Irish Potato Famine
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The Great Famine or the Great Hunger (Irish: An Gorta Mór or An Drochshaol) is the name given to the famine in Ireland between 1845 and 1849. Outside of Ireland, It is usually called the Irish Potato Famine. The Famine was caused by "the Blight". The Blight was a potato fungus that destroyed all the potatoes in Ireland very fast. Potatoes were the main source of food for most of the people in Ireland at the time. The effects of The Famine lasted until 1851. A lot is not known about what happened during this time. It is believed that between 500,000 and more than one million people died in the three years from 1846 to 1849 because of hunger or disease. Two million people became refugees because of the Famine. About the same number of people left Ireland and moved to Great Britain, the United States, Canada, and Australia.