‘Ireland in Schools’
Liverpool Pilot Scheme
Liverpool City Council
Delivering the curriculum through Ireland at Key Stages 2 & 3
Texts for use in History and English lessons and the Literacy Hour (non-fiction)
The Famine in Ireland
Historical narratives
1. Living in Ireland in the Victorian period*
2. Bridget O’Donnell*
3. Sailing to Liverpool*
4. Poor conditions in England
Contemporary sources
5. A letter to the Duke of Wellington, 1846
6. Ejectment of Irish tenantry
7. Government aid or self-help?
Poetry
8. ‘At A Potato Digging’ by Seamus Heaney
Song
9. What did Irish people think about England and its government after the Famine?
(‘Skibbereen’)
Historical novel
10. How did people deal with death during the Famine? (Under the Hawthorn Tree)
Appendices: Notes for teacher
A. Famine in Ireland
B. State aid or self-help: some questions
The texts are also available in ‘big book’ (33cm x 43.8cm) format and as PowerPoint presentations.
Texts 1-4 are also available as an A4 booklet.
* Adapted from Divided Ireland by Kelly, V. et al., Colourpoint Books, 1-89839-218-8, pp 10-14
‘Ireland in Schools’
Northamptonshire Pilot Scheme
Northamptonshire County Council
UCN
1. Living in Ireland in the Victorian period
Landlords & tenants
In the 19th century most people earned
their money from the land. Not very
many people actually owned the land they
farmed. Most farms were part of huge
estates which were owned by one family.
Farmers paid money to the owner. This
money was called rent and the owner of
the land was called the landlord. People
who paid rent were called tenants.
If the farmers didn’t pay their rent, they
could be evicted (thrown out) from their
farm.
The landlord and his family lived off the
rent of his tenants. Some landlords lived
in England instead of living on their Irish
estates. The landlords became known as
absentee landlords. They were not popular
with their Irish tenants.
A. This is what a
blighted potato looks
like. They turn really
mushy and smell awful.
You can still get blighted
potatoes today.
During the famine many poor people
starved. Some tenants would not pay
their rent and were put off their farms.
This is called eviction. For many of those
hungry people who had been evicted, the
workhouse was their only way to get
food and shelter.
Ireland was not a wealthy country at this
time. Workhouses had been set up in
1838 to provide food and shelter for
people who were starving and had
nowhere to go.
The picture on the
left is of a tenant
farmer. The picture
on the right shows a
landlord.
People like this are called destitute
people.
Match these words to the right meaning:
Landlord
Money paid for use of land
Tenant
Person who owned land
Estate
Irish landowner who lived in
England instead of Ireland
Rent
Large area of land
Absentee
Person who paid rent to a
landowner for farmland.
Key words: landlord, tenant, absentee,
rent, estate.
Famine
Between 1845 and 1849 there was a
great famine in Ireland when many
potatoes went bad and rotted because of
a disease called potato blight. This was
very serious because, for a large number
of people, potatoes were the main food
they had to eat.
B. This is a diagram of an Irish workhouse. Inmates
were separated into male and female, young and
old. Even husbands and wives were separated.
Key words: famine, eviction, destitute,
inmates, workhouse, magistrate.
Famine texts, 2
2. Bridget O’Donnell
The picture on the left tells a story from
the famine. This
woman is Bridget
O’Donnell.
I entered some of the houses
and was shocked. First I saw
six famished and ghastly
skeletons. They looked dead.
They were in a corner lying on
filthy straw and sick with fever.
The police opened a house
which had been shut up for
days. They found two dead
bodies lying on the
mud floor, half devoured
by rats.
Her husband had
seven acres of land
and the rent was
£7.25 a year. The
family was evicted
when they could not
pay and men came to
knock down their
home. Bridget was
pregnant and had a
fever.
Her husband went off
to find work.
C. Bridget O’Donnell
Neighbours took in
Bridget and her children. The baby was
born dead and then they all got fever.
Her 13 year old son died of hunger while
the rest were sick.
!
On Evidence sheets 1 & 2 you will
see some items marked with a letter
of the alphabet - A, B, C, D.
These items are called sources.
Look at all four sources and say which
of them tell you the following things:
D. This description was written by a magistrate after he
had visited Skibbereen in Co. Cork in December 1846.
It was published in The Times, which is a very famous
English newspaper.
Families were separated in the
Workhouse.
People were thrown out of their houses.
People died of hunger.
Newspapers wrote about the Famine.
