Potatoes are fascinating. Did you know they originate from South America? They were brought to Europe by Spanish Conquistadors, and were only introduced to Ireland by Sir Walter Raleigh in 1589, though they've become inextricably identified with the country in the intervening centuries. The potato gained massive popularity due to its high yield and ease of farming, so that by mid 1800s one would be hard pressed to find families in Ireland who didn't serve potatoes at least once per day, and several poorer families survived on almost nothing but potatoes. This reliance on a single crop led to one of the most devastating famines in the nation's history when Potato Blight struck, causing the death of 1-1.5 million across Ireland and Great Britain, inciting another ~1 million to immigrate from Ireland, and reducing the nation's overall population by 20-25% over just 5 years.

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