n 18 September, 1845, as the ravages caused by a previously unknown species of blight on the potato crop continued to send a ripple of alarm throughout Ireland, the Clare Journal sought to reassure its readers about the situation. Its own investigation, it revealed, had shown that apart from failures in worn-out ground, those potatoes already dug were 'both productive and good' and the harvest promised to be 'fully an average crop'. In any case, it concluded, judgement should be suspended until the main crop was dug out towards the end of October.(') Well before this deadline, however, the reasoned optimism displayed by the editor, John B. Knox, gave way to a deep despondency, with the realisation that as the crop was being harvested, a national calamity was unfolding:

While hope remained or prospects were doub@l we forbore to damp the minds of our countrymen on this awful topic ... canker is not partial but general and ... an early and prolonged famine will be potato failure in Clare tallied broadly with Fergus, suggested that sprinkling the consequence unless immediate official ones: just over 40 per cent of the different types of lime under certain measures are taken Zf not to avert, at crop had been destroyed.@) Of the conditions onto diseased potatoes would least to mitigate the county's potato growing regions, the stifle the fungus, which he believed, baronies of Inchiquin and Upper Bunratty correctly, but against the weight of Notorious for its vulnerability to climate, were very extensively affected, while parts scholarly opinion, to be responsible for the the annual arrival of the main potato crop of Burren and Corcomroe suffered hardly blight." Neither approach, it must be said, in October was always greeted with a at a1l.o However, unlike many other had the slightest beneficial effect. certain anxiety. Previous failures resulting counties which fared better in relation to At a slightly later stage one individual from frost and wet had caused great the harvest, the potato crop in Clare was in Clare did come tantalizingly close to distress in Clare, the worst recent discovered to be rotten as it was dug, and discovering the remedy which some forty incidence being in 1822, when numbers of the loss made it certain that distress would years later became the only successful people had starved to death in the barony occur on a more extensive scale in the method of treating blight before modern of Ibrickan. At that time, only assistance county than had ever been the case times. The individual concerned was G.H. from a private London committee and the previously and that this would occur Fitzgerald of Kilkee, who after conducting arrival of a good harvest had prevented before next year's early harvest. a number of experiments, declared in mass mortality in the county.(3) The March of 1846 that potatoes steeped in a seasons immediately preceding 1845 had 3RemebieS a& Beartion$ solution of bluestone did not develop the also been extremely difficult.@)The extent Actual want arising out of the failure of the disease.('" Although Fitzgerald's method of the current failure was, however, crop would be postponed for some months did not in fact, provide a solution to the without parallel. at least, it was calculated, and perhaps for potato blight, one cannot but be impressed Despite its unprecedented scale, the this reason, discussion at first centred by the level of scientific endeavour which effects of the 1845 failure were often more on the nature of the blight and how he and Evans brought to bear on the extremely localised. Thus while the it might be controlled, than on palliative problem.(ll) extensive acreage planted by Rev. Henry action. Many confident suggestions were Murphy, the Church of Ireland incumbent made, some of them showing a surprising in Ennis, escaped entirely, most gardens degree of accurate knowledge. In All socio-economic groupings who in the vicinity of the town were devastated. November, the head gardener at depended for their existence on the land, Different areas within the parish of Quin Kiltannon@)suggested that dry peat or bog from landlords to labourers, were affected seem to have been unaffected,(5)while on mould would retard putrefaction if mixed eventually by the crop failure. A minority the other hand, places as far apart as with the potatoes, a remedy evidently of the former reacted with generosity to Newmarket, Scariff and Kilfenora were derived from the widespread belief that the crisis. At Kilfenora, one absentee severely hit. the blight was caused by a wet rot. Dr. landlord instructed his tenants not to sell Local estimates of the extent of the Evans, the physician at Newmarket-on- their corn, but to store it in case of a general 'starvation', while James Molony their losses by eviction, since the tenantry something of a disaster. At the insistence of Kiltannon, sold his best 'cup' and 'crow' would 'oppose to the death any attempt to of the magistrates, who were apparently potatoes to the people for l'/zd. per be dispossessed of their holdings', anxious to exclude the supporters of Fr. stone.