Black '47
1847 · Event
The famine's worst year: fever kills faster than hunger, the workhouses overflow, and hundreds of thousands die while Ireland — as its nationalists never forget — continues exporting grain under guard. Soup kitchens briefly feed three million people a day, then close within months as London declares the emergency over.
On these timelines: The Irish Famine, Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland, Master, United Kingdom (combined), British Empire
More from The Irish Famine
- Great Famine of Ireland (1845)
- The potato blight reaches Ireland (1845)
- The coffin-ship emigration (1846)
- London winds down famine relief (1847)
- The census counts Ireland's missing millions (1851)
- The Gregory clause (1847)
- Young Irelander Rebellion (1848)
Around 1847
- Indian Rebellion of 1857 (1857)
- Taiping Rebellion (1851)
- Opium Wars (1839)
- Revolutions of 1848 (1848)
- Crimean War (1853)
- Perry Expedition to Japan (1853)
- Communist Manifesto (1848)
- Victorian era (1837)
- Reign of Victoria (1837)
- First public demonstration of surgical anaesthesia (1846)