Survivors in the regions of Ireland hardest hit by the Famine did not experience the expected stunted height usually associated with severe malnutrition and disease, a new study has found.
The research, from Queen’s University Belfast and Edinburgh Business School, examined the effect of the Famine (1845-1852) on height, and found that in some areas of the country, the average adult height of survivors’ was in line with, or even slightly greater than, that of individuals born before or after the Famine.
The study used the historical data of 14,500 individuals, with different exposures to Famine conditions.
It was drawn from two prisons in Dublin and Tipperary, born before, during, and after the Famine.
Two effects were discovered to have occurred simultaneously, to differing extents: scarring and selection.
With regards to scarring, individuals born during the Famine were found to exhibit “reduced health outcomes,” an effect that dominated in areas of lower Famine mortality – such as Dublin.
Meanwhile, with regards to selection, those who survived the Famine were found to be the “taller, more robust individuals,” on average. Regions most affected by the Famine, with higher mortality levels, such as in Tipperary, saw an increase in survivors’ average societal health:
“We urge that any future cliometric studies of catastrophic risks and health include the realized risk’s severity and its associated selective mortality effect more explicitly. Less severe famines, such as other in utero and early childhood health shocks, can have long-lasting stunting effects on survivors,” the report authors wrote in their conclusion.
“But more severe famines, such as the Great Irish Famine experienced in rural areas, can act as Malthusian catastrophes in that they eliminate society’s most vulnerable and leave behind only its fittest, obscuring any scarring through selection.
“Without accounting for severity, anthropometric studies of the wellbeing of survivors of natural or man-made disasters cannot draw meaningful inferences about their long-run impact on society.”
Report author, Dr Chris Colvin, explained that people born in “severely affected regions,” such as Tipperary, exhibited “no evidence of stunted growth, indicating that the Famine disproportionately eliminated the most vulnerable”.
Co-author, Professor Eoin McLaughlin, said that the research “reshapes how we understand the long-term effects of humanitarian disasters like famines”.
“By distinguishing between scarring (lasting damage to survivors’ health) and selective mortality, it challenges simple assumptions that crises always leave a uniformly weakened population,” he said.
The findings were recently published in the Economic History Review, coinciding with the 180th anniversary of the beginning of the Famine.