('" For most landlords, however, the wanting 'only an excuse to claim the Cpmyn, the parish priest, it was held in immediate preoccupation was for the absolute property in what they now have the tiny Kilkee Billiard Room, and only a continued payment of their rents, and on a in possession'. The safest way to deal with fraction of the large crowd who attended longer term, for their personal security unrest and ensure payment of rent, he were able to gain admittance. A number of should conditions worsen into social implied, was to placate the tenantry by local property owners and clergymen from disruption, the constant background fear banning the export of corn and by the the surrounding area were left outside. of the Irish landowner. provision of employment. There was an Most of the resolutions adopted by this At the lowest level of society, of course, abundance of opportunities for public disordered meeting were impractical, the smallholders, cottiers and labourers works employment in his own area, wildly outside the range IS?' what were the only groupings in Clare for particularly in the drainage of land. Above officialdom would be willing to grant. whom hunger and disease was a real all, the government must state what they Among them were the suggestions that prospect. And although food would not were going to do before the people the remainder of the corn harvest be run out entirely for this sector of the commenced supplying themselves by purchased by the government, and that it population until early in the next year, plundering their neighbours.(l" be stored in warehouses on the coast, that already in October, the state of the The use of public works such as those a railway line be extended to Kilkee and countryside was being described as 'truly suggested by Robert Studdert was by now Kilrush, and that a very extensive frightful' and the alarm of the people as a well-established method of government programme of specified relief works be 'bordering on despair'.(13) to help an impoverished population over undertaken without delay. The state of mind of both extremes of short term subsistence crises, and for In the afternoon, a rival meeting was the rural population in County Clare at this which purpose the Board of Works had held at the West End Hotel, attended by time is perhaps best illustrated by the been specifically created. Both Studdert several of the prominent local personages letter written by a Kilkishen magistrate and the anonymous writer of the notice present at the morning meeting, as well as named Robert Studdert to the Lord were clearly familiar with the procedure, some of those who had been absent. The Lieutenant in November.(14) Studdert's as were indeed all social classes in the parish priest did not attend. The intention in writing was to draw official county. And in fact, the relief measures resolutions adopted by this meeting were attention to the restive state of the people implemented over the next six months by much more moderate and realistic, of his area brought about by the failure of Peel's government were largely to follow perhaps because unlike the earlier the potato crop, And which he illustrated the same well-trodden path, although on a meeting, where the question had been by the enclosure with his letter of a notice much enlarged scale. avoided, it was proposed that part of the which had been posted locally. The notice, cost might be paid by instalment of public which he obviously believed to be aimed works loans.@2) at himself, began with a reference to the From the end of October, there was much The chairman of the government 'present awful crisis and approaching public discussion among various bodies as commission set up to co-ordinate relief, Sir calamity of our native land' and called on to what should be done. Nearly all of it Randolph Routh, drew two lessons from the was fruitless. Officially convened meetings the proceedings at Kilkee. One was that it of county cesspayers, who might be was going to be difficult to get local aristocracy residing in the county and the expected to pay for relief measures, were landlords to contribute to relief representatives of absentee noblemen held in Ennis on 22 November and 8 committees, and second was that the immediately to come forward, convene December. They too were of the opinion functions of local committees would have meetings, set forth resolutions and make that government should provide public to be more clearly delimited. This was the people sensible how as they intend works employment and special relief to done when after a lapse of six weeks, rules substituting the loss. Thousands of the destitute, and on both occasions, for the guidance of committees were families are this moment in actual forwarded memorials to that effect to issued at the end of February. From this starvation having nothing for the government. On 29 October, the Ennis time local relief committees began to support, unless potatoes infected to such Poor Law Guardians, who would be forced operate all over the country.(z3) a degree as to be almost refised by swine. to contract out for diseased potatoes in December,(lq held a lengthy discussion on &ountE, fleeting at Ennis' Unspecified retribution was threatened if the distress caused by the potato failure, On the same day as the relief committee assistance were not forthcoming. Studdert and sent an address with a similar meeting at Kilkee, yet another county was unnerved to be. the target of such a message to the government on the meeting was held, at the courthouse in threatening notice, a type commonly used subject.(l8) On 10 November, the Ennis Ennis. Again, broadly worded resolutions in pre-famine Ireland to redress agrarian Town Commissioners took their turn and adopted by the meeting placed on grievance. Kilkishen was a relatively despatchedan almost identical memorial government the onus for relief measures; peaceful district, yet the people there, to Sir Robert Peel after a long discussion amendment of the Drainage Act, the Studdert wrote, were 'greatly disposed on the consequences of the potato provision of necessary public works to take advantage of the present failure.