‘Fallen Leaves of Humanity’: Famines in Ireland Before and After the Great Famine

433 Pages·2018·2.436 MB·English

by  Christine Kinealy, Gerard Moran and Jason King

THE HISTORY OF THE IRISH FAMINE

THE HISTORY OF THE
IRISH FAMINE
Edited by
Christine Kinealy, Gerard Moran
and Jason King
Volume III
‘Fallen Leaves of Humanity’: Famines in Ireland
Before and After the Great Famine
Edited by
Christine Kinealy and
Gerard Moran
First published 2019
by Routledge
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© 2019 selection and editorial matter, Christine Kinealy, Gerard Moran
and Jason King; individual owners retain copyright in their own material.
The right of Christine Kinealy, Gerard Moran and Jason King to be
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ISBN: 978-1-138-20077-7 (set)
ISBN: 978-1-138-20094-4 (volume III)
eISBN: 978-1-315-51389-8 (set)
eISBN: 978-1-315-51365-2 (volume III)
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CONTENTS
Chronology of Ireland’s Forgotten Famines xii
Introduction 1
PART I
The crises of the late 1720s 33
1 The letters of Hugh Boulter, Archbishop of Armagh
(1727–1729) 35
PART II
The famine of 1740 to 1741: ‘the Year of Slaughter’ 43
2 The year of slaughter. Various English newspapers
(1740–1742) 45
3 Anon, The groans of Ireland: in a letter to a member of
Parliament (Dublin: George Faulkner, 1741) 50
PART III
The famine of 1816 and 1817 65
4 ‘Distilleries—scarcity of provisions in Ireland’ in
Hansard, House of Commons debates, 10 March 1817,
vol. 35 cc. 917–20 69
5 ‘Distilleries’, Hansard, House of Lords debates, 14
March 1817, vol. 35, cc. 1079–80 72
v
CONTENTS
PART IV
The famine of 1822 to 1823: British and Irish philanthropy
(1822 and 1823) 75
6 ‘Scarcity of provisions in Ireland’, Hansard, House of
Commons debates, 29 April 1822, vol. 7 cc. 146–50 77
7 The famine of 1822. British and Irish philanthropy from
various newspapers (1822 and 1823) 80
PART V
Famine in the 1830s 93
8 ‘Famine in a fertile land’; reports in the newspapers (1831) 95
PART VI
The crises of the 1860s 107
9 Henry Coulter, The west of Ireland: its existing condition
and prospects (Dublin: Hodges & Smith and London:
Hurst & Blackett, 1862), pp. 21–37 111
10 The famine from parliamentary papers, Hansard, House
of Commons debates (1862) 122
11 Reports of the Mansion-House Committee for the relief
of distress in Ireland; and of the Central Relief
Committee (1862) 174
PART VII
Distress in the west in 1867 and 1869 185
12 Correspondence from the Clifden Poor Law guardians
(Galway County Library, Clifden Poor Law minute book,
week ending 18 May 1867) 187
13 The Irish Times Commissioner’s report from Connemara
and west Mayo, September 1869, stating the condition of
the peasantry, Irish Times, 29 September 1869 189
vi
CONTENTS
PART VIII
The ‘forgotten famine’ of 1879–81 195
14 Petition from the Claremorris Board of Guardians to the
Lord Lieutenant (Freeman’s Journal, 4 October 1879) 199
15 ‘Letter from Maurice Brooks, M.P. on the distress and
suggesting measures such as the provision of houses
for farmers and labourers, to counteract it’, Freeman’s
Journal, 4 October 1879 201
16 ‘In the West’, Nation, 1 November 1879 203
17 ‘Declaration of the Catholic hierarchy calling on the
government to introduce relief measures, other than the
Poor Law, to save the people’, Freeman’s Journal,
29 October 1879 210
18 ‘Letter of Patrick Greally, outlining the level of distress
in his parish, and advocating emigration as the panacea to
the perennial destitution of the people,’ Nation,
10 January 1880 212
19 John Donovan to Edward McCabe (Dublin Diocesan
Archives, McCabe Papers, secular priests), 3 January 1880 215
20 Speech by Rev. Patrick Coyne, Catholic Administrator of
the parish of Killanin, who chaired the local Land League
meeting in November 1879, highlighting conditions in the
parish’, Nation, 22 November, 1879 217
21 Report of distress in the parish of Geesala, Co. Mayo from
