The Great Famine: a Local History
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The Great Famine: a local history Front Cover: Trevor Hill, Newry, 1829 Detail from poster advertising the sailing Newry was a commercial and industrial centre on the eve of the Famine, of the Lady Caroline from Warrenpoint to with an educated class ranging from lawyers, clergy, merchants and New Brunswick in Canada in June 1847. business people with an interest in politics and welfare. Newry and Mourne Museum Collection. Print by T.M. Baynes, Newry and Mourne Museum Collection. Réamhrá Foreword Pléann ailt an leabhráin seo leis an dóigh a This booklet contains articles which look at how ndeachaigh an Drochshaol agus tréimhse ina the Great Famine (1845 to 1850) and its aftermath, dhiaidh sin i bhfeidhm ar cheantar Chomhairle an affected the Newry, Mourne and Down District Iúir, Mhúrn agus an Dúin. Cuireadh an leabhrán le Council area. It has been produced to mark the chéile mar mheabhrúchán ar Lá Cuimhneacháin Famine Commemoration taking place in Newry, an Ghorta Mhóir, a bheas ar siúl Dé Sathairn 26ú county Down on Saturday, 26th September 2015. Meán Fómhair 2015. This is the eighth year in which the Great Famine Is í seo an t-ochtú bliain a bhí comóradh has been marked with a formal commemoration oifigiúil ann agus an chéad bhliain a bhí an and the first time that the commemoration has Cuimhneacháin ar súil ó thuaidh. taken place north of the border. Toisc go raibh gach cearn den tír buailte go dona In recognition of the fact that the Great Famine ag an Ghorta Mhór eagraítear Cuimhneachán affected all parts of the island, the location of the bliantúil ar bhonn uainíochta sna ceithre cúigí Annual Commemoration has rotated in sequence i ndiaidh a chéile ón uair a rinneadh an chéad between the four provinces since the first Annual Chuimhneachán riamh i mBaile Átha Cliath sa Commemoration took place in Dublin in 2008 and bhliain 2008. Tá Cuimhneachán 2015 á reáchtáil i now falls to Ulster in 2015. gcúige Uladh dá bharr. Over a million people died of starvation and Fuair breis is milliún daoine bás leis an ocras agus disease because of the famine and around aicíd mar gheall ar an Drochshaol agus chuaigh 1,800,000 people emigrated. The failure of the tuairim is 1,800,000 ar imirce. Tháinig galar dubh Irish potato crop in successive years was one of the ar na prátaí bliain i ndiaidh bliana sna 1840í agus worst European disasters of the 19th century and ba é ar cheann de na mórthubaistí is measa a led to one of the largest population movements of tharla sa 19ú haois san Eoraip agus ar cheann de the century. na hollghluaiseachtaí daonra na haoise sin. Councillor Naomi Bailie Comhairleoir Naomi Bháille Chairperson Cathaoirleach Newry, Mourne and Down District Council Comhairle Ceantair an Iúir, Mhúrn agus an Dúin Introduction By 1845 the population of Ireland had risen to spread the disease. It rotted the potato crop around 8.5 million people. This was due to a making approximately a third unfit for human number of reasons including economic prosperity consumption. in response to new overseas markets, sub-division of land, over-reliance on the potato as a foodstuff By December 1845 county Armagh had lost one and a fall in mortality due to better systems of fifth of the crop and county Down one quarter. healthcare. The following year blight destroyed around three- quarters of the Irish potato crop. In 1847 not Although there had been famines in Ireland enough potato seed had survived to plant, and previously, the Great Famine had a severe and yield was meagre. Failures occurred again in 1848 lasting impact due to the failure of the potato and 1849. crop in successive years. The Irish Poor Law of 1838 had set up mechanisms The response to the famine by the British for helping poor people including the establishment Government has been viewed as inadequate of workhouses, with 130 initially built in Ireland. by historians. The reasons for the government’s However, poor relief legislation was not designed response are complex, and were not only due to to cope with a prolonged famine. A Relief lack of political will, but to the prevailing ideologies Commission was formed in November 1845 to of the time. Principal amongst these was the oversee relief efforts which included public work doctrine of laissez-faire, which meant that the schemes and outdoor relief such as soup kitchens. government did not intervene with market forces, not least the export of agricultural produce. The famine gave rise to a significant increase in emigration. Emigrants from south Ulster and For over half the population of Ireland the potato north Leinster left Warrenpoint for St John, New was the main or only source of food. Brunswick in Canada, New York, or Liverpool. Emigrant ships were often overcrowded, By the 1840s, sub-division of land was