(lg) Noticeably absent from all such employment for the poor, and the partial failure of the potato crop for meetings was the application of any local facilitation of the railway network in the insurrectionary purposes'. initiative to the crisis. It would take over country. No concrete suggestions of any Already his neighbour, D.J. Wilson of another month before the rapid approach kind were made as to how authority within Belvoir, an improving landlord, had to of very severe distress forced some the county could tackle local distress, nor receive police protection.(l% And although coherence on local meetings, and with it was any mention made of local funding for he, Studdert, was unaware of any case of the realisation that they would have to a relief effort. Speakers on each resolution actual starvation, he knew personally of initiate action themselves. were complacent as regards the nature of very many instances of families living on Government had already signalled its the impending crisis, clearly regarding it potatoes which were so infected as to be intention to give official sanction and as a transient phenomenon, which hardly fit for human consumption. His financial support to local relief government intervention and time would own tenants had refused to pay their rents meetings,(Z0)and on 10 January, the first solve. There was much platitudinising: 'Let because they were afraid to sell their corn, such sanctioned meeting in Ireland took all be earnestness and unanimity and which they might later need. place at Kilkee, the centre of an area success must be inevitable'; 'the protection If this were a general occurrence, then where hardship was already severe.@') of life [is] paramount to the rights of the landlords would not be able to afford Despite being held with official backing, property', and 'The aged, the infirm and relief. Neither would they be able to cover and with a Board of Works adviser, it was the destitute [are] entitled to gratuitous The bay at Kilkee.

aid and the able-bodied [are] entitled to a public works within a given area. Half the little more closely. Despite the bitterly fair remuneration for that labour'. The cost of these works would be borne by cold weather, the sessions-house was rhetoric displayed during the meeting was government grant, and the other half by a packed by magistrates, cesspayers, clergy, self-congratulatory in tone as speakers of loan, repayable as county cess over a and local people. The fullest account is opposing political sympathies applauded number of years.(26) Virtually all of the from the Limerick Chronicle: themselves for having found 'the one public works provided in Clare over the green spot, or an oasis in the desert where ensuing months derived from this Mr. J.B. Butler said he had a return of Irishmen could meet on common ground measure rather than from the government the several parishes, their population &c for the amelioration of their country'.@4) programme specifically introduced to and calculating that £40,000 should be A short official reply to the memorial alleviate famine distress. appropriated to the county, he found that was received within days, the standard It was in Kilrush that the process £2,000 would be appropriated for the official response to such addresses, began, when three local magistrates were district. He proposed that £525 be intimating only that amendment of the reported to be availing of the Act for the apfiropriatedfor the parish of Clooney. Drainage Act was already under barony of Moyarta, at the end of The Rev. Mr. Corbett, P.P. proposed that consideration. Of more significance, January.(27)The presentment sessions the sum should be £1,000, as the perhaps, was the fact that the county subsequently held on the magistrates' landholders would only have to pay half meeting found itself constituted the requisition approved expenditure of the tax, which would be levied and 'County of Clare Central Committee', £10,000.(2*)Urged on by the Clare Journal, repayable by instalments. which was perhaps an unsubtle ploy to the magistrates in Ennis followed suit, two Mr. Butler proposed a sum of £2,000 for elicit independent action from county days after the Kilrush requisition, in order the upper halfbarony. property owners and magistrates on the to provide funding for the completion of a The Rev. Mr. Corbett thought the lowest part of a government which was itself slow new road leading to Quin.@g) for the upper half barony of Bunratty to take decisive measures.(25) There followed a flurry of similar should be £6,000. announcements and in a short time special Mr. J. Singleton -As a medium between presentment sessions were being held in the two propositions I would move the all baronies of the county, especially sum of £4,000. during the month of March and after, The proposition was well-received. Despite the disorder of the Kilkee presenting for large sums, usually in the In the parish of Clooney, the sum of meeting, the self-serving cant of the region of £10,000, and almost invariably £1,000 was allocated for roads &c. county meetings and the delaying tactics concerned with road making, cutting hills The Chairman -I object to the making of of government, local initiative did and widening turns etc. Very often special a new line of road from the lake at gradually emerge. From the end of presentment sessions for the same barony O'Brien's Castle to Spancilhill. January, 1846, meetings in various places were held repeatedly within the space of a A plan was handed in containing two in Clare began to take advantage of the few weeks and in some areas, such as at sites of this road, one leading to Colonel existing public works legislation to Ballyvaughan, initial presentments were Wyndham's gate and the other to the fair provide employment for the people. The only being made in mid-A~ril.