The second of Ireland's "Great Famines", An Gorta Mór struck the country during 1845–49, with potato blight, exacerbated by the political factors of the time[33] leading to mass starvation and emigration. (See Great Irish Famine) The impact of emigration in Ireland was severe; the population dropped from over 8 million before the Famine to 4.4 million in 1911. Gaelic or Irish, once the island's spoken language, declined in use sharply in the nineteenth century as a result of the Famine and the creation of the National School education system, as well as hostility to the language from leading Irish politicians of the time; it was largely replaced by English.