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| A memorial stone to victims of the Irish Famine, Near Kenmare, Co. Kerry |
The following is an excerpt from the book, "A History of Ireland", by Mike Cronin. The link to the book is available at the bottom of this page.
" The effects of the Great Famine are difficult, if not impossible to comprehend fully. The economic historians of Ireland have carried out much work that has calculated the cost of the famine in terms of deaths, the number of emigrants, changes in land-ownership patterns and so on, but the hardest story of all, the unquantifiable, is the human cost of the famine.
In 1845, the population of Ireland stood at approximately 8.5 million. Six years later in 1851, the nominal end of the famine, the population had reduced by over 2 million.
Roughly 1 million Irish had died from starvation or disease caused by starvation and the other 1 million immigrated to foreign land.
Each and every one of these individuals who died or left Ireland had a story to tell, as did those that remained in Ireland and observed and lived through the devastating dislocation of the famine years. Many of the individual stories were left behind in the form of letters and diaries, and there were many observation pieces that can be read in the huge number of eye-witness newspaper reports of the period, within the journals of travellers to Ireland, or inside the covers of austere-looking government and relief committee reports. From such harrowing personal narratives and official observations, the lived experiences of the famine can be, at least in part, uncovered.
Before exploring the events of the years 1845 - 1851, the famine needs placing in a broader context. Many of the themes that were to be seen as representative of the famine - emigration, hunger and such, were already common features of Irish life prior to the mid-nineteenth century. The poorest of the poor were classified as paupers and were found homeless and living in the streets or countrysides as squaters. They traveled needed to find food and shelter. As a last resort paupers entered Irelands workhouses.
Next were the poorer members of Irish society who were living hand to mouth for the best part of the century, if not longer. They were the tenant farmers, owning no land or property. They lived on small plots of land (one acre or less) and were over-dependant on a single crop - the potato, for survival. They had to find work in addition to farming to be able to pay rent to their landlord.
Poor living conditions and high rates of fertility (large family units) all had resulted in periods of poverty and destitution prior to the 1840s. In 1816 for example the crops had failed, disease had been rife and many deaths ensued. Many Irish men and women from a variety of social backgrounds had made the decision to emigrate to America Canada, mainland Britain or in smaller numbers to Australia. The outcome of the famine were not new.
It has been a long-held view, of many Irish nationalists at least, that the famine was, if not engineered by the British, then certainly managed to their supposed benefit. Considering the extreme effects of the famine, the emotional attachments that it has formed within the Irish consciousness such conclusions are perhaps understandable.
In the 1840 government of Robert Peel aggressive questions were being asked in certain circles about the future of small-scale Irish agriculture. There was a widespread acknowledgement, even before the famine, that families could not survive and feed themselves on small plots of under an acre. The Devon Commission was called to investigate the issue. Members of the commission traveled across Ireland in 1843 and 1844, the very years before the famine. The Devon Commission argued that as long as small plots remained in existence, the future of Irish agriculture generally, and the lot of the Irish peasant class specifically were bleak.
Some within the British hierarchy welcomed such forecasts of doom. Some argued that the Catholic Irish problems of poverty and unemployment were at such an insurmountable scale that only some form of Malthusian collapse could save Ireland. In the famine years, the British Treasury Secretary, Charles Trevelyan clung on to such thinking and publicly spoke of the Irish problem being solved by the relentless destruction caused by the famine. The effects of the famine, and many of the questions that it raised, can therefore be seen as being evident in the years leading up to the 1840s. What was most shocking about the famine then, was not that it happened, but its immediacy and it's scale.
Reliance on One Food Source - the Potato
In the period from 1780 to 1845 the Irish population doubled from 4 to 8 million. With the dramatic increase in population and the family size came an increased demand for land. The only solution was to divide the available parcels into ever smaller plots for each exceeding generation. Soon the diminished size of these plots dictated the planting of potatoes as it was the only crop that could produce a sufficient yield of food on such limited acreage. Additionally laws controlled the amount of land the Irish Catholics could own or inherit and there was a lack of alternative work available. By the 1840s, a third of the Irish population was totally dependant on the potato for it's nourishment.