(~O) green of Spancilhill. law in question dated from 1837 and The proceedings at one of these special Mr. J.B. Butler proposed a medium line, empowered any three county magistrates road sessions, that held for the upper half and that the matter be left to the to sign requisitions convening barony or barony of Bunratty at the sessions house government engineer. half-barony special sessions of cesspayers at Spancilhill on 17 March, are of interest Some discussion ensued, after which and justices to approve the execution of for many reasons and worth looking at a a poll took place when the line was lost by the chairman's casting voice. In Kilrush, a depot had been opened in Initially relief committees encountered Mr. Carrick, as agent of Mr. January to supply Indian meal to relief great difficulty in eliciting contributions O'Callaghan having given his assent, committees. As soon as the government from landowners. On 17 March, only one the other magistrates agreed to it measures took effect in March, this meal subscription had been received for the subsequently and the road was carried, was distributed through a number of sub- whole of Clare.(40)The Kilkee relief according to one of the Plans submitted. depots. A contributing factor to the committee, influenced by a strong Presentments of £400 were then carried hardship experienced in the Kilrush area landlord element, itself declined to solicit for the parish of Doora. was that Colonel Vandeleur, the largest contributions.(41) As lat/e as May in Mr. Burton Bindon put in a tender for a local landlord, had already begun the Cratloe(4" and in Inch arid Kilmaley in new road from the Spring Well of evictions which would make him June, certain landowner,$ were still Crusheen to O'Brien's Castle. notorious two years later.(35) refusing to ~ontribute.(4~)i& Feakle, the Mr. W. Butler opposed Mr. Bindon's In Kilkee, in late February, conditions relief committee, having failed to extract proposition. were perhaps typical of the worst of any contribution from the parish's On a division the line was rejected. the distress so far experienced: 160 absentee landlords, who between them For the parish of Znchicronan householders and their families were in a were drawing £15,000 from it in rents, presentments to the amount of£ 1,000 state of abject poverty. Pigs and fowl, gave notice of its intention to publish in were passed and iipproved of. For which had consumed the few potatoes that the newspapers the names of those who Kilraghtis parish, £500 was voted for were left, were found when killed to have had refused to pay.(44)In most areas repairs of roads, cutting down hills &c. diseased livers: the stench of boiled though, the situation had much improved A sum of Ll,BO was allocated to the unsound potatoes was such that even the by mid-April, and subscriptions of £200 parish of Quin, of this £800 was granted starving could not abide to eat them. had been raised in Newmarket, £100 in for a new line of road from Quin to Hundreds of people in the area were 'half- each of the districts of Quin, Sixmile- Kilkishen. It was applied for by Mr. starved', the characteristic signs of which bridge and Clarecastle, and £500 in the Robett A. Studded, for whom the Poor were hollow and transparent cheeks, Ennis area. people loudly cheered."" enlarged mouth, pinched-in nose, eyes that were glassy 'or else of a watery $3ubIic Bark$ A number of things are of note: the clearness'. Individuals in such a state were By now public works employment amounts of money presented and the not known to utter any complaint or beg of schemes were in operation in the county, manner in which they were agreed, the anyone, but to 'follow him silently in a beginning firstly in the western barony of spread of territory included, and the crowd'. Moyarta where presentment sessions had reluctance of cesspayers to tax themselves first approved expenditure on them.(45) All unduly. The vocal reaction to the of these works were begun under the presentments for Kilkishen would earlier public works act of 1837. Indeed indicate that Robert Studdert, however Belief @hnmittee~ when the new public works legislation - precariously, still held onto his people's It is probably true to say that the level of became available in March, it was largely affections. Finally, the land agent present distress reached in the Kilkee and Kilrush ignored as being unnecessary, cumber- at the sessions, Pierce Carrick, was shot at districts was not experienced by other some and expensive to implement.(46) on his way home after the sessions, dying areas of the county until considerably On 18 March, there were already 1,600 of his wounds several days later. Apart later, in some areas not until May or June. men working on Board of Works schemes from the sensational interest created by Certainly Kilkee and Kilrush were the first in the county, nearly all in the west.c4n In this murder in the country, it is also areas to apply for relief works and set up Kilkee 250 labourers were working in instructive as to the climate in which some relief committees. For much of Clare, early April at the west-end side of the of these special sessions were held."" indeed, it is almost possible to correlate town, building a road by the cliffs, and By this time, living conditions for the the onset of very severe conditions in a thus 'developing the sublime scenery of labouring poor had become extremely given area with the magistrates' the coast, and a picturesque rural view of difficult over much of the county. The requisitions for public works and the the interior'. On the road from Kilrush to contemporary euphemistic phrases setting up of relief committees. Thus we Kilkee, it was reported that every hill was 'distress', and 'destitution', which are first hear of relief committees established being cut and levelled, so that any equally diicult for a modem observer to at Kilkee on 8 March, at Doonass, passenger car could travel the eight miles avoid, were even now becoming devalued Clareabbey and Killone, and Ennis at the distance with perfect ease in one hour, in almost every newspaper issue. The end of March, and Feakle in early April."" which used to take an hour and a half.