Ireland
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IRELAND Queen Victoria I INTRODUCTION Victoria (queen) (1819-1901), queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland (1837-1901) and empress of India (Her reign was the longest of any monarch in British history and came to be known as the Victorian era. Queen Victoria was the official head of state not only of the United Kingdom but also of the growing worldwide British Empire, which included Canada, Australia, India, New Zealand, and large parts of Africa. As the personal embodiment of her kingdom, Victoria was eager to ensure that her country was held in high esteem throughout the world as an economically and militarily powerful state and as a model of civilization. Victoria brought to the British monarchy such 19th-century ideals as a devoted family life, earnestness, public and private respectability, and obedience to the law. During the later years of her reign, the monarchy attained a high degree of popularity among most of its subjects. The young Queen Victoria fell in love with Ireland. In June 1845 came "The Great Famine". As the nineteenth century progressed, the Irish became very dependent on the potato for their main food source. In fact, a majority of rural people lived on it completely (It was estimated that the average pre-famine adult consumed 12-14 pounds of potatoes a day). Several English committees that studied the economic situation in Ireland warned that if there was a major failure of the potato crop, extensive starvation would result. All these warnings were ignored. This famine had catastrophic consequences for Ireland. In the following six years, 1845-'51 Ireland lost over two million of her people to starvation, disease and emigration. Large numbers emigrated to the United States, Australia, Canada, New Zealand and Britain. Most of them were never to return to the land of their birth. In response to what came to be called the Irish Potato Famine, the Queen personally donated 2,000 pounds sterling to the