Blighted potatoes turn brown.
Famine texts, 3
3. Sailing to Liverpool
Why Liverpool?
Because Ireland is an island people
leaving for new countries had to travel by
sea.
The port of Liverpool - the first landfall for many Irish
emigrants
Liverpool was the main port of entry to
Britain for people wishing to move to
towns in Britain.
As an important and busy port, Liverpool
was also the first stage in the journey of
people who wanted to travel longer
distances. Ships sailed from Liverpool to
North America, Canada, Australia and
New Zealand.
The fare from Liverpool to America was
the cheapest available - £3 to £5 for the
cheapest type of passage known as
steerage. The fare to Australia and New
Zealand was between £15 and £20.
A dangerous voyage
The journey from Ireland to Liverpool
was comparatively short but could be
dangerous and many did not survive.
In 1848 almost half the passengers on
the ship, the Londonderry, died during the
voyage from Sligo, in the west of Ireland,
to Liverpool.
This is how one newspaper described the
incident when this 'coffin ship' arrived in
Derry.
On the evening of Friday 1st
December, the Londonderry left Sligo.
It carried a crew of 26 and 177
passengers as well as a cargo of livestock.
There was space for about 50
passengers. The others were meant to
remain on deck.
When a storm broke out, many of the
people on deck headed into the cabin
for shelter. The door of the cabin came
off and one of the crew was ordered to
cover the doorway with a tarpaulin. This
was held in place with rope and nails. It
meant that no air could get into the
cabin. When the tarpaulin was
removed, the crew found many had
died and they dragged the bodies out
onto the deck and left them beside the
animals who had also died in the storm.
Twelve hours later the boat arrived at
Derry Quay. A policeman went on
board and found 72 bodies - 23 men,
31 women and 18 children. They were
piled on top of each other just like sacks.
The Captain was tried for allowing this
to happen but he got off.
Famine texts, 4
4. Poor conditions in England
A sorry state
Those lucky enough to arrive safely in
Liverpool were often in a very sorry state.
This is how in 1847 The Liverpool Mercury
reported on the pitiable condition of
many of the migrants:
The fact is that in the cold and gloom
of a severe winter thousands of hungry
and half naked wretches are wandering
about, not knowing how to obtain a
sufficiency of the commonest food nor
shelter from the piercing cold.
The numbers of starving Irish men,
women and children on our quays is
appalling; and the Parish of Liverpool
has at present the most painful and most
costly task to encounter, of keeping
them alive, if possible.
A long wait
There could be a long wait for a ship.
People often spent as long as ten days
waiting for a ship to sail. During this
time, they usually stayed in lodging
houses which were often dirty and
overcrowded.
A disturbing experience
However, migration was still an upsetting
and confusing experience, as the picture
below also shows.
As emigrants were looking for lodgings
and passages, swindlers, ‘runners’ and
‘mancatchers’ preyed on them. They
often robbed the emigrants of baggage
and carefully saved cash.
Not all were poor
Not all Irish people arriving in Liverpool
were poor and starving. On the right is a
famous picture of an Irishman arriving in
the city. Does he look ‘hungry and halfnaked’?
Famine texts, 5
5. A letter to the Duke of Wellington, 1846
Written by Nicholas Cummins, a magistrate of Cork.
The letter was also published in The Times, 24 December 1846
Having for many years been intimately connected with the western
portion of the County of Cork and possessing some small property
there, I thought it right personally to investigate the truth of
several lamentable accounts which had reached me of the appalling
state of misery to which that part of the country was reduced ....
I shall state simply what I saw there .... on reaching the spot I
was surprised to find the wretched hamlet apparently deserted.
I entered some of the hovels to ascertain the cause, and the scenes
which presented themselves were such as no tongue or pen can convey
the slightest idea of.
In the first, six famished and ghastly skeletons, to all appearances
dead, were huddled in a corner on some filthy straw, their sole
covering what seemed a ragged horsecloth ....
I approached with horror, and found by a low moaning they were
alive - they were in fever ...
In a few minutes I was surrounded by at least two hundred such
phantoms, such frightful spectres as no words can describe ....
Their demoniac yells are still ringing in my ears and their
horrible images are fixed upon my brain ....
Famine texts, 6
6. Ejectment of Irish tenantry
Illustrated London News, xiii, 16 December 1848
In the pre-Christmas edition
of 1848, The Illustrated London
News published a scathing
article condemning those
Irish landlords who were
using the current crisis to
unpeople their property.