(48) earliest accounts of 'distress' had come Committees for the half barony of No commentator found it incongruous from West Clare in January, especially the Bunratty Lower were formed at a meeting that gangs of half-starved men, heads of extremely congested districts surrounding held at Newmarket under the supervision totally destitute families, should be Kilrush and Kilkee. The memorial from of the Lpd Lieutenant of the county, Sir employed making cosmetic improvements the first Kilkee relief committee meeting Lucius O'Brien on 21 March,(3*)and it to the landscape, of benefit only to the spoke of 'the suffering poor', 'unparalleled would appear that baronial relief well-off and well-fed tourist. distress' and 'threatened starvation', terms committees co-ordinated relief measures Works schemes rapidly multiplied as which the horrors of the coming years in some baronies at least for a short applications from presentment sessions would render meaningless.@"Government time." were processed by the various agencies, grudgingly admitted nothing more The territory covered by relief until by 7 April, there were 10,870 than that 'distress in this village is committees was for the most part based employed by the Board of Works in undeniable'.(34) From all parts of the on combinations of civil parishes or on Clare.(49)Up to that date, however, works county, as the weeks went by, came individual towns and villages. Their were confined to West Clare, as is evident evidence of similar hardship: southeast immediate role was to open subscription from complaints from other areas in the Clare, particularly Clonlara, Doonass, funds, to which the government would add county that they were still bereft of any Broadford, Tulla, Clarecastle, Ennis, a further grant, and which would be used employment for the starving poor.(50)This Kilmurry-Ibrickan, Kilrush, Kilkee, to buy Indian meal for sale to the destitute situation changed rapidly with the laying Corofin, Kilfenora. The only places which and for the provision of short-term out of fresh schemes almost every week, seem to have escaped more lightly at this employment. Given the fact that so that, in early May, only Islands barony, point in the famine were the very northern destitution in many areas was by this time which included the county capital, Ennis, parts in the baronies of Corcomroe and total, from the beginning many relief and the adjoining poverty-stricken village Burren. However, this impression committees ignored the instruction from of Clarecastle, was still without public may merely be a reflection of poorer government that the Indian meal was to be works employment. newspaper coverage in these areas. sold, giving it gratis instead. In the spring of 1846, in addition to the The rocks at Kilkee. official public works schemes, several of plundered by a group of hungry people at local priest, Fr. O'Gorman, the labourers the larger landowners were providing Smith's Island and meal to the value of of Killone and Clareabbey parishes were employment on their estates. At the end of M50 was stolen. This was the first of many in a 'truly awful state', and the ravages March, Colonel Wyndham, absentee attacks on grain-carrying vessels in the made by hunger 'so visible in their owner of 37,000 acres of Clare land, had Shannon and Fergus estuaries during the countenances, distracted manner and wild his Irish agent lay out sufficient work for Famine and caused the government to expression' was such as to lend them a his tenants, so that 'not one of them send a naval steamer, the Myrmidon, to 'furious' appearance.(%) should require to apply for relief to public patrol the river and prevent further In April and May, the Cratloe funds and private subscription'. At the incidents. Guards were placed on vessels committee had different gangs of men same time, James Molony of Kiltannon, leaving Clarecastle, an area which was working in Cratloe Woods on alternate Tulla, a resident landlord, as benevolent in particularly affected by destitution.(53) In weeks at wages of 10d per day, the same his outlook as Colonel Wyndham, but the search for the perpetrators, the rate as obtained in Clarecastle. At that without the rigid paternalism of that commander of the Myrmidon entered the point public works were about to begin in proprietor, employed every one of his dwellings of some local smallholders, the district, and the committee which had tenants, and also sold to them Indian meal whom he found to be living on nothing but hitherto not had enough funds to afford at cost price from a consignment which he black and rotten potatoes. There was as relief was now able to sell Indian meal at had specially imported for the purpose. At yet no sign of public works beginning in below cost price to the indigent.(57) his own expense he was thus supporting the area, and the local committee was In Ennis, the relief committee, which the families of 150 tradesmen and spending its funds according as had already spent the entire subscription labourers.