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The scene
outside Mangan's in Coal Market, Carlow c1846 |
The Cursed Famine
In June 1845, a potato fungal
disease, Phytophthora infestans, which the Irish people
later referred to as 'the blight', had spread from South
America (where, ironically, the potato itself originated
circa 1560) was reported in Belgium. The report was to have
catastrophic consequences for Ireland. As far back as 1835
warnings that the Irish population had become over dependant
on the potato as a source of nutrition had gone unheeded. It
was estimated that the average pre-famine adult consumed
12-14 pounds of potatoes a day.
This dependence, combined with
the landlord, commercial and political systems, which
operated at the time, was to transform another Irish famine
(over a period of 600 years up to thirty severe famines were
recorded in Ireland and Europe) into The Great Famine of
Irish history (An Gorta Mor). In the following six years,
1845-'51 Ireland lost over two million of her people to
starvation, disease and emigration. Large numbers emigrated
to the United States, Australia, Canada, New Zealand and
Britain. Most of them were never to return to the land of
their birth.
For generations to come, the
Famine was to have a profound effect on the religious,
cultural, political, economic and social development of
Ireland. During the Famine, grain was exported, tenants were
evicted and people were deported for the most trivial
crimes. In 1849, when emigration, eviction, disease and
mortality were higher in many parts of the country than at
any other time during the Famine Queen Victoria visited
Ireland and was to record that she had never seen a more
good humoured crowd, "the women are really handsome, even in
the lower class.” Is it any wonder that for generations
afterwards the popular nationalist view was that "God sent
the potato blight but the English caused the Famine". And
despite the fact that the Queen personally donated £5,000 (a
very substantial sum in those days) and became involved in
many charities providing relief she was to become known to
the Irish as "The Famine Queen". Combined with the fact that
"The Great Famine" was followed by "The Great Silence", led
in to many interpretations of the facts in the years that
followed.
Historical Gaps
During the past few years,
especially in the build-up to the 150th anniversary of the
Famine in 1995, many national and local historians have been
objectively researching the gap between the factual history
and the traditions of the period. A National Famine
Commemoration Committee was established to carry out a
micro-study of Poor Law Union areas.
Local historians of the calibre
of Ted Brophy, Seamus Murphy, R. V Comerford and Frank
Taaffe produced papers, and school projects got under way. A
very successful commemorative exhibition organised by
Teagasc in conjunction with the Department of Agriculture
was mounted in the RDS grounds in Dublin, while the
community library in Athy mounted an exhibition of artefacts
relating to the Famine in Kildare.
The academics tell us that it is
the local historians who hold the key that will unravel the
real history and suffering of the Famine period. With this
in mind I add the results of my own research gleamed from
sources relating to counties Carlow, Kildare and Laois.
Authoritative Account
The great silence that I
referred to earlier came about partly because of the
shortage of academic historians capable of producing an
authoritative account of the period but many believe that
this " silence" ensued mainly because there was the
survivors' guilt of those who not only escaped with their
lives but were left in better circumstances as a result of
the Famine, for there were winners as well as losers during
and after the terrible events of 1845 - 1851. A decisive
minority of people including the "grabbers" and "gombeen
men," did well out of the Famine and it was their successors
who became, so to speak, the "shakers and movers,” of the
commercial life of Ireland in the following decades. For
instance in County Carlow before the Famine there were over
4,000 small farm holdings of between one and 15 acres -
after the Famine there were just over 2,000 small farm
holdings of that acreage in the county.
The unanswered question was, who
divided out the land, who lost and who gained. One has only
to look at the small hovel-like pre-famine buildings dotted
around the countryside that passed for homes compared to the
fine post-famine buildings that emerged on the Irish
landscape following the Famine to grasp this aspect of the
outcome.
With the publication in 1956 of
Prof. Edward’s and William's academic volume" The Great
Famine" the silence was broken. Incidentally two Carlow men
T. P. O'Neill, MA, and Oliver MacDonagh, MA, Ph.D., were
among the first to contribute to this scholarly volume.
Their MA thesis became the celebrated chapters: T. P.
O'Neill on the Organisation and Administration of Relief,
1845-'52 and Oliver MacDonagh on "Irish emigration to the
USA and the British Colonies during the Famine".
T. P. O'Neill also wrote an
article "The Famine in Carlow" which was published in the
1947 edition of Carloviana, the journal of the Old Carlow
Society.
