Prelude

It was the summer of 1845, the weather not very different from the usual pattern of intermittent rain, sunshine and seasonal temperatures. Thoughts were turning naturally enough towards prospects for the harvest, the vital bounty of grain and potatoes that sustained the Irish people. The signs were good and expectations high after some poor harvests earlier in the decade. Beyond the horizon but unknown to the eight and a half million inhabitants of the island, invading forces, this time in the biosphere, were gathering strength. Two years earlier, a mysterious disease had ravaged potato crops in North America. From there, transatlantic traffic carried the disease to Europe. Geography was no barrier. By the early summer of 1845, the infection had reached Belgium and some other parts of continental Europe. With remarkable rapidity, the disease crossed the Channel. By August 1845, it was debilitating potato crops in the south of England. The following month, it had reached several parts of eastern Ireland. From Waterford and Wexford, there were alarming newspaper reports of a pestilence, as yet unnamed, attacking the potato fields. The nauseous stench of decay marked the progress of the disease. The leaves on potato stalks were turning black and the infection was spreading in all directions.