Complex sentence: The causes of the crisis were in many respects similar to those of the very real Great Irish Famine of about the same time, and both famines were part of the wider food crisis facing Northern Europe caused by potato blight during the mid- 1840s.
Split into simpler sentences: The causes of the crisis were in many respects similar to those of the very real Great Irish Famine of about the same time. Both famines were part of the wider food crisis facing Northern Europe caused by potato blight during the mid- 1840s.