Irish Famine

Primary sources are the main place where historians find their evidence: they are the documents, artifacts and other material that was made at the time you are studying, or by people who had first-hand knowledge of the event. In the case of the Irish Famine, we would like you to find a variety of sources that shed light on a particular aspect of the Famine, from people who came from different viewpoints. These sources should either have been created at or near the time of the famine of 1845-1852.

Look for at least one of each of these kinds of documents:

• Government document, such as a Parliamentary Report, Study, text of a Debate, or Legislation
• Personal document, such as a letter, diary or memoir
• Newspaper or other non-government published account made at the time

TIP: 
You will have much greater luck in finding documents that are closely related if you pick a particular aspect of the Famine to research. If you can't think of keywords or dates to start out with, scan through the Wikipedia article on the Great Famine to get ideas. For example, you might try searching for:

• proper names of people (such as politicians)
• names of laws
• particular cities or counties in Ireland
• particular range of months in a single year
• particular keyword for a crop or product such as potato, corn or bread, etc. 
• specific social issue such as workhouse, hunger, relief, etc.

Selected Databases of Primary Sources related to the Irish Famine

• Great Hunger Museum
  https://www.qu.edu/ighmcollection 
  Includes approximately 1,500 published newspaper accounts from both London and Ireland. You can browse by year; by the title of the newspaper; or do a keyword search. 
   
• Parliamentary Papers on Ireland
  http://www.dippam.ac.uk/eppi
  This database contains British governmental papers on Ireland -- not only related to The Famine but to many other topics. You will likely want to narrow down by date first, then keyword search to get relevant results. 
  ​
• Irish Immigration Database
  http://www.dippam.ac.uk/ied
  Contains a wide variety of sources including personal papers, newspapers and other documents related to emigration out of Ireland. You will probably want to narrow down by date in order to get results that are relevant to The Famine.
   
• Irish Views of the Famine (re-typed, linked sources)
  http://xroads.virginia.edu/~hyper/sadlier/irish/Irish.htm
  A small selection of Irish sources on the Famine: two diaries and selected newspaper accounts. 

General sources:

• ON RESERVE AT PACIFIC U. LIBRARY: The Death Census of Black 47: Eyewitness Accounts of Ireland”s Great Famine. Kennedy, Liam, Donald M. MacRaild, Lewis Darwen, and Brian Gurrin. London, UK ;: Anthem Press, 2023.
  This source, selected by Professor Jobs, contains eyewitness accounts as well as data regarding the Great Famine. Access this by going to the main desk at Tran Library and asking for the title. 
   
• The Oxford Companion to Irish History (PRINT BOOK, call number: DA912 .O94 2004)
  ​This is a good place to look up authoritative background information about issues like legislation, politicians, etc. that you might encounter while looking at the sources above. (Don't use this to find primary sources themselves ... just use it to better understand what's going on in the sources.)