of the potato during the great potato famine. The great potato famine effected the Irish greatly because the potato was the most eaten and grown crop in Ireland.

The picture below is a pathogenic water mould. That is what infected the
potato crops in Ireland. The Irish potato famine lasted from 1845 to 1852.

England began shipping food to Ireland so that the Irish people could stay alive.

The Irish were effected so greatly by the potato famine that in order to survive they had to leave Ireland and find food someplace else. Most of the Irish sailed to America.







To the right is a picture of a ship heading to the United States. It is incredibly full of people because of all of the Irish immigration was happening at that time.

In some citys such as New York and Boston one quarter of the population back then were Irish Immigrants.

During the Irish immigration two and a half million Irishmen moved to the United States.

There were about 185,000 Irish immigrants who fought on both sides in the war. About 40,000 of them were in the Confederate forces and there were 145,ooo on the Union's side. Most of the Irish were in the war to prove their loyalty to their adopted country.



The Irish did many jobs during the war.They built boats, railroads, canals, and dug in coal mines. They contributed a lot to America and still are today.

Author's statement

Brody and I picked the Irish immigration for our second quilt piece for one big reason. It was a large force in the civil war. When the potato famine occurred, over two and a half million Irish immigrated to the United States, around the time that the civil war happened. For the most part, the Irish fought for the Union and helped them tremendously in defeating the confederates to win the civil war. A large reason why so many Irish fought in the civil war was because the vast majority of the immigrants were farmers and did not have a job and needed one, so they could keep themselves and their families alive. On the quilt piece, the United States is on one side and Ireland is on another. The Irish are sailing to America on a rotting potato, which is symbolizing the potato famine and the immigration stress so many Irish went through. I think that this mass immigration deserve more recognition it has right now, because the Irish immigration was a large part of American history.

Artist Statement

Kiel and I did the Irish immigrants as our second quilt piece because the Irish were a key part in the Unions victory. We think this quilt piece represents the Irish Immigration very well. On one side of the square there is the United States and on the other there is Ireland and the U.K. In the background there is the Atlantic Ocean. In the center there is Irish Immigrants that are riding on a rotting potato to America. Thee rotting potato symbolizes that they are leaving because that was happening. The rotting potato also looks like it is about to fall apart and then the Irish immigrants on it would not make it to the U.S. I fact one out of every five Irish Immigrants died on there journey to America.

Brody Helmer

By Brody Helmer and Kiel Jenkins

Franks Design Team