Disaster came in 1845 in the form of the potato blight. The blight, caused by a fungus in the potato, was first identified amongst crops in England in the early summer of 1845. The first recognized case in Ireland was in Wexford in September. The blight devasted crops across large parts of Ireland, a process that would continue, harvest by harvest, for nearly six years. There is a tendancy to view the famine as a national catastrophe, as it undoubtedly was in the broad social and economic sense, but the specific effects were regionally located. The famine struck hardest in localized areas and against a specific social group and class. The worst affected groups were the poorest potato - dependent peasantry of the west of Ireland. The counties that fared worst were Roscommon, Sligo, and Mayo in Connacht and the southern counties of Ulster - Cavan, Fermanagh and Monaghan.
One third of Ireland's potato crop was lost in 1845 . This escalated to a loss of 3/4 of the crop in each of the two succeeding years. The small farmers suffered immediately. Starvation combined with an increased susceptibility to diseases such as typhus, dysentery and cholera devastated the population. By 1848, the worst was over but the effects lingered on for years. It is estimated that between 500,000 and 1.5 million people died as a result of the famine and over 1 million fled the country.
James Mahoney was an artist living in Co. Cork, Ireland. In early 1847 he was hired by the Illustrated London News to visit the worst the surrounding countryside in County Cork and report on what he saw. The resulting articles did much to bring public opinion to bear on the British government to take action.
Eyewitness Accounts of the Potato Famine 1845 - 1847
"I started in Cork, by the mail, for Skibbereen and saw little until we came to Clonakilty, where the coach stopped for breakfast; and here, for the first time, the horrors of the poverty became visible, in the vast number of famished poor, who flocked around the coach to beg alms; amongst them was a woman carrying in her arms the corpse of a fine child, and making the most distressing appeal to the passengers for aid to enable her to purchase a coffin and bury her dead little baby. This horrible spectacle induced me to make some inquiry about her, when I learned from the people of the hotel that each day brings dozens of such applicants into the town." - James Mahoney
"Upon arriving in Skull, we witnessed almost indescribable in-door horrors. In the street however, we had the best opportunity of judging of the condition of the people; for here, from three to five hundren women, with money in their hands, were seeking to buy food; whilst a few of the Government officers doled out Indian meal to them in their turn. One of the women told me she had been standing there since daybreak, seeking to get food for her family at home" - James Mahoney
"Next morning... I started for Ballidichob, and learned upon the road that we should come to a hut or cabin in the parish of aghadoe, on the property of Mr. Long, where four people had lain dead for six days; and, upon arriving at the hut, the adobe of Tim Harrington, we found this to be true; for there lay the four bodies, and a fifth was passing to the same bourne. On hearing our voices, the sinking man made an effort to reach the door, and ask for drink or fire; he fell in the doorway; there, in all probablity to die; as the living cannot be prevailed to assist in the interments, for fear of taking the fever." - James Mahoney
"Again, all sympathy between the living and the dead seems completely out of the question... I certainly saw from 150 to 180 funerals of victims to the want of food, the whole number attended by not more than 50 persons; and so hardened are the men regularly employed in the removal of the dead from the workhouse, that I saw one of them, with four coffins in a car, driving to the courtyard, sitting upon one of the said coffins, and smoking with much apparent enjoyment. The people also say that whoever escapes the fever is sure of falling sick on the road (the Public Works), as they are, in many instances, compelled to walk from three to six miles, and sometimes a greater distance, to work, and back again in the evening, without partaking of a morsel of food. Added to this, they are, in a great number of instances, standing in bogs and wet places, which so affects them, that many of the poor fellows have been known to drop down at their work." - James Mahoney
After leaving Clonakilty, each step that we took westward brought fresh evidence of the truth of the reports of the misery, as we either met a funeral or a coffin at every hundred yards, until we approached the country of the Shepperton Lakes. Here, the distress became more striking, from the decrease of numbers at the funerals, none having more than eight or ten attendants, and many two or three. We next reached Skibbereen... We first proceeded to Bridgetown and there I saw the dying, and the living, and the dead, lying indiscriminately upon the same floor, without anything between them and the cold earth, save a few miserable rags upon them. To point to any particular house as a proof of this would be a waste of time, as all were in the same state; and, not a single house out of 500 could boast of being free from death or fever, though several could be pointed out with the dead lying close to the living for the space of three or four, even six days, without any effort being made to remove the bodies to a last resting place. - James Mahoney
Attempts to Provide Relief to of the Starvation and Death
Those who emigrated in the first years of the famine were the Catholic poor who originated from Irish-speaking areas. Many emigrants had to rely on financially assisted passage. Such a assistance came either from landlord and government sponsored projects, or more normally, from family settled overseas.