(51) Private employment schemes subscriptions were received, largely on they had raised locally, as well as a grant such as these seem to have been the short term employment and the purchase of £200 from the Lord Lieutenant, reported prerogative of the wealthier landowners, of meal. on April 12 that they were completely and there are no reports of any of the Relief committees in other areas where overwhelmed by applications for relief.(58) lesser proprietors being so engaged. the public works had not yet begun were They had been employing some 300 doing likewise, giving employment on individuals per day, which represented not Nnrest arrb @Wage successive weeks to different gangs of even a quarter of those in real need. As By April, delays in the establishment of men, in an attempt to spread their well as the labourers of the town, works schemes and the spread of meagre resources over a large destitute tradesmen such as painters and slaters hardship, as the last of the food ran out for population. In Clarecastle village, for were in particularly bad straits, having many people, led to a noticeable increase example, where squatting on the pawned their Sunday and night clothes as in public unrest. Analysis of crime figures commons by incomers had much well as all household articles for which during this period shows that purely exacerbated hardship in the area, the they could obtain money in order to obtain agrarian crime, that is crime relating to relief committee was employing 80 food. In comparison with the poor of some landlord tenant conflict, and the Whiteboy destitute labourers in early April, in rural areas, however, the slaters and activity which had been endemic in pre- levelling the fair green.(54)These 80 painters of Ennis may in fact have been famine Clare, actually decreased, whereas represented only a fraction of the better off. In the parish of Killard in crime relating to the shortage of food was estimated 800 who were in a state of Ibrickan, at the end of the month certain on the increase.(52) On 8 April, for absolute want in the parish. This situation cottier families had pawned their clothes example, a grainship, the Maria, owned had not changed materially by the early and bed covering, and in addition to by John Nonis Russell, the Limerick corn part of June, when public works still had hunger were suffering from exposure to merchant, bound for Clarecastle, was not begun."" At that time, according to a cold as well. (59) Despite the increasing hardship of these months, it is noteworthy that the Poor Law system in the county had not as yet come under any pressure. None of the four workhouses in the county at this time was more than half full, and the slow rise in admissions experienced as the summer approached was no more than the usual seasonal increase.(60)Such was the fear and loathing which the harsh and degrading Poor Law regime inspired in the great majority of the people, that no circumstances short of actual starvation of their families would perpade them to look to the workhouse for relief. And even then as subsequent events were to show, many refrained from applying for entry to the workhouse. For most of 1846, the great majority of inmates in Clare workhouses were drawn from the old, the infirm and the mentally retarded. tration contemplated the closure of the public works. The relief commission itself was dissolved on August 15,(66)leaving local committees almost without resources. Typical of the desperate state of At the beginning of August, public works many committees at this time was that of were in operation all over the county, and Corofin, which in mid-July had applied for the numbers labouring on them had extra relief, stating in its application that in jumped dramatiqally, virtually all of them a few days funds would be completely engaged in roads development under the exhausted.@qThe seven parishes of the Board of Works. By the 18th of the month, district, containing over 40,000 souls, were no less than 18,175 individuals were now dependent entirely on Indian meal. As employed on a daily basis on the public to the people in general, they were works in County Clare, almost one third of completely bereft of any resources of their all those working on Board of Works own, and were now schemes in the entire country.@lJThis number represents nearly a quarter of that driven to seek relief from the committee proportion of County Clare's population whose means of granting such ... will who were engaged in agriculture, a figure cease altogether in a few days - under which broadly tallies with the number of these circumstances the committee tmst small farmers, cottiers and labourers then Relief works certificate, 1846. the government will place the means at present in the county.(" National Archives. their disposal to enable them to grant Clare's extraordinary level of assistance to their numerous poor until participation in the public works Throughout the summer the relief the new crop comes in which may be programme can be accounted for in terms commissioners received petitions from expected in about five weeks. of the more impoverished state of large many individuals, complaining that they sections of the county's population relative had failed to gain employment.