CCEA A-Level History 4010
England 1509–58AS Unit 1
England 1603–49AS Unit 1
Britain in the Age of Reform 1830–80AS Unit 1
Italy and Germany 1815–71AS Unit 1
Germany 1919–45AS Unit 1
Spain and Europe 1556–98AS Unit 2
The Ascendancy of France in Europe 1660–1714AS Unit 2
Ireland 1823–67AS Unit 2
France 1815–70AS Unit 2
Russia 1914–41AS Unit 2
Italy's Quest for Great Power Status 1871–1943AS Unit 2
Crown and Parliament in England 1625–1714A2 Unit 1
Ireland Under the Union 1800–1900A2 Unit 1
The Causes and Consequences of Great Power Conflict 1848–1945A2 Unit 1
The American Presidency 1901–2000A2 Unit 1
Clash of Ideologies in Europe 1900–2000A2 Unit 1
England 1558–1603A2 Unit 2
Ireland 1685–1714A2 Unit 2
Ireland 1778–1803A2 Unit 2
Partition of Ireland 1900–25A2 Unit 2
Ireland Under the Union 1800–1900
Ireland's social and economic transformation across the century
- 3 things to know
- A2 Unit 1
Overview
Social structure of pre-Famine rural Ireland, essential causes of the Famine and demographic consequences of the Famine.
What you need to know
Answer each one before you reveal it.
How did education and literacy change over the century?
How did economic change in the north-east differ from the rest of the country?
Questions from this subtopic
Each one with the model answer underneath.
- 1
Describe the social structure of pre-Famine rural Ireland.
Model answer
Beneath a small class of proprietors came comfortable tenant farmers, then a great mass of smallholders, cottiers and labourers who held a cabin and a patch of conacre and lived almost entirely on potatoes.
- 2
Why did the pre-Famine population grow so fast?
Model answer
Early marriage, the subdivision of holdings among sons and the extraordinary yield of the potato on poor ground allowed the population to reach 8.2 million by 1841.
- 3
What happened to industry outside Ulster in the first half of the century?
Model answer
Domestic spinning and weaving in the south and west were destroyed by mechanised British competition after 1815, so the countryside lost the by-employment that had supplemented tiny holdings.
- 4
What were the essential causes of the Famine?
Model answer
A population dependent on a single vulnerable crop, holdings too small to yield anything else, tenures that gave no security and no relief system designed for general failure met a blight that destroyed the potato in successive years from 1845.
- 5
What were the demographic consequences of the Famine?
Model answer
Roughly a million people died and well over a million emigrated, the population fell from 8.2 million in 1841 to about 6.55 million in 1851, and it continued to fall for the rest of the century.
- 6
How did landholding change after the Famine?
Model answer
Subdivision gave way to consolidation, the smallest holdings and the cottier class largely disappeared, farms passed undivided to a single heir, and much tillage was turned over to cattle.
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