Mapping our memories

The Atlas of the Great Irish Famine is one of the most comprehensive studies of the greatest catastrophe in modern Irish history. One of its editors, William J Smyth, examines the scale of the disaster and the rationale behind the project: Trying to understand the Famine’s contemporary impact and how profoundly it shaped today’s Ireland

THE Great Irish Famine (1845-52) is seen not only as the most defining event in modern history but as the greatest natural disaster of the modern age.

As many as 1m people died of starvation and famine-induced diseases. If averted births — due to famine amenorrhea (the hunger-induced absence of menstruation), illness, postponed marriages, migration, death and social disruption — are included, this figure climbs to 1.4m.