From 1846 to 1848 the government administration policy towards Ireland was simple: there would be no direct intervention in the form of food purchases to relieve the distress. The Irish, it was decided, should work their way out of poverty and starvation.
The Whigs decreed that a massive public-works scheme would be instigated in the areas worst affected by the famine. Those Irish who had fallen victim of the famine would be employed on public works, thereby earning the money to buy food. This policy failed to recognize a basic reality. The numbers who were suffering from the famine were simply too large for a public-works scheme to be effective. Additionally many of the starving Irish employeed by the Public Works program were required to walk from three to six miles, and sometimes a greater distance, to work, and back again in the evening, without partaking of a morsel of food. (As eyewitnessed by James Mahoney)
By the middle of 1847 it is estimated nearly 3 million Irish, just under half the population was being supported, in one way or another, by the public purse. The government changed direction.
Soup Kitchens
Because the potato comprised 80% of the Irish diet when the blight struck the effects were almost immediate. Beginning in the late fall of 1845 death from starvation began and grew worse with each passing month.
Before the famine the Quakers had pioneered soup kitchen relief in Co. Edenderry as a way to feed Irish paupers outside of the Workhouse. When the famine struck, and the Workhouses, who were already filled to capacity with societies paupers, became overcrowded and stressed as Irelands poor tenant farmers and families searched for food and relief. The "Poor Law" commissioners still initially refused to sanction any expenditure for what they considered tantamount to "outdoor relief" other than the Workhouse.
The British government formed the temporary Relief Commission in November 1845 to oversee relief efforts, distribute food, collect information, and advise the government on the famine, the people, and aid efforts. Members of the commission represented government departments, including the constabulary, coast guard, poor law commission, army, and board of works. The commission would be disbanded in 1846 and then formed again in February 1847. Relief efforts would include importing corn, public works, soup kitchens, and workhouses. The Famine Relief Commission Records (which consists of mostly letters requesting help) can be searched here. Initially in 1845, the commissioners refused to sanction any expenditure other than the workhouse, but in February of 1847, London Parliament passed the "Temporary Relief Act". It became known as the "Soup Kitchen Act" and was considered the best hope and cheapest means of keeping the Irish alive until the potato harvest.
Soup kitchens became a regular feature of famine life. The soups were made in a variety of ways, some more nutritious than others. According to regulation the rations were supposed to be one bowl of soup and one pound of biscuit, flour, grain or meal. But in actuality, the rations barely gave enough nutrition for the person to function properly. Many people travelled miles, expending more energy and strength than the soup restored. In August 1847, about 3 million people were being fed at soup kitchens every day
According to Cormac O'Grada, the board of health linked the rising incident of scurvy to the lack of vegetables in the soup. Scurvy and dysentery quickly began spreading throughout all of Ireland. The soup kitchen program was short lived as in the autumn of 1847, the government shut them down. The starving Irish were told to go to the workhouses for help.
Workhouses
Initially, Ireland's workhouses began in 1838 as the result of a the "Poor Law" passed by London Parliament. It was Britains solution to caring for the poorest of the poor known as paupers. By August 1846 there were about 130 workhouses already functioning within Ireland and by the end of the Potato Famine there were 163 workhouses.
Before the start of the Potato Famine of 1845, the conditions for entry were so strict that people would go to the workhouse for help only as a last resort. The conditions within the workhouse was as follows: families were separated, as men and women lived in different parts of the workhouse, and children were kept separate from adults. When a person entered he became known as an "Inmate" and were forbidden to leave or to try to escape. The main food provided was called "stirabout" which was similar to a weak oatmeal porridge. Their diet consisted of oatmeal, potatoes, and buttermilk.
There were strict rules within the workhouse. All meals must be eaten in silence, strickly no bad language, alcohol, laziness, malingering and disobedience. Able bodied women had to work at such jobs as knitting for women and breaking stones for men. Children were given
By 1847 the workhouses were overcrowded and could not keep all the poor people who came looking for help. For example, a workhouse in Fermoy, Co. Cork which was built for 800 people, actually kept 1,800 people in very bad conditions.
