Irish crop promising August. Blight enters England September. Blight enters Ireland October. 1848 Crop fails again. The famine never really ends.
Bad times taper off gradually, with relief due as much to exodus as to improved conditions.
The Great Exodus To the Irish, with their clan society and love of their land, one of the most dreaded penalties was deportation. Only extreme hardship could drive them to leave Ireland voluntarily. The British preferred the Irish to go to Canada, which needed laborers for the lumber industry and which was also British. The Irish preferred to go to the U.S., which symbolized successful revolt against the British and where opportunities were better. Many Irish slipped across the border from Canada.