The Great Irish Famine
From 1845-1852, there was a famine in Ireland caused by the potato crop being infected with a blight caused by the phytophthora infestans fungus. The potato crop came to Ireland from the Americas and became popular as it was easy to grow and was a popular part of Irish dishes back in the day. In the mid-1840s, a blight carried by the wind struck the crops and cause the potatoes to rot. Dependant on the crop, 19th century Ireland's population crashed with massive death tolls and emigration numbers rising with people leaving Ireland for a better life. Those who smelt the affected potato lost their previous meals and those who ate one got very sick. To combat the spread of diseases like cholera, scurvy, typhus, yellow fever and dysentery, mass graves (like one in Skibereen in County Cork) were dug.
Black 47 (1847) was the worst year of the famine. While it may have been a good year for the Stoker family with the birth of their son Abraham who grew up to become Bram Stoker, the writer of Dracula, 1847 was the height of the famine in terms of deaths. Out of all 32 counties in Ireland (before partition in the 1920s), County Roscommon was the worst affected county by the famine.
The British barely did anything to help the Irish who had been penalised to rent land owned by absentee landlords and while soup kitchens were opened, they were swiftly shuttered. Speaking of rent, the rent depended on the size of land a tenant farmer gave his sons and often, the land was so small that rent was costly. Those who couldn't afford it went to work and live (once evicted) in workhouses like Donaghmore in County Laois.
As many 1.5 million including the ancestors of John F. Kennedy and Joe Biden left Ireland on coffin ships which were so called as people would die of disease and hunger died on these ships. Those that immigrated would move to England, America, Canada and Australia (some stole just to get penal colony shipment), all for the sake of a better life. The Choctaw Nation, a Native American tribe donated money ($5000 in today's money) to the starving Irish despite their own predicament and, Abdülmecid the Ottoman Sultan at the time also donated as much as £1000 to the Irish.
On 7 March 1848, the Irish tricolour was first flown outside 33, The Mall in Waterford city by Thomas Francis Meagher (later the Territorial Secretery of Montana and a Civil War veteran on the Union side), having taken inspiration from the French tricolour but with some Irish symbolism. Green for Catholics, white for peace between Catholics and Protestants and Orange/ gold for Protestants. The famine ended in 1852 when the potato crop recovered but the damage and trauma was already done. There are many famine memorials across Ireland like the famine statues in Custom House Quay in the Dublin Docklands which depict the starving and frail Irish during the famine and there is a feather sculpture in Midleton, County Cork called the Kindred Spirits that commemorates the generosity of the Choctaw in helping with funds during the famine. During the COVID-19 Pandemic, the favour was returned when Ireland donated money to the New Mexico based Navajo tribe and Hopi tribe who were deeply struggling with essential access to water and food.