By 1848, one-seventh of Ireland's populaiton, approximately 1 million people, were living in, and supported by, the workhouses in the country.
In addition to the centrally run government schemes or programs, there were charitable projects that were administered and funded by other groups such as the Society of Friend. The Quakers also did alot to feed the poor.
Beginning in 1845, the Whig government insisted that both the British and Irish landlords assist in relieving the poverty that their tenants were enduring because of the famine. While it is clear that many landlords followed such suggestions, and supported their tenants, often others did not. Many landlords reasoned, that they could not financially support their starving tenants and chose a different option - eviction.
Evictions
During the worst months of the famine, in the winter of 1846 to the next winter of 1847, tens of thousand of tenants fell in arrears of rent and were evicted from the homes. "A nationwide system of ousting the peasantry began to set in, with absentee landlords, and some resident landlords as well, more determined than ever to rid Ireland of its "surplus" Irish. In 1850, over 104,000 people were evicted.
Cholera
In December, 1848 Colera began to spread through many of the overcrowded workhouses, pauper hospitals, and crammed jails in Ireland.
Typhus
Dysentery
" The effects of the Great Famine are difficult, if not impossible to comprehend fully. The economic historians of Ireland have carried out much work that has calculated the cost of the famine in terms of deaths, the number of emigrants, changes in land-ownership patterns and so on, but the hardest story of all, the unquantifiable, is the human cost of the famine.
In 1845, the population of Ireland stood at approximately 8.5 million. Six years later in 1851, the nominal end of the famine, the population had reduced by over 2 million.
Roughly 1 million Irish had died from starvation or disease caused by starvation and the other 1 million immigrated to foreign land.
Each and every one of these individuals who died or left Ireland had a story to tell, as did those that remained in Ireland and observed and lived through the devastating dislocation of the famine years. Many of the individual stories were left behind in the form of letters and diaries, and there were many observation pieces that can be read in the huge number of eye-witness newspaper reports of the period, within the journals of travellers to Ireland, or inside the covers of austere-looking government and relief committee reports. From such harrowing personal narratives and official observations, the lived experiences of the famine can be, at least in part, uncovered.
Before exploring the events of the years 1845 - 1851, the famine needs placing in a broader context. Many of the themes that were to be seen as representative of the famine - emigration, hunger and such, were already common features of Irish life prior to the mid-nineteenth century. The poorest of the poor were classified as paupers and were found homeless and living in the streets or countrysides as squaters. They traveled needed to find food and shelter. As a last resort paupers entered Irelands workhouses.
Next were the poorer members of Irish society who were living hand to mouth for the best part of the century, if not longer. They were the tenant farmers, owning no land or property. They lived on small plots of land (one acre or less) and were over-dependant on a single crop - the potato, for survival. They had to find work in addition to farming to be able to pay rent to their landlord.
Poor living conditions and high rates of fertility (large family units) all had resulted in periods of poverty and destitution prior to the 1840s. In 1816 for example the crops had failed, disease had been rife and many deaths ensued. Many Irish men and women from a variety of social backgrounds had made the decision to emigrate to America Canada, mainland Britain or in smaller numbers to Australia. The outcome of the famine were not new.
It has been a long-held view, of many Irish nationalists at least, that the famine was, if not engineered by the British, then certainly managed to their supposed benefit. Considering the extreme effects of the famine, the emotional attachments that it has formed within the Irish consciousness such conclusions are perhaps understandable.
In the 1840 government of Robert Peel aggressive questions were being asked in certain circles about the future of small-scale Irish agriculture. There was a widespread acknowledgement, even before the famine, that families could not survive and feed themselves on small plots of under an acre. The Devon Commission was called to investigate the issue. Members of the commission traveled across Ireland in 1843 and 1844, the very years before the famine. The Devon Commission argued that as long as small plots remained in existence, the future of Irish agriculture generally, and the lot of the Irish peasant class specifically were bleak.
