Potato famine

== The Potato Famine ==
In Ireland, the Great Famine was a period of mass starvation, disease and emigration between 1845 and 1852. It is sometimes referred to, mostly outside Ireland, as the Irish Potato Famine because one-third of the population was then solely reliant on this cheap crop (which originated in the New World) for a number of historical reasons. During the famine approximately a million people died and a million more emigrated from Ireland, causing the island's population to fall by between 20% and 25%. The proximate cause of famine was a potato disease commonly known as potato blight.
== Irish Remi ==
During the time of the great famine eye-witness accounts told of a strange humanoid creature spotted among the crops fields of Ireland. The creature was given the name Irish Remi, and resembled a goblin. Irish Remi was small and redish in colour with a lizard-like head and had a hunched posture due to the weight of the sack it carried on its back. The sack would usually be full to the brim with potatoes. Irish Remi would appear at night to plunder the crop fields of Ireland for any undiseased potatoes, further adding to the famine. If discovered, Irish Remi would flee from the crop field with its sack, however it would return in a matter of nights. There was no way of warding off Irish Remi, the only way to stop it was to catch it in the act early enough to save as much of the crops as possible.