Many of the starving found
themselves not only without
food, but also without
habitation.
T h e t w o i l l u s trations
accompanied the text. The
first depicted an ejection scene, and is one of the most exquisite engravings of the entire
Famine collection.
It is a grimly effective rendering of an eviction: the brutal bailiff, the pleading tenant, his
weeping wife and children, the unfeeling onlookers and the stony-faced soldiers standing
by are all convincingly presented. The stance of the major figure in the picture is one of
utter despair.
1.
Working in groups look at the picture below. You have to become the main people
in the picture. Freeze frame.
2.
Look at each group’s freeze frame and give it a mark from 1-5.
1
2
3
Not like the picture
3.
4
5
Exactly like the picture
Asking questions
Make a list of questions which you need to find out in order to understand the
importance of the scene in the picture.
Famine texts, 7
7. Government aid or self-help?
A. Cartoon from Punch, an English satirical journal, 17 October 1846
UNION IS STRENGTH
John Bull: ‘Here are a few
things to go on with, Brother,
and I’ll soon put you in a
way to earn your own living.’
1.
Who does John Bull represent?
2.
Who is the ‘Brother’ he is speaking to?
3.
What is John Bull giving his ‘Brother’?
4.
What does this cartoon tell you about English attitudes towards Irish people and the
Famine?
B. About Punch
In the main, British press coverage of the Famine was coloured by anti-Irish prejudice and
political and practical considerations. Generally, the press claimed that the Irish were a
backward race. The Irish lived on inferior food - the potato and not corn like the English.
The Irish were ungrateful and disloyal; Ireland was a drain on British resources; and Britain
was being flooded with Irish paupers.
The English satirical journal, Punch, consistently under-estimated the severity of the crisis
in Ireland and depicted the famine as a moral issue. It blamed the indolence of the Irish
for the continuation of the famine and for ‘sponging’ on the British taxpayer. Hard work
or industry at home or emigration were Punch’s answers to poverty in Ireland.
In the cartoon ‘Union is Strength’ John Bull (England) presents his Irish ‘brother’ not only
with food but also with a spade, a symbol of industry, to help him ‘to earn your own way
of living’.
Such cartoons summed up what most people in England thought about the Irish people
and the Famine. These attitudes did much to promote stereotypes and fuel anti-Irish
feelings.
Famine texts, 8
8. ‘At A Potato Digging’ by Seamus Heaney
I.
A mechanical digger wrecks the drill,
Spins up a dark shower of roots and mould.
Labourers swarm in behind, stoop to fill
Wicker creels. Fingers go dead in the cold.
III.
Live skulls, blind-eyed, balanced on
wild higgledy skeletons
scoured the land in ’forty-five,
wolfed the blighted root and died.
Like crows attacking crow-black fields, they stretch
A higgledy line from hedge to headland;
Some pairs keep breaking ragged ranks to fetch
A full creel to the pit and straighten, stand
The new potato, sound as stone,
putrefied when it had lain
three days in the long clay pit.
Millions rotted along with it.
Tall for a moment but soon stumble back
To fish a new load from the crumbled surf.
Heads bow, trunks bend, hands fumble towards the black
Mother. Processional stooping through the turf
Mouths tightened in, eyes died hard,
faces chilled to a plucked bird.
In a million wicker huts
beaks of famine snipped at guts.
Recurs mindlessly as autumn. Centuries
Of fear and homage to the famine god
Toughen the muscles behind their humbled knees,
Make a seasonal altar of the sod.
A people hungering from birth,
grubbing, like plants, in the bitch earth,
were grafted with a great sorrow.
Hope rotted like a marrow.
II.
Flint-white, purple. They lie scattered
like inflated pebbles. Native
to the black hutch of clay
where the halved seed shot and clotted
these knobbed and slit-eyed tubers seem
the petrified hearts of drills. Split
by the spade, they show white as cream.
Stinking potatoes fouled the land,
pits turned pus into filthy mounds:
and where potato diggers are
you still smell the running sore.
IV.
Under a gay flotilla of gulls
The rhythm deadens, the workers stop.
Brown bread and tea in bright canfuls
Are served for lunch. Dead-beat, they flop
Good smells exude from crumbled earth.
The rough bark of humus erupts
knots of potatoes (a clean birth)
whose solid feel, whose wet inside
promises taste of ground and root.
To be piled in pits; live skulls, blind-eyed.
Down in the ditch and take their fill
Thankfully breaking timeless fasts;
Then, stretched on the faithless ground, spill
Libations of cold tea, scatter crusts.