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| Charles Edward Trevelyan - Appointed assistant secretary to HM Treasury - 1840 - 1859 |
Some within the British hierarchy welcomed such forecasts of doom. Some argued that the Catholic Irish problems of poverty and unemployment were at such an insurmountable scale that only some form of Malthusian collapse could save Ireland. In the famine years, the British Treasury Secretary, Charles Trevelyan clung on to such thinking and publicly spoke of the Irish problem being solved by the relentless destruction caused by the famine. The effects of the famine, and many of the questions that it raised, can therefore be seen as being evident in the years leading up to the 1840s. What was most shocking about the famine then, was not that it happened, but its immediacy and it's scale.
Reliance on One Food Source - the Potato
In the period from 1780 to 1845 the Irish population doubled from 4 to 8 million. With the dramatic increase in population and the family size came an increased demand for land. The only solution was to divide the available parcels into ever smaller plots for each exceeding generation. Soon the diminished size of these plots dictated the planting of potatoes as it was the only crop that could produce a sufficient yield of food on such limited acreage. Additionally laws controlled the amount of land the Irish Catholics could own or inherit and there was a lack of alternative work available. By the 1840s, a third of the Irish population was totally dependant on the potato for it's nourishment.
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| A potato infected with late blight, showing typical rot symptoms. |
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| "Searching for potatoes is one of the occupations of those who cannot obtain out-door relief (soup kitchens). It is gleaning in a potato-to-field and how few are left after the potatoes are dug, bust be known to every one who has ever seen the field cleared. What the people were digging or hunting for, like dogs after truffles, I could not imagine, till I went into the field, and then I found them patiently turning over the whole ground, in the hopes of finding the few potatoes the owner might have overlooked. Gleaning in a potato field seems something like shearing hogs, but it is the only means by which the gleaners could hope to get a meal" . - James Mahoney |
One third of Ireland's potato crop was lost in 1845 . This escalated to a loss of 3/4 of the crop in each of the two succeeding years. The small farmers suffered immediately. Starvation combined with an increased susceptibility to diseases such as typhus, dysentery and cholera devastated the population. By 1848, the worst was over but the effects lingered on for years. It is estimated that between 500,000 and 1.5 million people died as a result of the famine and over 1 million fled the country.
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| James Mahoney sketch |
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| James Mahoney Sketch |
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| James Mahoney Sketch |
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The Vicar sits while Mullins lies dying in the corner upon a heap of straw, supplied by the Relief Committee, whilst his tree wretched children crouched over a few embers of turf, as if to raise the last remaining spark of life. This poor man had buried his poor wife some 5 days previous. Mullins died 3 days later, so too did the Vicar. - sketch by James Mahoney, description by the Illustrated London News
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Eyewitness Accounts of the Potato Famine 1845 - 1847
"Upon arriving in Skull, we witnessed almost indescribable in-door horrors. In the street however, we had the best opportunity of judging of the condition of the people; for here, from three to five hundren women, with money in their hands, were seeking to buy food; whilst a few of the Government officers doled out Indian meal to them in their turn. One of the women told me she had been standing there since daybreak, seeking to get food for her family at home" - James Mahoney
"Next morning... I started for Ballidichob, and learned upon the road that we should come to a hut or cabin in the parish of aghadoe, on the property of Mr. Long, where four people had lain dead for six days; and, upon arriving at the hut, the adobe of Tim Harrington, we found this to be true; for there lay the four bodies, and a fifth was passing to the same bourne. On hearing our voices, the sinking man made an effort to reach the door, and ask for drink or fire; he fell in the doorway; there, in all probablity to die; as the living cannot be prevailed to assist in the interments, for fear of taking the fever." - James Mahoney
"Again, all sympathy between the living and the dead seems completely out of the question... I certainly saw from 150 to 180 funerals of victims to the want of food, the whole number attended by not more than 50 persons; and so hardened are the men regularly employed in the removal of the dead from the workhouse, that I saw one of them, with four coffins in a car, driving to the courtyard, sitting upon one of the said coffins, and smoking with much apparent enjoyment. The people also say that whoever escapes the fever is sure of falling sick on the road (the Public Works), as they are, in many instances, compelled to walk from three to six miles, and sometimes a greater distance, to work, and back again in the evening, without partaking of a morsel of food. Added to this, they are, in a great number of instances, standing in bogs and wet places, which so affects them, that many of the poor fellows have been known to drop down at their work." - James Mahoney
After leaving Clonakilty, each step that we took westward brought fresh evidence of the truth of the reports of the misery, as we either met a funeral or a coffin at every hundred yards, until we approached the country of the Shepperton Lakes. Here, the distress became more striking, from the decrease of numbers at the funerals, none having more than eight or ten attendants, and many two or three. We next reached Skibbereen... We first proceeded to Bridgetown and there I saw the dying, and the living, and the dead, lying indiscriminately upon the same floor, without anything between them and the cold earth, save a few miserable rags upon them. To point to any particular house as a proof of this would be a waste of time, as all were in the same state; and, not a single house out of 500 could boast of being free from death or fever, though several could be pointed out with the dead lying close to the living for the space of three or four, even six days, without any effort being made to remove the bodies to a last resting place. - James Mahoney
Attempts to Provide Relief to of the Starvation and Death
Those who emigrated in the first years of the famine were the Catholic poor who originated from Irish-speaking areas. Many emigrants had to rely on financially assisted passage. Such a assistance came either from landlord and government sponsored projects, or more normally, from family settled overseas.
