Lumper Potato Project

The Committee for the Commemoration for Irish Famine Victims (CCIFV) have teamed up with Glens Of Antrim Potatoes and Dunnes Stores to make seed potatoes available to all schools in Ireland. Schools throughout Ireland will have an opportunity to sow Lumper potatoes this spring as a way of remembering the victims of the famine of the 1840s.

One of the iconic symbols of the Great Famine in Ireland is the Lumper potato, the very variety upon which so many Irish people depended. Its destruction by blight from 1845 onwards led directly to the outbreak of the Famine.

The potatoes should require very little care, and the process of planting, tending and hopefully eating the crop will be an interesting way to help pupils to commemorate and remember the victims of An Gorta Mór, and those who suffer in famine and hunger today.

Our Lumper seed potatoes are chitting. Chitting is the process of forcing seed potatoes into growth before they are

planted.