I've been meaning to get a shot of this field of potatoes for quite some time but
somehow never got round to it. This was done very quickly on by way back to
work after lunch. As soon as I stood in the field, the smell of the potato plants
and the earth brought back memories of when my father grew potatoes in our
garden. The soil, he complained, was heavy and not particularly suited to
growing potatoes. Onions, by contrast, thrived and I can remember rows
of onions drying, with the green tops bent back.
The potato has a special place in Irish history, as it was the failure of
the crop, then the staple diet of most of the Irish population, in 1845
and subsequent years, which led to the Great Famine.
A million people died and another million emigrated.