(" Committees like that of Corofin, burdened to other counties, and the early with an impossible responsibility, and now exploitation of the public works legislation left to their own devices, over the next by local communities. The scope of the weeks awaited the arrival of the new public works in Clare was huge, and the potato crop with an urgency born of mobilisation of labour it represented was In areas where no public works had been desperation. Early indications in July did by far the greatest in the county's history. undertaken, the first famine deaths were not bode well. On 16 July, all potato Throughout the summer, new lines of already taking place in the late summer of gardens within the vicinity of Ennis were road were being laid out and excavated 1846. Perhaps the earliest recorded case reported to be affected to some degree by everywhere, and new applications of death by starvation in Co. Clare during blight,@" and by August it was clear that processed. However, it seemed that no the Great Famine is that mentioned in a the entire early crop in the county was sooner had the works been inaugurated newspaper report of the inquest into the lost.("J A few weeks more brought the than they were to be brought to an end. In death of a young man in a remote area of dawning realization that blight had June, Peel's Conservative government had Inagh parish at the end of July, 1846. The affected the main crop also, and that this fallen, and the new Whig administration of entire family of the victim, who was time the failure was country-wide and Lord John Russell decided after a few described as being imbecile in mind, had total. The Whig government whose weeks to gradually close down the public been subsisting on nothing but cabbage responsibility it was to deal with this grave works, before embarking on a new relief plants for many weeks. Unable to take any crisis was unfitted in any way to the task, policy.(63)Regardless of the state of more of this awful diet, the young man and the inadequacy of its relief policies completion, all were to be closed. refused to eat until 'hunger forced him to ensured that many would die in Clare in There is no doubt that the arrival of eat a large amount', after which he shortly the coming season and tens of thousands public works in the late spring and died. The verdict of the jury was 'death by in the five years of unspeakable suffering summer of 1846 did much to alleviate the starvation'.@5)Further reports of deaths which followed. worst effects of the potato failure. scattered throughout the county were to However, despite the huge numbers so follow. NOTES AND REFERENCES employed in Clare, not all areas had public In the late summer of 1846, relief 1. Clare Journal, 18 September, 1845. works, and not all individuals had been measures were in a state of suspended 2. Clare Journal, 16 October, p. 22,27. able to obtain tickets for the works. animation, as the new British adminis- 3. See the Report of the City of London Tavern Committee (London, 1823). 20. Thomas O'Neill, 'The Organisation and expensive. The fourth Act, 9 Vic. 4, was Administration of Relief, 18451852' in R. used to revive the drainage of the 4. Clare Journal, 4 January, 1844; Limerick Chronicle, 7 March, 1844. Dudley Edwards and T. Desmond Fergus, the only major project 5, seeCiarh 0 Murchadha, The Diary of Williams, The Great Famine, Studies in undertaken under the Act in Ireland. a Country Curate - Rev. Henry Murphy Irish History (Dublin, 1956), p. 216. Delays in obtaining the necessary assent in Ennis, 1844-1846, in The Other Clare, 21. Randolph Routh to G.E. Trevelyan, of a majority of affected landowners saw vol. 14 (1992), pp. 37-44. Rev. Murphy's Correspondence Explanatory, pp. 9-11. the postponement of this latter scheme diary (public Record Office of Northern Woodham-Smith, op. cit., p. 64. See until the end of September. Ireland, ref. no. D.1337) contains many Clare Journal, January 5, 1845, for 47. Routh to Trevelyan, 28 March, 1846, distress at Kilkee. See also Ignatius CorresfiondenceExplanatory, p. 82. references to his potatoes over the / months of the harvest. Failure of the Murphy, 'Kilkee and its neighbourhood 48. Limerick Chronicle, April 11,1846. potato crop is not mentioned until during the First Year of the Great 49. Ignatius Murphy, 'Kilkee .... during.Jhe October 20. The diary of John Singleton Famine, 1845-1846' in the North Munster First Year of the Great Famine', p. 21. mational Library of Ireland MS. 16885) Antiquarian Journal, Vol. xxi (1979), pp. 50. Lucius O'Brien to Randolph Routh, April makes no mention of potato failure in his 1516. 5, 1846. Relief Commission Papers, no. locality until 29 October. 22. The background to the Kilkee meeting is 1281. 6. Clare Journal, 30 October, 1845. sketched out in Ignatius Murphy, loc. 51. Clare Journal, 28 March, 1846; Limerick Randolph Routh to G.E. Trevelyan, 14 cit. pp. 17-18. Chronicle, 25 March, 1846. Molony February, 1846, Correspondence 23. Christine Kinealy, This Great Calamity, actually increased the wages of the explanatory of the Measures adopted by The Irish Famine, 1845-1852 (Dublin, tradesmen to 3s. per week, and the Her Majesty's Government for the Relief 1994), p. 41. The delay was deliberate, labourers to 2s. to which was added a of Distress arising out of the failure of 'so as to postpone the assistance of weekly ration of Indian meal. the Potato in Ireland 1846, H.C. (736), government to the latest date possible', 52. See Andries Eiriksson, 'Crime and he vol. XXXVII, p. 86. Kinealy, op. cit., p. 43. Popular Protest in County Clare 1815- ;elf 7. S. Ball to the Relief Commissioners, 10 24. Ibid. 1852' (unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, ng June, 1846, National Archives, Relief 25. Limerick Chronicle, 17 January, 1846. T.C.D., 1992) chapters 5 and 6. I am ut Commissioners' Papers, 3176. According 26. Act I Victoria, cap. 21. grateful to Dr. Eiriksson for permission m of to Ball, the area around Ennis was 27. Clare Journal, 22 January, 22, 1846, to consult his dissertation. of almost completely devastated in the first Limerick Chronicle, 24 January, 1846. 