Q 01/05

In which years did the Great Famine take place?

A) 1815 to 1822

B) 1845 to 1852

C) 1861 to 1868

D) 1879 to 1882

Answer · why

B) 1845 to 1852

In Irish it was known as an Drochshaol, the bad life or the hard times.

Q 02/05

What is the Irish-language name for the famine, meaning the Great Hunger?

A) An Gorta Mór

B) Tír na nÓg

C) An Drochshaol

D) An Rí Rua

Answer · why

A) An Gorta Mór

Contemporaries more often called the period an Drochshaol, the bad life.

Q 03/05

How is the worst year of the famine popularly remembered?

A) The Hungry Forties

B) Red '46

C) The Year of Sorrows

D) Black '47

Answer · why

D) Black '47

Seed potatoes were so scarce that year that hunger continued despite average yields.

Q 04/05

Roughly how many people died during the famine, by the most widely accepted estimate?

A) 100,000

B) 500,000

C) 1,000,000

D) 3,000,000

Answer · why

C) 1,000,000

At least as many again emigrated, and the population fell by 20 to 25 percent between 1841 and 1871.

Q 05/05

What was Ireland's population on the eve of the famine, and what was it by 1901?

A) About 12m, then 6m

B) About 6m, then 5m

C) About 4m, then 8m

D) About 8.5m, then 4.4m

Answer · why

D) About 8.5m, then 4.4m

At least 2.1 million people left the island between 1845 and 1855, one of history's greatest exoduses from a single island.