Flight (2022)
Whooper Swan - Inch Levels, Donegal In the year 1845, 8,259 people were buried in Glasgow. In the year 1847, that number had increased dramatically to 18,889. What happened? In 1845 blight ( phytophthora infestans ) destroyed the potato crop in Ireland and in 1846 the same thing happened again, this time also affecting the Highlands and Islands of Scotland. Although the blight abated temporarily in 1847, so little seed had been planted that year that the yield was meagre. In short, widespread starvation meant that many thousands of migrants arrived in Glasgow from Ireland for several years after 1845. At the peak of summer 1847 up to 10,000 Irish people arrived during some weeks. The condition of those arriving was often wretched. People were malnourished and diseased and had little or no money with which to provide food and shelter for themselves. Those who could afford it quickly made for Liverpool and then America. The poor begged and threw themselves upon the charity of the Catho