From 1846 to 1848 the government administration policy towards Ireland was simple: there would be no direct intervention in the form of food purchases to relieve the distress. The Irish, it was decided, should work their way out of poverty and starvation.
The Whigs decreed that a massive public-works scheme would be instigated in the areas worst affected by the famine. Those Irish who had fallen victim of the famine would be employed on public works, thereby earning the money to buy food. This policy failed to recognize a basic reality. The numbers who were suffering from the famine were simply too large for a public-works scheme to be effective. Additionally many of the starving Irish employeed by the Public Works program were required to walk from three to six miles, and sometimes a greater distance, to work, and back again in the evening, without partaking of a morsel of food. (As eyewitnessed by James Mahoney)
By the middle of 1847 it is estimated nearly 3 million Irish, just under half the population was being supported, in one way or another, by the public purse. The government changed direction.
Soup Kitchens
Because the potato comprised 80% of the Irish diet when the blight struck the effects were almost immediate. Beginning in the late fall of 1845 death from starvation began and grew worse with each passing month.
Before the famine the Quakers had pioneered soup kitchen relief in Co. Edenderry as a way to feed Irish paupers outside of the Workhouse. When the famine struck, and the Workhouses, who were already filled to capacity with societies paupers, became overcrowded and stressed as Irelands poor tenant farmers and families searched for food and relief. The "Poor Law" commissioners still initially refused to sanction any expenditure for what they considered tantamount to "outdoor relief" other than the Workhouse.
The British government formed the temporary Relief Commission in November 1845 to oversee relief efforts, distribute food, collect information, and advise the government on the famine, the people, and aid efforts. Members of the commission represented government departments, including the constabulary, coast guard, poor law commission, army, and board of works. The commission would be disbanded in 1846 and then formed again in February 1847. Relief efforts would include importing corn, public works, soup kitchens, and workhouses. The Famine Relief Commission Records (which consists of mostly letters requesting help) can be searched here. Initially in 1845, the commissioners refused to sanction any expenditure other than the workhouse, but in February of 1847, London Parliament passed the "Temporary Relief Act". It became known as the "Soup Kitchen Act" and was considered the best hope and cheapest means of keeping the Irish alive until the potato harvest.
Soup kitchens became a regular feature of famine life. The soups were made in a variety of ways, some more nutritious than others. According to regulation the rations were supposed to be one bowl of soup and one pound of biscuit, flour, grain or meal. But in actuality, the rations barely gave enough nutrition for the person to function properly. Many people travelled miles, expending more energy and strength than the soup restored. In August 1847, about 3 million people were being fed at soup kitchens every day
According to Cormac O'Grada, the board of health linked the rising incident of scurvy to the lack of vegetables in the soup. Scurvy and dysentery quickly began spreading throughout all of Ireland. The soup kitchen program was short lived as in the autumn of 1847, the government shut them down. The starving Irish were told to go to the workhouses for help.
Workhouses
Initially, Ireland's workhouses began in 1838 as the result of a the "Poor Law" passed by London Parliament. It was Britains solution to caring for the poorest of the poor known as paupers. By August 1846 there were about 130 workhouses already functioning within Ireland and by the end of the Potato Famine there were 163 workhouses.
