Across The Sea: The Lumpy Potatoes

Growing up, I was always told that the Irish only ate potatoes and beef. After all, that was what my family had on St. Patrick’s Day every year in celebration of our Irish heritage.

My mom was always reminiscing about how my Nanny made the best homemade potatoes in the world. Unfortunately for her though, my mom gave birth to two children who hated homemade potatoes.

Why?

Well, you see, homemade potatoes like the bananas mentioned in my previous blog, have a weird texture. But instead of them being hairy like bananas, they are lumpy.

I remember trying them for the first time on Thanksgiving one year (the only other time my family has homemade potatoes) and almost spitting them out on the table. I frowned, scraping the rest off my fork. “What’s with that face?” my mom asked from across the table. “The potatoes,” I grumbled, picking up a piece of turkey instead. “What about them?” “They’re lumpy,” I complained.

My mom gasped, “But that’s the best part.” I crinkled my nose in disgust and shook my head. She sighed, taking my plate and scraping the rest onto hers.

“ I guess it’s good you don’t live in Ireland then.”

“ Why?” I questioned.

“ Because all they eat are potatoes.”

After living in Ireland for a few months, now I realize that’s not true. At least, not in today’s Ireland with multiple eatery options from cafes to fish and chips stands, and even Italian restaurants which surprised me as well.

However, it was true in the past, before Southern Ireland got its independence and was still a colony of Great Britain, especially during the 19^th century. In fact, I learned that one of the most important kitchen dishes to have was a dish to serve potatoes on. It was a staple of the Irish diet for many years, so much so that when the potato crop failed due to a fungus in the 1840s and 1850s, the great famine started leading to the mass immigration of the Irish to America.

Most people know this from their basic history class, but what many don’t know is why the potato was central to the Irish diet. For a while, I thought it was because the Irish couldn’t grow any other crop due to the weather or something but that couldn’t be farther from the truth.

Apparently, according to a native Irish man from Dublin, Ireland also grew other crops, mainly barley and corn in the 1800s. Most of the crops however were exported to Great Britain to probably feed its population given that it was during the Industrial Revolution and there wasn’t much farmland left in England. This only left the potatoes for the Irish to eat and slowly but surely they began to depend on them.

When famine hit in the mid-1800s, destroying the potato crop, the Irish didn’t suffer just because of the potato. Oh no, the real reason they suffered was because of the British because they didn’t lend any help to the Irish and kept taking their barley and corn that the Irish now desperately needed. Therefore, the Irish didn’t really die or move to America because of the potato but because the British refused to help them.

Now, of course, I could be missing a few key facts but that is essentially the truth of it. The British starved the Irish and even though the potato is doing fine today and is present in many stores and restaurants (particularly as a side for almost every dish) the potato’s dark past cannot be erased, adding a whole other meaning to the Irish potato.

And I do know this for a fact: I will never complain about lumpy potatoes ever again.