Mountain Property
In his book " Realities of Irish
Life" William Stewart Trench, agent to Lord Lansdowne of
Luggacurren eviction infamy, referring to his land in
Cardtown, County Laois then known as Queens County, wrote in
his diary on August 6,1846: "I shall not readily forget the
day, I rode up, as usual, to my mountain property and my
feelings may be imagined when, before I saw the crop, I
smelt the fearful stench, now so well known and recognised
as the death sign of each field of potatoes. I was dismayed,
indeed, but I rode on. As I rode down the newly engineered
road, running through the heart of the farm, I could
scarcely bear the fearful and strange smell, which came up
so rank from the luxuriant crop then growing all around; no
perceptive change, except the smell, had yet come upon the
apparent prosperity of the deceitfully luxuriant stalks, but
the experience of the past few days taught me that all was
gone and the crop was utterly worthless".
The Catholic Church
The Bishop of Kildare and
Leighlin, Francis Haly wrote in January 1847 " no
imagination can conceive, no pen can describe it. To have
anything approaching a correct idea of the suffering of the
poor, you should be here on the spot and see them with your
own eyes!" and he added, "in one of the Dublin workhouses it
appears the deaths were 50 a week, so crowded were the
unhappy inmates".
Father Maher was another R.C. priest that
expressed his anger at how little was being done to relieve
distress and denounced the 16 ounces of food doled out to
the poor in Carlow Workhouse. Many priests and religious
orders played a part in relieving the conditions of the
people, but the Hierarchy seem to have been as concerned
with political events (the build up to the failed Rising of
1848 for instance) and other church matters such as the
vexed question of the "soupers" and the role and motives of
other churches including the Quakers which diminished the
role of the Hierarchy in the memory of the succeeding
generations of Irish people.
But it is the Society of Friends
(Quakers) who were remembered most fondly by the people for
their practical sleeves-rolled-up, no-strings-attached
assistance at this time.
The Worst Effects
The blight had reached Ireland
in August 1845. Its late arrival, when most of the crop was
already saved, meant that the worst effects were not felt in
that year. It was in 1846 that nearly the entire potato crop
was wiped out. In Carlow it was estimated that half of the
crop was destroyed, by December it was reported that no
potatoes were available. In Ballymurphy it was claimed that
people were actually starving. Relief committees were
organised and gave assistance in Myshall, Grangeford,
Nurney, Clonegal, Kellistown, Tinryland, Old Leighlin,
Barragh, Borris, Ballon, Rathoe, Rathvilly, Tullow,
Ballyellin, Ballymurphy, Bagenalstown, Clonmore, St. Mullins
and Fenagh.
- In November 1846, cooked food
was distributed to the destitute by the Society of Friends
(Quakers) in Carlow town and county.
- There were complaints that
some people who were not destitute were receiving relief.
Seven large boilers in which to cook stirabout soup were
distributed in Carlow, one to Mangan's Mills of Coal
Market in the town of Carlow (the boiler exists to this
day. see note at end of this article). In it was
cooked yellow meal and rice and also turnip parings and
dripping fat.
In 1973 the late Miss Kathy
Mangan, when she was in her 90th year, told me that her aunt
Johanna Mangan had told her that people would stand in line
in the Coal Market carrying a pot or a bowl to place food
in. They had to eat the contents there and then so as to
make sure it would not be swapped or traded for tobacco or
alcohol by some of the more roguish element of the
destitute. They also had a security man posted to make sure
that none of the employed labourers would avail of the
relief. Stirabout was also distributed from the Presentation
school in Tullow Street.
In Kildare during November 1846,
the threat of raids on provision boats along the Grand Canal
led to a contingent of 23 constabulary being assembled to
protect the fleet. On the night of January 19, 1847, a food
boat was attacked by a large body of men in the Bog of Allen
and robbed of "several packages of tobacco, eggs and
whiskey". Frank Taaffe in a paper presented to Kildare
County Library, tells us that "Kildare, with 85 per cent of
its area classified as arable land, had the smallest area
given over to potato growing of all the Irish counties, also
the building of the GSWR railway line gave much employment
in the area during 1845 and up to August, 1846," so at least
for this period there was no great distress recorded in
Kildare. Nevertheless, the number of inmates in Athy
Workhouse, which was opened in 1844 to accommodate 360
adults and 240 children, reached 737 by December 1846. There
were three workhouses in Co. Kildare - at Athy, Celbridge
and Naas. In 1847, the Naas Workhouse admitted 1,381 people.