Before the start of the Potato Famine of 1845, the conditions for entry were so strict that people would go to the workhouse for help only as a last resort. The conditions within the workhouse was as follows: families were separated, as men and women lived in different parts of the workhouse, and children were kept separate from adults. When a person entered he became known as an "Inmate" and were forbidden to leave or to try to escape. The main food provided was called "stirabout" which was similar to a weak oatmeal porridge. Their diet consisted of oatmeal, potatoes, and buttermilk.
There were strict rules within the workhouse. All meals must be eaten in silence, strickly no bad language, alcohol, laziness, malingering and disobedience. Able bodied women had to work at such jobs as knitting for women and breaking stones for men. Children were given
By 1847 the workhouses were overcrowded and could not keep all the poor people who came looking for help. For example, a workhouse in Fermoy, Co. Cork which was built for 800 people, actually kept 1,800 people in very bad conditions.
By 1848, one-seventh of Ireland's populaiton, approximately 1 million people, were living in, and supported by, the workhouses in the country.
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| The Kenmare Union Workhouse |
Beginning in 1845, the Whig government insisted that both the British and Irish landlords assist in relieving the poverty that their tenants were enduring because of the famine. While it is clear that many landlords followed such suggestions, and supported their tenants, often others did not. Many landlords reasoned, that they could not financially support their starving tenants and chose a different option - eviction.
Evictions
During the worst months of the famine, in the winter of 1846 to the next winter of 1847, tens of thousand of tenants fell in arrears of rent and were evicted from the homes. "A nationwide system of ousting the peasantry began to set in, with absentee landlords, and some resident landlords as well, more determined than ever to rid Ireland of its "surplus" Irish. In 1850, over 104,000 people were evicted.
Cholera
In December, 1848 Colera began to spread through many of the overcrowded workhouses, pauper hospitals, and crammed jails in Ireland.
Typhus
Dysentery
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| Famine Memorial in Dublin Ireland |
Immigration
Large numbers of Irish people emigrated to countries such as England, American, Canada and Australia because of the famine. From 1845 to 1850, about 1,500,000 people left Ireland.
Large numbers of Irish people emigrated to countries such as England, American, Canada and Australia because of the famine. From 1845 to 1850, about 1,500,000 people left Ireland.
Sources
Ask About Ireland; Soup kitchens;
Wikipedia; Coffin_ships; Grosse Ile;
The Irish Emigration of 1847 and Its Canadian Consequences, by John Gallegher
A History of Ireland, by Mike Cronin, The full digital text is available online
The Great Irish Potato Famine, by James S Donnelly
Three Famines: Starvation and Politics, by Thomas Kineally; 2011
The Operation of the Poor Law during the Famine, by Christine Kinealy; 2012
Ireland, Famine Relief Commision Papers, 1845 - 1847
7,000 original letters written by Irish clergy and relief workers who were requesting help for their area (the poor Irish people who were directly affected by the famine did not read or write) during the Great Famine in the mid-19th century.
Sketches in the West of Ireland, by James Mahoney
Published in the Illustrated London New in 1847
The Irish Famine - a Documentary History, by Noek Kissane
The Great Hunger, by Cecil Woodham-Smith, 1962
Irish Central
Famine in an Irish town - how Dingle survived the Great Hunger
Ask About Ireland; Soup kitchens;
Wikipedia; Coffin_ships; Grosse Ile;
The Irish Emigration of 1847 and Its Canadian Consequences, by John Gallegher
A History of Ireland, by Mike Cronin, The full digital text is available online
The Great Irish Potato Famine, by James S Donnelly
Three Famines: Starvation and Politics, by Thomas Kineally; 2011
The Operation of the Poor Law during the Famine, by Christine Kinealy; 2012
Ireland, Famine Relief Commision Papers, 1845 - 1847
7,000 original letters written by Irish clergy and relief workers who were requesting help for their area (the poor Irish people who were directly affected by the famine did not read or write) during the Great Famine in the mid-19th century.
Sketches in the West of Ireland, by James Mahoney
Published in the Illustrated London New in 1847
The Irish Famine - a Documentary History, by Noek Kissane
The Great Hunger, by Cecil Woodham-Smith, 1962
Irish Central
Famine in an Irish town - how Dingle survived the Great Hunger