Famine texts, 9
9. What did Irish people think about England and its government
after the Famine?
Read the words of the song about the Famine, ‘Skibbereen’, which was written some years
after the event.
Oh, Father, dear, I often hear you speak of Erin’s isle
Her lofty scenes, her valleys green, her mountains rude and wild
They say it is a lovely land, wherein a prince might dwell
Oh why did you abandon it, the reason to me tell.
My son, I loved my native land with energy and pride
Till the blight came over all my crops, my sheep and cattle died
My rent and taxes were so high, I could not them redeem
That’s the cruel reason I left old Skibbereen.
It’s well I do remember the year of ‘48
When I arose a Fenian to battle against our fate
I was hunted through the mountains as a traitor to the Queen
That’s another reason I left old Skibbereen.
It’s well I do remember the cold November day
When the landlord and the sheriff came to drive us all away
They set our roof ablaze in fire with their damning yellow spleen
That’s another reason why I left old Skibbereen.
Your mother, too, God rest her soul, fell on the snowy ground
She fainted in her anguish, the desolation round
She never rose but passed away from life to mortal dream
She found a grave and place of rest in dear old Skibbereen.
You were only two months old, and feeble was your frame
I could not leave you with my friends, you bore your father’s name
I wrapped you in my cóótamóór, at the dead of night unseen
We heaved a sigh and bid goodbye to dear old Skibbereen.
Oh father, dear, the day will come when on vengeance we will call
When Irishmen both stout and stern will rally one and all
I’ll be the man to lead the van, beneath the flag of green
And loud and high we’ll raise the cry, ‘Revenge for Skibbereen’.
1.
Identify the two characters in the song and say which verses belong to each.
2.
Describe the circumstances surrounding the father’s departure from Skibbereen
(keywords: blight, rent, eviction and death).
3.
What emotions and feelings are aroused by the song?
4.
What effect, to judge from the song, did the Famine have on relations between Britain
and Ireland?
5.
What do you think are the strengths and weaknesses of using such songs as historical
evidence?
What do they tell us?
Famine texts, 10
10. How did people deal with death during the Famine?
Famine deaths
About one million people died during the Irish Famine. Historians cannot be sure of the
exact number since accurate records were not kept owing to the vast number of people
dying.
People died from diseases like dysentery, typhoid and cholera as well as starvation. There
were so many deaths that burial rituals, such as keening and waking, so important to the
Irish, had to be overlooked.
In fact, bodies were often taken away in carts to be buried, without coffins, in mass burial
places (Source 1). Sometimes, the bodies were not found until they were half-devoured by
dogs or rats.
1. Funeral at Skibbereen, Co.
Cork, one of the worst hit areas
Illustrated London News
30 January 1847
‘The body of a young man is laid
on a cart; a second man whips
the horse into action; a third
stands by with a spade;
onlookers gossip and argue: this
well-observed scene shows us
death stripped of all dignity.’
2. ‘The deaths in my native place were many and horrible.
The poor famine-stricken people were found by the
wayside, emaciated corpses, partly green from eating
docks and nettles and partly blue from cholera and
dysentery.’
Dáothí Ó Ceanntabhnail, national teacher,
Croom, Co. Limerick
3. The village of Mienies
Illustrated London News
13 & 20 February 1847
Here dogs devoured the
unburied dead and ‘the gnawed
and mangled skeleton’ of a man
named Leahey was ‘contended
for by hungry dogs’.
Famine texts, 11
The death of Baby Bridget
Each death caused distress and suffering to already distraught families. On the next page
is an extract from an historical novel about the Famine, Under the Hawthorn Tree. The
extract describes how one family was affected by the death of their ten-month-old baby,
Bridget.
Read the extract and then complete the following activities.
1a. Make notes on how the main characters in Under the Hawthorn Tree reacted to
Bridget’s death. You could include how they prepared for her funeral. Set it out like
the table below:
Reactions to Bridget’s Death
Mother
Eily
Peggy
Michael
Dan & Kitty Collins
b.
Or, Write a journal entry for Eily entitled: ‘May, 1846: The day we buried Bridget’.
Express her feelings and fears, as well as recording the events of the day.
2.
What circumstances surrounding the burial added to the mother’s grief?
3.
Compare Bridget’s burial to the burial of the young man in source 1.
4.
Read the accounts of the Famine victims in sources 2 and 3.