Oatmeal Diet
The Carlow Workhouse opened in
November 1844 to accommodate 800 inmates was inhabited in
December 1847 by over 1,400 destitute. In the following year
there were over 1,500 inmates recorded in the workhouse. It
catered for most of the county and for Slievemargy in the
county of Laois, (then known as Queens County). Workhouses
in Baltinglass, Shillelagh and New Ross provided for the
eastern and southern sections of county Carlow.
The diet for Carlow Workhouse in
1847 consisted of eight ounces of oatmeal with a pint of
mixed milk for breakfast and for dinner one pound of brown
bread with a pint of buttermilk. In fact at this time the
prisoners held in the jail in Carlow town were better fed
than the workhouse inmates. In the jail prisoners received:
one pound of brown bread and a pint of sweet milk for
breakfast and for dinner eight ounces of oatmeal stirabout
and a pint of buttermilk. (on Sundays two pounds of brown
bread and two pints of milk were served for dinner!).
Besides the mass emigration that
was prevalent during the Famine there was emigration schemes
assisted by the landlords who had figured that it was much
cheaper to be rid of the destitute than to maintain the
unfortunates in workhouses.
Over the years many of the
workhouse officers were dismissed for "irregularities" which
did not make the enforcement of this detested system any
easier for the administrators or the inmates but
nevertheless their were many good officers and Masters and
Matrons during this sad time.
An odd ray of sunshine was
allowed into the workhouse to dispel the gloom, when the
danger of cholera was present the inmates were encouraged to
dance to keep up their spirits.
The workhouse also had an itch
ward where those afflicted with "the itch" were kept and
wherein they could scratch each other to shreds, not to
mention the ward for the insane.
Relief Works or the
Workhouse
To provide labourers with money
and assistance the government set up relief committees
throughout the country they in turn were to organise relief
works / schemes in various Grand Jury districts. Ten
committees were established for Carlow but only five
qualified for government aid, they were Tullow,
Bagenalstown, Hacketstown, Kiltennel and Borris. Due to
political and legal difficulties the relief schemes could
not be implemented immediately (sounds familiar!).
The aid
schemes plan had to be first submitted to the Lord
Lieutenant who then sought the opinion of the Relief
Commission and also sought advice from the Board of Works
(themselves subject to advice from a supervisory system) on
the advisability of proceeding with the aid. Reports from
those bodies were then forwarded to the Treasury in London
and the approval of the treasury agents were required before
any aid could be released. On occasion a proposal might be
returned for clarification on a point.
Many complaints were lodged by
the landowners and the clergy against this delay, and many
of the landlords made strong representations to the
government to get things moving. In the meantime
subscriptions were collected among the landlords and the
clergy " to aid in every possible way those who needed
assistance". In May a large crowd gathered at Alexander's
Mills outside Carlow and refused to disperse until they were
promised that the gentry of Carlow would come to their aid.
Finally in June 1846 "public work schemes" got underway.
Aid would be distributed to
committees formed for each electoral division. These
committees were to make estimates of their required budget
for two weeks in advance and this budget had then to be
sanctioned by the finance section of each poor law union. On
obtaining this approval the budget was advanced to the
treasurer who if he was satisfied would then approve payment
of the budget.
The schemes were building new
roads, hill lowering, filling hollows, repair of roads,
building walls, etc. but all was not well in some areas. In
Leighlinbridge a mob of about 200 people tore up the newly
laid road because they thought " the schemes inadequate to
employ all the destitute labourers”.
The system was intent on making
it difficult and undesirable to the destitute to apply for
aid in order to encourage them to support themselves.
Believe it or not but this
operation was successful in alleviating distress in many
areas.
People who were deemed sick or
unable to work could get support from the Committees. The
committees also issued cooked food according to a plan
devised by the Society of Friends (Quakers). Only those able
to work could seek admission to the workhouse, otherwise
imprisonment was a better option!
T.P. O'Neill tells us that: "In
practice, if not in theory, the Calvinst tenet that poverty
was a sign of wickedness was accepted by the elite of the
times" this could explain why the inmates of the jail were
better treated and fed.
Extensive Removals
In 1846, Colonel Wandesforde
sent out 3,000 people from the Castlecomer area at a cost of
£5 each. Those of farming stock were directed to Canada,
those with mining experience to Pennsylvania. It was also
reported that Lord de Vesci was undertaking extensive
removals from the Queen's County (Laois). Wandesforde and de
Vesci were among others who were accused of "brutal
extermination" at the time. Overall the death rate on the
"coffin ships" was extremely high. In 1847 alone over 40,000
died at sea. Another emigration option was the assisted
passage of workhouse orphans of which over 4,000 orphan
girls were sent to Australia during 1847-'49. A large number
came from the Carlow, Kildare and Laois workhouses.
