This account of assisted emigration fromLord Lansdowne's estate in Kenmare, County Kerry, comes from "Realities of Irish Life " by W. S. Trench; his agent.

"WS Trench has left an eye-witness account of conditions in one part of thecountry in 1849:

When I first reached Kenmare in the winter of 1849-50, the form of destituitonhad changed in some degree; but it was still very great. It was true thatpeople no longer died of starvtion; but they were dying nearly as fast offever, dysentery, and scurvy within the walls of the workhouse. Food therewas now in abundance; but to entitle the people to obtain it, they were compelledto go into the work house and 'auxiliary sheds', until these were crowdedalmost to suffocation. And although outdoor relief had also been resortedto in consequence of the impossibiltity of finding room for the paupers inthe workhouses, yet the quantity of food given was so small, and the previousdestitutuon through which they had passed was so severe, that nearly as manydied now under the hands of Guardians, as had perished before by actualstarvation.

I spent six weeks in Kerry; and having completed an elaborate report describingthe past an preasent condition, and probably future of the estate, I forwardedit to Lord Lansdowne. The district of Kenmare at that period - January 1850- was not a in a desirable condition. 'The famine', in the strict acceptationof the term, was then nearly over, but it had left atrain behind it, almostas formidable as its presence."

"On 5 Nov 1847 a crowd of destiture people marched on the workhouse at Traleecarrying a black flag marked 'flag of distress', declaring they would enterthe workhouse by force. They had been deprived of outdooor relief of a 'halfpennya day' by the Guardians, 'because the Board's finances could not bear evenso small an allowance.' They succeeded in breaking down the main gate. Policeand troops were called out and the people were forced, after a struggle,to depart."

"by autumn 1846, the full disaster of the failure of the potato crop becameapparent. Having endured the partial failure of 1845 and the hungry summermonths of 1846, people looked at their blackened and rotting crops and realisedthat starvation stared them in the face:

'The desolation which a sudden failure of the staple food of the people,in a remote valley like this (Kenmare) must necessarily bring along withit, may be imagined. As the potato melted away before the eyes of the people,they looked on in dismay and terror; but there was no one with energy enoughto import corn to supply its place. Half Ireland was stunned by the suddennessof the calamity, and Kenmare was completely paralysed. Begging, as of old,was now out of the question, as all were equally poor; and many of the wretchedpeople succumbed to their fate almost without a struggle.'

I therefore resolved to put into practice a scheme which I had mediated fora long time previously, namely to go myself to Lord Lansdowne at Bowood,to state to him the whole circumstance of the case, and to recommend himto adopt an extensive system of voluntary migration as the only practicableand effective means of relieving this frightful destitution. This plan Icarried into effect. I went over to England (and) during my stay I had frequentand lengthened interviews with that most enlightened and liberal statesman.

The broad sketch of the plan I laid before him was as follows: I showed himby the poor-house returns, that the number of paupers off his estate andreceiving relief in the workhouse amounted to about three thousand. ThatI was wholly unable to undertake the employment of these people in theirpresent condition on reproductive works; and that if left in the workhouse,the smallest amount they could possibly cost would be £5 per head perannum, and thus that the poor rates must necessarily amount, for some yearsto come, to £15,000 per annum, unless these people died or left - andthe latter was not probable. I stated also, that hitherto the people hadbeen kept alive in the workhouse by grants from the rates-in-aid and otherpublic money; but that this could not always go on. That the valuation ofhis estate in that district scarcely reached £10,000 per annum; andthus that the poor rates necessary to be raised in future off the estateto support this number of people, would amount to at least thirty shillingsin the pound. I explained further to him, that under these circumstances,inasmuch as the poor rates were a charge prior to the rent, it would beimpossible for his lordship to expect any rent whatever out of his estatefor many years to come. The remedy I proposed was as follows: that he shouldforthwith offer free emigration to every man, woman and child now in thepoor-house or receiving relief and chargeable to his estate. That I had beenin communication with an Emigration Agent, who had offered to contract totake them to whatever port in America each pleased, at a reasonable rateper head. That even supposing they all accepted this offer, the total, togetherwith a small sum per head for outfit and a few shillings on landing wouldnot exceed from £13,000 to £14,000, a sum less than it would costto support them in the workhouse for a single year. That ir the one casehe would not only free his estate of this mass of pauperisn which had beenallowed to accumulate upon it, but would put th people themselves in a farbetter way of earning their bread hereafter, whereas by feeding and retainingthem where they were, they must remain as a millstone around the neck ofhis estate, and prevent its rise for many years to come; and I plainly provedthat it would be cheaper tc him, and better for them, to pay for their emigrationat once, than to continue to support them at home.

