The Great Famine (Documentary, English)
Genres: History
Status: Ended
Premiered: 1995-09-04
Ended: 1995-09-11
Network: BBC Two
Country: GB
Airs on: Monday
Air time: 21:00
Runtime: 50 minutes
In September 1845, a devastating new plant disease swept across Ireland, destroying the potato crops on which the majority of the people depended. Aid from the British government was too little and too late. Over the subsequent six years, a million Irish people died of starvation and a more than a million others fled abroad in order to escape the ravages of hunger and disease.