Irish Potato Famine: Government potato store being attacked by starving inhabitants of Galway. The potato crop which, provided the staple food for the Irish peasantry, was destroyed by Potato Blight (Phytophthora infestans), the cause of the famine in which one million died of starvation and another 2.5 million were forced to emitrate. From The Illustrated London News, June 1842. Wood engraving.