What similarities are there in the different accounts? (You may wish to include source
1 and the extract from the novel in your answer.)
Extension tasks
1.
There are many customs associated with burying the dead in Ireland.
Find out what you can about these.
The following keywords may help: keening, wake, respect for the dead.
2.
A twentieth-century leader said ‘One death is a tragedy, A thousand deaths merely a
statistic’.
a. Think carefully about this statement - can you suggest what he meant by this?
b. In what way could this statement help to explain the seeming indifference to the
dead?
Famine texts, 12
‘The death of Baby Bridget’ from Under the Hawthorn Tree by Marita Conlon-McKenna
O’Brien Press, 0-86278-206-6, pp 21-5
They pushed in the door. Mother was dozing with
Bridget in the chair near the fire. She looked tired and
they could tell she had been crying.
Quiet as mice, they reheated some leftover oatmeal
and water. They were all tired out, and glad to fall into
bed. With arms and shoulders aching, they scarcely had
time to notice the normal rumbling hunger pains that
came before sleep.
At some time during the night they became aware of
their mother’s sobs and of Bridget coughing and trying
to breathe. Michael came and lay down in the bed
beside the girls. They held hands and prayed - every
prayer they had ever learned.
‘God help us, please help us, God,’ they whispered.
No one slept. It was the early hours of the morning
before the coughing stopped. Then there was a sudden
silence. Mother was kissing the baby’s face and each
little finger one by one.
‘God let the sun come up soon and let this terrible
night end,’ the children begged.
Suddenly they became aware of their mother’s silence.
They got up and went over to her. Large tears slid down
her cheeks.
‘She’s gone. My own little darling is gone.’ Peggy
started to cry. ‘I want Bridget back,’ she wailed. ‘I want
her.’
‘It’s all right, pet,’ assured Mother. ‘She was too
weak to stay in this hard world any longer. Look at her.
Isn’t she a grand little girl, now she’s at rest.’
The baby lay still, as if she were just dozing. Mother
told them to kiss her, and one by one they kissed the
soft cheek and forehead of Bridget, the little sister they
hardly knew.
Mother seemed strangely calm and made them go
back to bed. ‘At first light, Michael, you must run to
Dan Collins and ask him to get Father Doyle. I’ll just sit
and mind my darling girl for a little while yet.’
Later, Michael set off, his face pale and his eyes redrimmed. The chill of the early morning made him shiver
as he pulled his light jacket around him.
Mother had heated some water and with a cloth she
gently washed Bridget, and brushed and brushed the
soft blond curls. Eily pulled the old wooden chest from
under Mother and Father’s bed. As instructed, she
opened it. There wasn’t that much in it, so she soon
found the lace christening robe which her greatgrandmother had made. The lace was yellow and old. It
was only ten months since Bridget had worn the robe before, but her little body was so thin and wasted it still
fitted her. Dressed in it she looked like a little pale
angel, though Eily couldn’t help but remember a
porcelain French doll she had seen in a shop window in
the town once. It stood stiff in a white lace dress with a
starched petticoat and long curling real hair. How she
had wanted to hold and have that doll. Now she felt the
same longing, but much worse. She ached to hold
Bridget and never let her go.
Michael came home. They all had a sup of milk and
tidied themselves and the cottage as best they could.
Dan Collins would get the priest. Father Doyle was a
nice man - he and Father were very friendly and
sometimes he would drop in for a chat and a bit of
company. Father used to say that being a priest was
grand, but it was a lonely life.
Mid-morning they were all surprised when Dan
Collins and his wife Kitty arrived. Kitty ran straight to
Mother and kissed her. Their eyes were full of tears and
unspoken words.
‘Margaret, we are so sorry. Poor little Bridget,’
whispered Kitty.
Dan Collins cleared his throat and shifted uneasily.
‘There is more bad news, God spare us. Father Doyle is
gone down with the sickness himself and will not be able
to bury the wee lassie. Already in the village a few have
died of the sickness - Seamus Fadden, the coffin maker,
being one - so there are no proper funerals ... ‘He
stopped.
Mother let out a high wailing cry. ‘What will become
of us, what are we to do?’ The air hung heavy.
‘We’ll bury her decently in her own place,’ said Dan.
The three children stared at Mother, waiting for her
reply. She nodded her head silently.
‘Under the hawthorn tree in the back field,’ she
whispered. ‘The children always played there and its
blossom will shelter her now.’
Dan motioned to Michael and they left the cottage
and disappeared up to the field carrying a spade.