Rev. Patrick McHugh, C.C., the local priest, to E. Dwyer
Gray, Lord Mayor of Dublin (Dublin City Archives,
Mansion House Relief Committee Papers, 1880; ch/1/15/1) 220
22 Vere Foster’s letter to Charles Stewart Parnell (P.R.O.N.I.,
Vere Foster Papers, 10 January 1880) 222
23 Letter from Bishop Francis MacCormack to E. D. Dwyer
Gray, Lord Mayor of Dublin (Dublin City Archives,
Mansion House Relief Committee Papers, ch/1/10/g142,
27 January 1880) 225
vii
CONTENTS
24 ‘Report from the Glenties Poor Law Union, Co. Donegal’,
James H. Tuke, Irish distress and its remedies. The land
question: a visit to Donegal and Connaught in the spring
of 1880 (London: W. Ridgeway, 1880), pp. 9–24 227
25 Bishop James Donnelly of Clogher to Archbishop
Edward McCabe of Dublin (Dublin Diocesan Archives,
McCabe Papers, Relief of Distress, 1879–80,
17 February 1880) 238
26 James Redpath, to Archbishop Edward McCabe of Dublin
inquiring into the state of destitution and famine in the
country (Dublin Diocesan Archives, McCabe Papers,
Relief of Distress Papers, 15 March 1880) 240
27 Resolutions of the Charitable Irish Society in Boston
(Minutes of Massachusetts Historical Society, Charitable
Irish Society Papers, 17 March 1880) 242
28 Evidence of Rev. Canon Timothy Brosnan of Caherciveen,
Co. Kerry (Report of Her Majesty’s Commissioners of
Inquiry into the working of the Landlord and Tenant
(Ireland) Act, 1870, and the Acts amending the same, iii,
HC 1881 xix (c – 2779 ii), pp. 793–797) 244
29 Bishop John McDonald of Aberdeen to Archbishop
Edward McCabe of Dublin (Dublin Diocesan Archive,
McCabe Papers, Relief of Distress Papers,
26 February 1880) 257
30 ‘Second report of Mr. J. A. Fox,’ in J. A. Fox, Reports
on the condition of the peasantry of the County of Mayo
during the famine crisis of 1880 (Dublin: Browne and
Nolan, 1880), pp. 24–38 259
31 Report from Swineford, Co. Mayo from representative of
the Mansion House Relief Committee, July 1880. Report
of Dr. George Sigerson and Dr. Kenny on the fever in the
Western Districts (Dublin City Archives, Mansion House
Relief Committee Papers, CH1/4/p. 34, July 1880) 269
32 ‘Outbreak of fever’, Connaught Telegraph, 26 June 1880 273
viii
CONTENTS
33 Report from Captain Digby Morant on the distribution of
relief on the west coast of Ireland. Report August 1880
from Captain D. Morant, in reference to relief of
distressed population on the west coast of Ireland, H.C.
1880 lxii (195), pp. 1–5 275
34 Report on how the money donated by the Canadian
government in 1880 for the relief of distress in Ireland
was spent. Report of the Joint Committee, selected from
the Committee of the Duchess of Marlborough Relief
Fund and the Dublin Mansion House Fund for the relief
of distress in Ireland, to be administered the sum of
100,000 dollars, voted by the Parliament of the Dominion
of Canada, towards the relief of distress in Ireland, H.C.
1881 (326) lxxv, pp. 3–4 283
35 Letter from the parish priest of Enniscrone, Co. Sligo
on the girls that were assisted to North America under
the Vere Foster scheme and suggesting how emigration
schemes should be carried out. Second report from the
Select Committee of the House of Lords on Land Law
(Ireland); together with the proceedings of the Committee,
minutes of evidence and appendix, HC 1882 (379) xi, p. 298 287
36 Illustration of the vessel the Nestorian which carried
650 of the Tuke emigrants and how the scheme was seen
by people in North America. The illustration indicates
paupers and the workhouse on a boat arriving into Boston.
Dated 1883 289
37 Fanny Parnell’s, ‘Hold the Harvest’ (1880) ‘The Hovels
of Ireland’ (1880) 291
PART IX
The crises of the 1880s and 1890s 339
38 MEMORANDA of STATEMENT made to His Excellency
the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland by the Catholic Prelates of
Connaught, relative to the destitution in their respective
dioceses (9 January 1883) 341
ix