Complex sentence: Some parts of the island had experienced what proved to be the last waves of a famine but which nevertheless brought back memories of the Great Irish Famine of the late 1840s that had decimated the countryside.
Split into simpler sentences: Some parts of the island had experienced what proved to be the last waves of a famine. This brought back memories of the Great Irish Famine of the late 1840s that had decimated the countryside.