After 1815 there was intense population growth that caused increased pressure on land and peasants holdings being divided into smaller and smaller lots (Costigan, 1969). With increased population there came increased competition for land. With a population of eight million land was scarce. Many families had to survive on half and acre of land and the only way to do this was to grow potatoes to feed themselves through the winter months. Only one-third of these families lived on farms of over fifteen acres in which a surplus could be produced. Half the rural population was landless laborers and their families. The Irish famine from 1845 to 1849 was the most severe famine in the history of European agriculture. Dependence of huge sections of the population on subsistence agriculture led to collapse when the blight appeared.
       The Industrial Revolution never reached most of Ireland. There was little opportunity for employment outside of agriculture and agriculture did not pay well. The Irish diet before the introduction of the potato was based on cattle that were produced in vast numbers. Beef, milk, butter, and buttermilk were the staples of their diet. The potato was introduced in the late 1500's and the new crop thrived in the damp Irish climate. The importance of the potato grew in the 1600's and 1700's. In the late 1700's population began to explode, especially among the peasant class. Population of the lower class became more and more dependent on the potato. The Irish subsided on the potato called the "lumper". The "lumper" was the lowest member of the potato family. Some peasants before the famine grew plots of oats and most fattened a pig, but the pig and oats went to pay for the small plots of land they rented to grow their potatoes on. Ireland was heavily dependent on agriculture (Foster, 1988). After the famine and a departure of many Irish there was a smaller population and this allowed the remaining Irish more room and landholdings of families could increase.
         In March of 1847, prices rose almost too high to purchase. The hardest hit were landless laborers who rented small plots of land to feed themselves and their families. When their own crops failed, they had to buy food with money they did not have and prices continued to rise. The poor did not readily accept their fate, food riots broke out and secret societies increased their activity. There was much crime and disobedience to the laws. They were dealt with by repression and violence if necessary. Before the famine, during the 1840's, it was common for laborers to hunger in the late summer before harvest. Before the famine housing and clothing were poor, and mud huts and rags were the norm for most of the Irish peasants (Beckett, 1966).