ry, nor had it been able to prosper from the industrialization of the 1800's, as most of Europe had. Nevertheless, the outlook for Ireland just before 1845 seemed fairly promising. Exportation of grain and other crops to Europe was growing and the linen industry was developing also. The population had been steadily rising, and an enormous class of agricultural laborer rose along with it. By 1845, the population had almost reached nine million. (Duffy) These developments mostly benefitted England though. Since most Irish could not own land, they rented homes from landlords and worked for small plots of land they used to grow potatoes for their family. Others that were farmers paid their landlords by animals or their crops produced. Potatoes were the main source of food for Irish peasant families, nearly one half of the total Irish population.
             Since there were only one or two kinds of potatoes being grown, this genetically made the crop more vulnerable to disease or any type of infection wiping out an entire crop. This is exactly what happened in the summer of 1845. A fungus from North America, Phyophthora infestans, entered Ireland and in the unusually warm weather that summer, thrived. This fungus caused blights in potatoes that killed the leaves and roots of the vegetable before ever being picked out of the ground. In September of 1845, it killed about one third of the whole potato crop. The result was not only disease, but starvation, unemployment, and the economic collapse of a country.
             Whole families suffered from epidemics such as typhus, cholera, and dysentery. People that were not sick, were starving and unemployed. When people could not pay their rent, land owners threw them out. This left multitudes of homeless and starved beggars crowding cities, and later, soup kitchens and work houses that were set up. The way the economy worked, the breakdown for the farmers and poor laborers w
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