His lordship discussed the matter very fully, and with that kindness, goodsense, and liberality which characterised all his acts; and on my leavingBowood he gave me an order for £8,000 wherewith to commence the systemof emigration, with a full understanding that more should be forthcomingif required.

I shall not readily forget the scenes that occurred in Kenmare when I returned,and announced that I was prepared at Lord Lansdowne's expense to send toAmerica everyone now in the poor-house who was chargeable to his lordship'sestate, and who desired to go; leaving each to select what port in Americahe pleased - whether Boston, New York, New Orleans, or Quebec.

The announcement at first was scarcely credited; it was considered by thepaupers to be too good to be true. But when it began to be believed andappreciated, a rush was made to get away at once. The organisation of thesystem required, however, much care and thought.

The mode adopted was as follows: two hundred each week were selected of thoseapparently most suited for emigration; and having arranged their slenderoutfit, a steady man, on whom I could depend Mr. Jeremiah O'Shea, was employedto take charge of them on their journey to Cork, and not to leave them norallow them to scatter, until he saw them safely on board the emigrant ship.This plan succeeded admirably; and week after week to the astonishment ofthe good people of Cork, and sometimes not a little to their dismay, a batchof two hundred paupers appeared on the quays of Cork, bound for the Far West.

A cry was now raised that I was exterminating the people. But the peopleknew well that those who now cried loudest had given them nc help when inthe extremity of their distress, and they rushed from the country like apanic-stricken throng, each only fearing that the funds at my disposal mightfail before he and his family could get their passage.

So great was the rush from the workhouse to emigrate, and so great was theinflux into the workhouse to qualify (as I generally required the applicationof that sure test of abject poverty before I gave an order for emigration)that the Guardians became uneasy, and said the poor-house would be filledwith those seeking emigration, even faster than it could be emptied. ButI told them not to be alarmed - that all demands should be met. And thus,two hundred after two hundred, week after week, departed from Cork, untilthe poor-house was nearly emptied of paupers chargeable to the Lansdowneestate; and in little more than a year 3,500 paupers had left Kenmare forAmerica, all free emigrants, without any ejectments having been brought againstthem to enforce it, or the slightest pressure put upon them to go.

Matters now began to right themselves; only some fifty or sixty paupers remainedin the workhouse, chargeable to the property over which I had the care andLord Lansdowne's estate at length breathed freely.

It must be admitted that the paupers despatched to America on such a suddenpressure as this were of a very motley type; and a strange figure these wildbatches of two hundred each - most of them speaking only the Irish language- made in the streets of Cork as well as on the quays of Liverpool and America.There was great difficulty in keeping them from breaking loose from the ship,not only in Cork but in Liverpool, where the ships touched before they leftfor the West.'

The Trench plan aroused mixed feelings. One who did not approve was FatherO'Sullivan, parish priest of Kenmare, who engaged in rather acrimoniousControversy with Mr Trench in the matter. Another was the patriot O'DonovanRossa, who was at that time doing business in west Cork. He wrote some vigorousverses, which Trench (who never discovered the identity of the author) regardedas dangerous incitement against him. In his Recollections Rossa recalled:'Stewart Trench, the land agent of Lord Lansdowne, was at that time in hisglory evicting the tenantry. The stories I heard about him moved me to writethis poem:

The Kenmare men asked me to get what I wrote about Trench printed for themin some slips of paper. I got them printed and sent them to the Kerry men.Trench got hold of one of them, and was mad to find out who was the writer;he said it was inciting people to mureder him. But the Kerry men did notfive me away.'

One reason why Trench was viewed with some suspicion and distrust was becauseof his oppostition to the Ribbonmen (an anti-lanlord secret society, 1835-1855,so called because of its badge -  a green ribbon) and other secret agrariansocieies in the district. Another was his known contacts with the police.

From "Workhouses of Ireland" by John O'Connor

More on the Famine in Kerry

This page created May 2000 for County Kerry, Ireland at
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