Worse still, the Irish all grew the same very susceptible variety (Irish Lumper). The blight had started in Europe and eventually reached Ireland where the potato was a staple food. Most famously the potato blight was, if not the only cause, certainly the major contributor to the Irish Famine of the 1840’s.
Potatoes infected with late blight are shrunken on the outside, corky and rotted inside They also stink and once smelt, never forgotten.