53. Lieutenant Jenkins to Admiralty, 22 for failure, which if one takes into 28. Limerick Chronicle, 31 January, 1846. April, 1846; Relief Commission Papers, in consideration Rev. Murphy's bumper 29. Clare Journal, 22 January; Limerick no. 1861. :ly harvest, evidences localised extremes of Chronicle, 26 January, 1846. Special 54. Report of Clareabbey Relief Committee he infection. baronial sessions were arranged for to Randolph :~outh,6 April, 1846, Relief :re 8. Limerick Chronicle, 22 October, 1846. Spancilhill on 9 February. Comm. Papers, 1284. As 9. Limerick Chronicle, 22 October, 1845. 30. Limerick Chronicle, 11 April, 1846. 55. Report of Clareabbey and Killone relief 're 10. Limerick Chronicle, 14 March, 1846. 31. Limerick Chronicle, 21 March, 1845. committee to Relief Commissioners, 6 eir 11. For an assessment of Fitzgerald's 32. For the murder of Pierce Carrick, see June, 1846. Relief Commissioner Papers, contribution, see Austin Bourke, 'The Ciaran 0 Murchadha, 'The Diary of a no. 2945. Islands barony was the last Visitation of God'?, The Potato and the Country Curate' in The Other Clare, Vol. barony where public works begun. tee Great Irish Famine, (Dublin, 1993), 14 (1990), p. 43. See also Limerick 56. Clare Journal, 2 July, 1846. 57. John Cullinan to Relief Commissioners, rill Chapter 8. Chronicle, 18, 21, 25 March; Clare Journal, 19 March, 1845; The Times, 2 4 June, 1846; Relief Commission Papers, ier 12. Limerick Chronicle, 25 October, 1845. 13. Clare Journal, 30 October, 1845. April, 1845; Dublin Evening Mail, 10 1846-1847,2851. ust 14. Letter of Robert A. Studdert, Kilkishen April, 1845. 58. John Cullinan to Relief Commissioners, at House, Sixmilebridge, 16 November, 33. CorrespondenceExplanatory, p. 11. 12 April, 1846, Relief Commission cnt 1845, in National Archives, State Paper 34. Ibid., p. 10. Papers, 1846-47, 1409. ctil Office, Outrage Reports, 1845, Clare, 35. Clare Journal, 16 February, 1845. 59. The Times, 30 April, 1846, citing report be 5/22863. Studdert is to be distinguished 36. Ignatius Murphy, op. cit., p. 19. in a local newspaper. from his cousin, Robert Wogan Studdert 37. John Cullinan to Routh, 6 April, 1846. 60. There were four Union workhouses in of Newmarket House. N.A. Relief Commission Papers, 1846, Clare: Ennis and Kilrush, each with a ed 15. David Wilson was extremely unpopular 1284. Cornelius Hickey to Relief capacity to accommodate 800 paupers, OW with his tenantry for a number of Commissioners, 28 March, 1846, N.A. and Scariff and Ennistymon which held a :xt reasons, but mainly due to his manic Relief Commission Papers, 1050. maximum of 600 each. Gort and ?W interest in land-improvement, forcing 38. Limerick Chronicle, 18 March, 1846. Limerick Unions also provided of them to adopt whatever scheme he 39. Lucius O'Brien to R. Routh, 5 April, 1846, accommodation for other parts of Clare. lid favoured at a given time. One which Relief Comm. papers, no. 1280; Limerick 61. Abstract of Returns of Men Employed on 1t0 must have severely tried their patience Chronicle, 8 April, 1846. Public Works, for one week ended 18 :re was his insistence that they carry out 40. Woodham-Smith, op. cit., p. 68. July, 1846, Corresflondence Explanatory, by subsoiling which was then in vogue. 41. Ignatius Murphy, 'Kilkee during the Board of Works Series, 1846, p. 347. lat When a farm had been improved by First Year of the Great Famine', p. 19. 62. See Kinealy, This Great Calamity, p. 59. 'as such means, Wilson then raised the rent 42. Michael McNamara to relief commiss- 63. O'Neill, 'The Organisation and he by one half, and this accounts for the ioners, 16 Llay, 16, 1846, Rel. Comm. Administration of Relief, p. 221. several threatening notices received by 64. For three examples, see Relief ad papers, no. 2774. him. 43. John Cullinan to Rel. Comm., June 4, Commission Papers, 1845-47, 3180 nis 16. Plundering was already taking place. On Rel. Comm. papers, no. 2851. (Similebridge, 10 June) 4964 (Ennis, 1 nd Saturday, 15 November, one hundred 44. Limerick Chronicle, 11 April, 1846. August) and 5449 (Clareabbey and se men and women were reported to have 45. Lucius O'Brien to Relief Commissioners, Killone, 17 August). we gathered to dig out the crop of potatoes 6 April, 1846, Rel. Comm. papers, 1281. 65. Clare Journal, 30 July, 1846. sk, belonging to the lately deceased Rev. 46. Woodham Smith, op. cit., p. 78; Limerick 66. O'Neill, 'The Organisation and les William Davoren of Kiltoraght. Limerick Chronicle, 4 April, 1846. 9 Vic. 1, was an Administration of Relief, p. 221. in Chronicle, 19 November, 1845. amending Act to the 1 Vic. 21. The 67. John Cullinan to Relief Commissioners, ~ds 17. Limerick Chronicle, 20 December, 1845. reassembled Grand Jury declined on 12 July, 1846, Relief Commission Papers, ng Diary of John Singleton, 29 October, April 3 to proceed with baronial present- 1845-1847,4211. 1845, North Munster Antiquarian ment sessions on the 9 Vic. 2, under 68. Clare Journal, 16 July, 1845. Journal,, Vol. XX~X(i975), p. 105. which works were to be carried out by 69. Clare Journal, 10 August, 1846. Diary of National Library of Ireland Ms. 16885, contractors and of which all the cost Henry Murphy, entry for 20 August. Oct. 29, 1845. would be ultimately borne by the Chronicle, 10 November, 1845; cesspayer, on the grounds that it (Reprinted from The Other Clare, Vol. 19, 'on CzareJournal,10 November, 1845. was unnecessary, cumbersome and April, 1995).

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