Historic Events (1810-1900)

Potato Famine (1845-1850)

"Potatoes were unique in many ways. Large numbers of them could be grown on small plots of land. An acre and a half could provide a family of six with enough food for a year. Potatoes were nutritious and easy to cook, and they could be fed to pigs and cattle and fowl. And families did not need a plough to grow potatoes. All they needed was a spade, and they could grow potatoes in wet ground and on mountain sides where no other kinds of plants could be cultivated.

"More than half of the Irish people depended on the potato as the main part of their diet, and almost 40 percent had a diet consisting almost entirely of potatoes, with some milk or fish as the only other source of nourishment. Potatoes could not be stored for more than a year. If the potato crop failed, there was nothing to replace it ...

"In the summer of 1845, the potato crop appeared to be flourishing. But when the main crop was harvested in October, there were signs of disease. Within a few days after they were dug up, the potatoes began to rot. Scientific commissions were set up to investigate the problem and recommend ways to prevent the decay. Farmers were told to try drying the potatoes in ovens or to treat them with lime and salt or with chlorine gas. But nothing worked. No matter what they tried, the potatoes became diseased: “six months provisions a mass of rottenness.”

"In November, a scientific commission reported that “one half of the actual potato crop of Ireland is either destroyed or remains in a state unfit for the food of man.” By early spring of 1846, panic began to spread as food supplies disappeared. People ate anything they could find, including the leaves and bark of trees and even grass. Lord Montaeagle reported to the House of Lords in March, people were eating food “from which so putrid and offensive an effluvia issued that in consuming it they were obliged to leave the doors and windows of their cabins open,” and illnesses, including “fever from eating diseased potatoes,” were beginning to spread.

"The blight did not go away. In 1846, the whole potato crop was wiped out. In 1847, a shortage of seeds led to fewer crops, as only about a quarter of the land was planted compared to the year before. The crop flourished, but not enough food was produced, and the famine continued. By this time, the mass emigration abroad had begun. The flight to America and Canada continued in 1848 when the blight struck again. In 1849, the famine was officially at an end, but suffering continued throughout Ireland.

"More than 1 million people died between 1846 and 1851 as a result of the Potato Famine. Many of these died from starvation. Many more died from diseases that preyed on people weakened by loss of food. By 1847, the scourges of “famine fever,” dysentery, and diarrhea began to wreak havoc. People streamed into towns, begging for food and crowding the workhouses and soup kitchens. The beggars and vagrants who took to the roads were infected with lice, which transmit both typhus and “relapsing fever.” Once fever took hold, people became more susceptible to other infections including dysentery.

"Between 1845 and 1855 more than 1.5 million adults and children left Ireland to seek refuge in America."  (The Potato Famine and Irish Immigration to America)

Religious Revival of 1859

The great religious revival of Northern Ireland began outside Belfast in the parish of Connor in the village of Kells in the Fall of 1857.  Four young men, led by James McQuilkin, were concerned about their salvation and began meeting weekly for prayer and Bible study.  The Friday evening meeting continued through 1858 and the four men were joined by many others.  The primary focus of their prayers was for an outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon ourselves and upon the surrounding country.  The four men became sought after to speak to congregations and the work quickly appeared in Belfast.  

The first visit of the converts to Belfast was to Great George’s Street Church in the end of May 1859.  Other meetings were subsequently held in the Linenhall Street Church on the first Sabbath of June and the following Tuesday in the Berry Street Presbyterian Church.  Dr. Hugh Hanna, minister of the Berry Street Presbyterian Church, became one of the charismic leaders of the spiritual revival in Belfast.  Though the revival was initially lead by the Presbyterian Church,  other protestant churches also joined in.

On Wednesday  29 June 1859 a hugh open-air prayer meeting was held in the Belfast Botanic Gardens.  It is reported that at least 20,000 people attended this revival.  The vast crowds came from the immediate neighborhoods, from every corner of Belfast and from the counties of Armagh, Tyrone, Antrim and Down.  Because not all could hear the sermons at the same time, they gathered in groups of 500 to 1,000 in other parts of the Gardens to share experiences and to pray.  Of particular note  that  groups of youth, boys and girls, gathered together to pray. The 1859 Ulster Revival

Hugh Hanna and other ministers involved in the movement claimed that the revivals resulted in a reduction in drunkenness, sectarian violence, public profanity and prostitution.  They also claimed a general strengthening of home and family and an increased desire for education.  The Ulster Awakening of 1859

"Edwin Orr noted that this Revival made a greater impact on Ireland than anything known since Patrick brought Christianity there ...

"One Catholic writer in a Dublin Newspaper said he would accept the movement as from God if the Boyne Celebration passed without trouble in Durham Street, Belfast. This Protestant street each year would indulge in drink and a party spirit which culminated in riots and bloodshed. But this year under the influence of the revival such things gave way to prayer and praise and no trouble came forth." The 1859 Ulster Revival