Dreaded Cholera
The highest number of admissions
to the workhouse took place in 1849. It was at this time
that the dreaded cholera swept the whole country. The
epidemic was severe with over 30,000 deaths recorded
throughout the country. Laois in particular suffered badly
during this period.
Sam Snoddy
My own great grandfather, Sam
Snoddy, a Presbyterian Ulsterman from Ballymena,
County Antrim, had come to Carlow working on the
railway line and had settled in Pollerton Road,
Carlow town in 1845. On the first day of September
1849, Sam went to work early in the morning when he
returned that night his wife, Sera, and two
children, John and Anne, were dead and their remains
already buried in Knockaunnarelic graveyard on the
edge of the town. In their last hours all three had
been baptised and received into the Roman Catholic
Church by Rev. G. Kearns. How much of a say they had
in their sudden "conversion " I can't say, all I
know is that when Sam went to work that morning he
left behind a wife with two children, all of the
Presbyterian faith, and when he returned they were
dead and buried and Roman Catholic!
Thirty days
later Sam himself converted to the Roman Catholic
religion, thereby going against the norm of the time
when others were converting away from Catholicism to
get the "free soup" and other benefits here he was
becoming a Catholic. At the time those families who
took the "soup" became known for generations as
"soupers" after the Famine many re-converted back to
being Roman Catholics and in turn they became known
as "jumpers", so one could have the "souper Doyles"
or "souper Murphys" and later, after the famine was
over, the "jumper Doyles or "jumper Murphys" I think
in the following generations the "jumpers" were more
frowned upon than the "soupers". I am sure there are
many such stories with families throughout the
counties. It is imperative that those accounts
should be recorded in order to enable historians to
form a complete picture of the events of this
period. Often the best way to bring home the reality
of a disaster is to hear the personal stories of the
people who were affected.
Population Decline
In comparison to many other
counties, particularly those along the western and southern
seaboard, we know that Carlow, Kildare and Laois escaped the
worst effects of the calamity. In County Carlow for instance
the population declined by approximately 20,000 in the years
between the census of 1841 and 1851 and in fact the
population of Carlow town increased during this period.
T.P. O'Neill in his 1947 article
for "Carloviana" pointed out that " it must be remembered
that it was disease and fever which caused most of the
deaths during this period rather than direct starvation" I
would add that bunglenging incompetent politicians and a
distant uncaring government were also responsible for the
hundreds of thousands of unnecessary deaths and for much of
the hardship and suffering of the Irish people, this was
taught in the schools and was remembered by the Irish in the
century that followed which in turn was to sour the
relationship between Ireland and her nearest neighbour for
generations.
Very little is recorded in the
folk memory records for the three counties but there are
many sources as yet untapped such as the local landlord
accounts, local newspapers for this period, estate papers,
workhouse records, church registers, the Pat Purcell Papers
and various other collections. The purpose of this article
is to stimulate interest and, hopefully, to encourage others
to research this neglected period of our history. Carlow
County Heritage Society would like to learn of any such
research project, perhaps with a view to publishing same.
I wish to thank Cait Kavanagh of
Laois County Library, Mary Coughlan of Kildare County
Library, Carmel Flahavan of Carlow County Library and my
late uncle Pat Purcell for persevering so many records of
the period.
Mangan's Famine boiler
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Michael Purcell and Ronnie Strong pictured with Mangan's
famine boiler. "The Cursed Famine" is based on extracts
from a paper prepared by Michael Purcell for a series of
talks due to be given in the USA in the near future.
Michael will travel to California, Arizona and Arkansas
as a guest of the Emerald Circle. The theme of the talks
will be "The role of the ascendancy during the Great
Famine" and "The Pat Purcell Papers Archive".
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Footnote
In the year 2002 I presented the
Famine Pot, referred to above, to Carlow County Heritage
Society, they have placed it in the Workhouse Burial Plot on
the Green Road, Carlow. It has a stone erected, recording
it's history .The stone was presented by the members of
Sister Cities Corp. of Tempe, Arizona and was unveiled by
our good friend Tom Burns of Todd Drive, Tempe, Arizona in
2002
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Links to more Famine material:
Please report any images which do not open to
mjbrennan30@gmail.com
- The information contained in
these pages is provided solely for the purpose of sharing with others
researching their ancestors in Ireland.
- © 2001 Ireland Genealogy Projects,
IGP TM By
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