‘We’ve no coffin;’ said Mother hoarsely.
Kitty looked around the cottage and begged Eily to
help her. Eily cleared her throat. ‘What about using
grandmother’s wooden chest?’
Kitty and Eily pulled it out from under the old bed
and lifted it onto the blanket. Mother walked over and
nodded silently. Kitty began to take out the family
treasures and lay them to one side.
Kitty and Mother started to get everything ready.
Eily and Peggy, sensing they were not wanted, ran
outside and pulled bluebells and wild flowers. They
sucked in deep breaths of air to try and calm their
hearts.
Dan came back down the field and went inside. In a
few minutes the three adults emerged, Kitty holding
Mother’s arm and Dan carrying the carved wooden
chest.
A light breeze blew and the blossom bowed and
waved in welcome. There was a clear blue sky. A family
of bluetits sat on the branch of the tree, helping to keep
vigil.
Dan and Kitty led them in the prayers and they all
remembered the words of Jesus, ‘Suffer the little
children to come unto me’. They prayed too that they
would ‘meet again in Paradise’.
Eily and Michael gently placed the flowers beside the
chest. Peggy clung to Mother as huge sobs racked her
body. Mother stroked her hair. They all sang a favourite
hymn of Father Doyle’s, then Kitty led them back to the
house. She had brought some tea and made a mug for
the adults. She made Mother sit down near the fire as
she warmed some leftover potato cakes.
For the next few days, Mother stayed in her shift with
the shawl wrapped around her, and barely bothered to
do anything. Eily and Michael fetched the water, swept
out the cottage and searched for food. They wished that
Father would come back. Eily was scared. How long
would it last?
Famine texts, 13
Appendix A
Famine in Ireland
The Oxford Companion to Irish History edited by S.J. Connolly, OUP, 1998, 1-19866-240-8, 185, 228-9
Famine has afflicted societies since the beginning of history. It may be defined as a persistent failure in food
supplies over a prolonged period. It is something experienced by society, whereas starvation is something that
affects individuals. During famines more people are likely to die of famine-related diseases than from
starvation. The causes are complex. Adverse weather conditions (drought, excessive rain, intense cold) at
crucial times, effects of war (scorched earth policies, the provisioning of armies, disruption of trade), pestilence
and disease: all these individually or in combination may be to blame.
Famine is generally perceived as the result of a failure of food supplies, typically arising from the Malthusian
pressure of population on resources. However some analysts, following the Indian economist Amartya Sen,
argue that famine is less commonly caused by an absolute shortage of food than by the lack of ‘entitlements’
- that is, the existence of large numbers of persons who do not possess the means either of producing food or
of acquiring it through purchase or through transfer payments sanctioned by the state or by custom. Famine
thus becomes a product of political and social structures, rather than of neutral economic forces.
In Ireland over a period of six centuries from 1300 to 1900 there were up to 30 episodes of severe famine.
Between 1290 and 1400 there were around a dozen, mostly clustering in the decades before and including
the Great European Famine of 1315- 17. Another dozen or so occurred between 1500 and 1750. After 1750
there were several periods of acute regional shortages, culminating in the Great Famine of 1845-9.
The famines experienced in Ireland over the centuries illustrate their nature both as event and structure. Bad
weather to 1294-6 and 1308-10, for example, damaged grain crops, resulting in many deaths. In 1315-17
wet weather produced devastating famine throughout Europe, exacerbated in the Irish case by Edward Bruce’s
scorched earth policy. Heavy rains destroyed crops in 1330-1 and the price of wheat and oats rose manyfold.
A century later in 1433 a severe famine led to ‘the summer of slight acquaintance’. In 1504-5 continual rain
and storms ruined crops, and cattle disease decimated livestock. The 17th century was also heralded by bad
weather, famine, and disease. The rising of 1641 ravaged crops and precipitated famine. Two famines in the
18th century, 1728-9 and 1740-1, caused great suffering. The famine of 1740 is noteworthy as the first
potato crisis; in terms of mortality rates, it may have been greater than the Great Famine of 1845-9. The
latter earns the sobriquet because it was the last and best remembered. But for ‘this great calamity’, it is
doubtful that Ireland would be regarded as more famine-prone than other European countries.
Great Famine (1845-9), caused by the failure, in three seasons out of four, of the potato crop. The harvest
of 1845 was one-third deficient. In 1846 three-quarters of the crop were lost. Yields were average in 1847,
but little had been sown as seed potatoes were scarce. In 1848, yields were only two-thirds of normal. An
alternative measure of the crop loss is demonstrated by the fall in potato acreage. Before the Famine it was
1 million acres, falling to around a quarter of a million acres in 1847.