widespread inadequately provided with food or clean water among the poorest people and some farms and became synonymous with sickness and became so small that potatoes were the only crop disease. Many emigrants died on the voyage. that could be grown in sufficient quantities to feed a family. The famine left Ireland changed socially and economically, with the population never again Potato blight, a fungal infection, was first reaching pre-famine levels. Mass evictions had noticed in Ireland in early September 1845. It had seen families forced from their holdings: ‘cottier’ travelled from continental Europe to Ireland, and and landless labourer classes were decimated and the damp, sunless summer of that year quickly estates burdened by debt were sold. The famine what life was like in the first half of the 19th also accelerated the decline of the Irish language. century and how the famine impacted on all parts of society and culture. It also briefly examines No part of Ireland was unscathed. Over a million the lives of John Mitchel and John Martin whose people died either of starvation or due to the political careers were defined by the famine. illnesses associated with hunger because of the famine and around 1.8 million people emigrated. Regulations for Trevor Corry Charity, 1823 In the early 19th century private charities were often the only source of help in times of hardship. The Corry Charity arose This booklet looks at aspects of how the famine from a bequest left by Sir Trevor Corry of Newry. affected this area. The articles and images reflect Newry and Mourne Museum Collection. Kilkeel Workhouse, pictured in the 1970s Due to the severe distress caused by the total failure of the potato crop, Kilkeel Board of Guardians decided in October 1846 to provide a meal in the workhouse to families from Kilkeel, Mourne Park, Greencastle, Ballykeel and Mullartown. Courtesy of Myrtle Irvine. The Great Famine in South Armagh Kevin Murphy Until comparatively recently it was assumed that the northern part of the country remained largely unscathed during the years of the Great Famine in Ireland. This myth has now been exploded and no more so than in the southern part of county Armagh in the two baronies of The Fews and Upper Orior. Even before the failure of the potato crop in 1845 the evidence of people such as the Rev. Daniel Gunn Brown, Minister of Newtownhamilton Presbyterian Church, Rev. Michael Lennon, Parish Priest of Upper Creggan Parish and Sir John MacNeill, the renowned railway engineer, painted a picture of a people on the edge of starvation and poor relationships between landlords and tenants. When the potato failure of 1845 began to impact, the Rev. E.O. Disney, Chairman of Newtownhamilton Relief Committee, said on 13th November 1846 that ‘the beasts of the earth are at this moment better fed than hundreds of our fellow creatures around us … public works may only serve to dig the graves of the people’. By January 1847 Rev. Michael Lennon, Chairman of the Crossmaglen Relief Committee, noted Rev. Daniel Gunn Brown (1808 to 1892) that relief works had recently stopped and there Minister of Newtownhamilton Presbyterian Church, was no prospect of renewal. He prophesied more the Rev. Daniel Gunn Brown provided evidence to the Devon Commission in 1844 on the plight of tenants in deaths and he appealed to the Lord Lieutenant the area. He became a supporter of the Ulster Tenant ‘in the name of these ‘starving people’. Also in Right Association after it was founded in 1847. 1847 Rev. James Campbell, Chairman/Treasurer Courtesy of Christine Wright. of Forkill Relief Committee, said that there was ‘lamentable destitution’ in his area and that Newry Workhouse was ‘closed for the admission of paupers.’ Thomas Seaver (1789 to 1848) Lack of government leadership in dealing with the effects The landlords, many of whom were absentee, of the famine led some to call for a repeal of the Act of Union with Britain. A local landlord, Captain Thomas contributed virtually nothing to relief. The joint Seaver of Heath Hall, Killeavy, south Armagh, presided at landlords Hamilton, Tipping and Jones promised a Repeal meeting held in Newry in March 1848. He was £1 each but never paid and two landlords, Quinn also Chairman of the Jonesborough and Killeavy Relief and O’Callaghan, gave £25 each. A few years Committee, and died of typhoid fever after visiting Newry Workhouse. Courtesy of Armagh County Museum. later, in 1852, Rev. Gunn Brown said that he could only describe the landlords of south Armagh in this period as ‘exterminators’. Against this backdrop people starved to death, flocked into the disease-ridden workhouses in Newry, Dundalk and Castleblayney, scraped up the fare and took ‘coffin ships’ to America and Canada or turned to the Ribbon Society to offer some armed resistance to evictions, high rents and hoarding of meal.