A fungal disease, Phytophthora infestans, commonly called potato blight, damaged the crops. Its origins are
unclear, though bird droppings imported as fertilizer from South America have been suggested as a likely
source. The first region of Europe to be affected by blight was Belgium in June 1845. Transmission to Ireland
was swift, the first signs appearing in September 1845.
To cope with the loss of a large part of the staple diet of one-third of the population, relief measures were
implemented by private organizations and by government. The Society of Friends was at the forefront,
providing food, clothing, cooking equipment, seeds, and money. Their kitchens dispensed soup in towns,
cities, and rural districts. Religious houses, churches, and some local gentry were also involved in
philanthropic work.
Government’s response to the crisis was circumscribed by a range of influences. The prevailing ideology of
laissez-faire held that any tampering with market forces would bankrupt landlords and dislocate trade. There
was the belief that the collapse of the potato economy provided an opportunity for agricultural reorganization,
through the consolidation of smallholdings and the removal of surplus population. (For many, indeed, the
Famine, in line with the prevalent evangelical theology of the day, was seen as the workings of divine
providence, acting to correct the ills within Irish society.) The government was also concerned to make Irish
landlords meet the cost of a crisis widely blamed on their greed and negligence, and to ensure that local
taxpayers did not evade their share of the burden of financing relief. As the crisis continued, repetition
blunted the response of the British public to reports of Irish misery. Severe economic recession in Great
Britain itself during 1847 further limited sympathy for Ireland’s problems, as did the apparent ingratitude
for help given displayed in the return of 36 repeal MPs in the general election of 1847 and the Young Ireland
rebellion of 1848.
Famine texts, 14
In the first year of famine, 1845-6, Sir Robert Peel’s Tory government purchased Indian meal from America
for sale from government depots, and inaugurated a programme of public works managed by grand juries and
the Board of Works. The Whig government of Lord John Russell, which took office in June 1846, greatly
extended the public works schemes, while refusing to interfere either in the internal market in food or in the
export of agricultural produce. In February 1847 ideology was at last set aside and kitchens opened
throughout the country to supply cooked food directly to the starving without cost or imposition of a ‘work
test’. This operation at its peak supplied 3 million meals daily. From September 1847, however, the
government wound up the soup kitchens, insisting that further relief should come from the greatly expanded
but still wholly inadequate workhouses run under the poor law.
The severity of the Great Famine is indicated by the widespread incidence of disease. The potato-eating
population had become accustomed to a diet rich in vitamin C and quickly succumbed to scurvy. Symptoms
of marasmus and kwashiorkor, although not identified as such, were described in the medical journals. The
lack of vitamin A in the famine-constrained diet was manifest in xerophthalmia-a disease causing
blindness-among workhouse children.
Typhus and relapsing fever were the most common diseases afflicting the weakened population. Both were
transmitted by the body louse and famine conditions provided an ideal environment for spreading the
infection as starving masses congregated in urban centres searching for food. Typhus affected the small blood
vessels, especially the brain and skin vessels, which explains frequently described symptoms of delirium and
stupor and the distinctive spotted rash. Relapsing fever, as the name implies, was characterized by numerous
relapses. It usually invaded its victims through the skin. Popular names included ‘gastric fever’ and ‘yellow
fever’, as some patients became jaundiced. Typhus and relapsing fever were no respecters of persons, afflicting
rich and poor, old and young, though mortality among the rich was particularly high.
In the absence of official figures we will never know precisely how many died. Neither was there systematic
enumeration of emigrants. Estimates of excess mortality range from half a million to just over one million;
recent research supports the latter figure. The highest levels of mortality occurred in Connacht, and the
lowest in Leinster. More died of disease than starvation; the old and the very young were particularly
vulnerable.
The pace of evictions increased during the Famine. The ruthlessness of many landlords stemmed from two
problems: drastic reduction in rent receipts and rising taxation. Experience varied from district to district.
Reliable figures are unavailable before 1849, but in that year the constabulary recorded the eviction of over
90,000 people, increasing to over 100,000 in 1850.
The legacies of the Famine were several. The population declined by one-fifth between 1845 and 1851 and
never regained its pre-Famine level. The cottier class was decimated, altering the social structure of Irish
society. Many thousands escaped hunger by emigrating to Britain, North America, and Australia, accelerating
an outward flow already established.
The immediate cause of the Great Famine was blight, but there were underlying forces that had resulted in
3 million people subsisting on the potato. One view would be that the disasters of 1845-9 represented the
culmination of a long-term crisis resulting from rapid population growth against a background of economic
decline. More recently some economic historians, pointing to the levelling off in population growth, to the
progress of new, agriculturally based manufacturing industries such as brewing, distilling, and flour milling,
and to improvements in transport, communications, and banking, have argued that the pre-Famine economy
had not in fact ‘ground to a halt’. In this perspective the failure of the potato should be seen as a massive
exogenous blow dealt to an economy that had begun to adjust to changing market conditions. These
contrasting perceptions are central to the debate on how far the Famine changed the course of Ireland’s
development in the 19th century. They also have at least an indirect bearing on the equally disputed question
of whether the government of the United Kingdom, notwithstanding prevailing ideology, could have been
expected to have done more to alleviate distress in a part of the world’s richest nation.
Kineally, Christine, This Great Calamity: The Great Famine 1845 -52 (1994); Daly, Mary, The Famine in Ireland (1996)
Famine texts, 15
Appendix B
State aid or self-help: some questions
What was Ireland like in 1845?
Ireland in 1845 was part of the United Kingdom, governed from London, and was on the verge of
a major disaster. Its population was over 8 million. Many lived on small plots of land on which
it was possible to survive only because most of these people ate potatoes as the main part of their
food. In 1845 the potato crop failed, destroyed by a fungus, the potato blight. It failed again in
1846 and 1848.
How severe was the suffering in Ireland during the famine?
All contemporary accounts emphasise the horrific conditions, with ‘cowering wretches almost naked in
the savage weather prowling in turnip fields ... little children, their bodies half-naked, their faces bloated yet
wrinkled and of a pale greenish hue [colour] ... children who could never, oh it was too plain, grow up to be men
and women.’ Daniel O’Connell, the Irish leader, told the House of Commons: ‘Ireland is in your
hands, in your power. If you do not save her, she cannot save herself. I solemnly call on you to recollect that
I predict with the sincerest conviction that a quarter of her population will perish unless you come to her relief.’
By the time the famine ended in 1850, about one million people died of starvation or diseases
associated with famine. A further million left the country, mainly migrating to North America and
Britain.
What did the government do to help?
Successive British governments took three main measures to provide famine relief. First, they
imported grain, Indian corn, into Ireland, partly to give people food to eat and partly to try to keep
the price of food down. Secondly, they set up public works so that people could earn money to buy
food. By February 1847 700,000 people were so employed but by the middle of the year nearly
all work had ceased. Thirdly, soup kitchens provided food in the form of a porridge called
‘stirabout’. This government aid was in addition to the shelter provided by overcrowded
workhouses and the relief given by private charity, most notably by the Society of Friends
(Quakers). The Quakers gave food, clothing and seed where they were most needed.
Did the government do enough?
Many people thought that the British government did not do enough to help relieve the suffering
in Ireland. They thought that the government could have stopped the export of food from Ireland
and could have given more money to relieve the suffering instead of making people earn money on
public works.
Why did the government not do more?
The government’s actions were, however, limited by two factors. First, there was the policy of
laissez-faire, the Victorian belief about the proper role of government. Victorians believed that the
government’s main duty was to maintain law and order, defend the realm, and keep public
expenditure to the minimum. Governments should not interfere with the economy or the private
lives of people. There should be a ‘free market’ for people to buy and sell goods as they wished.
People should stand on their own two feet. To provide free food would take away the self-respect
of Irish people, who would be better off earning their food. More importantly, it would stop
private traders from making up for the shortage of food.
Secondly, leading figures in England were suspicious of the Irish. They thought that the Irish were
exaggerating the extent of suffering to extract money from England. At the Treasury (where the
British government’s money was managed), the most important civil servant was Charles Trevelyan.
Unsympathetic to the Irish, thinking them a disorderly race, he was more interested in saving
money than in saving lives.
What were the consequences of the Famine?
The Famine had important consequences for Ireland and, particularly, for relations between Britain
and Ireland. Many in Ireland resented the actions of the government or at best saw them as
inadequate. This helped to make Irish people even more bitter towards England. Such bitterness
took root in the new Irish communities abroad, especially in America. It helped to motivate Irish
nationalist movements, providing supporters of Irish Home Rule with an argument for demanding
separation from Britain.
Famine texts, 16