Books - "Before the famine struck"; ""A starving people"

[Paddy Casey]

In another thread Mike (mcreed) and Michael (moc66) flagged Fr. Ignatius Murphy's books

"Before the famine struck: life in west Clare, 1834-1845" and

"A starving people : life and death in west Clare, 1845-1851".

Thank you, Mike and Michael, for giving me this leg-up at the bookshelves.

I've just finished reading them and would emphatically say that they are required reading for anyone doing family history research on ancestors who were in the West of Ireland in the 19th century. They are focussed on the parish of Kilfearagh but the stories match with the accounts from elsewhere. They catalogue a breathtaking degree of callousness on the part of wealthy landowners and merchants and politicians as, over a period of five years, a large part of the population was exterminated by hunger whilst simultaneously grain was being exported from local ports.

I won't go on about the books - you have to read them - but here's a couple of snippets to give you an idea of the powerful stuff they contain.

In 1855, when most of the population was still desperate for a roof over their heads and something to eat, the Limerick Chronicle reported (referring to the fashionable resort of Kilkee which was bang in the middle of the disaster area) "On Monday a large assemblage of the rank, beauty and fashion of the neighbourhood attended in Merton Square to take part in the new and popular game of croquet and to enjoy the delightful strains of a band, hired for the occasion".

In another part of the book we learn that the Reverend Sidney Godolphin Osborne was comforted by the fact that few of the starving children seemed to be in great pain ("....I have seen many in the very act of death, still not a tear, not a cry.....").

It's kind of unhinged.

Anyway, if you are wondering why your ancestors emigrated, well, they may have been listening to the delightful strains of that band, the rustling of the expensive crinolines and the click of the croquet balls mingling with the rumbling of their empty stomachs and the crying of their children and said to themselves "Time to leave........".

Paddy

[moc66]

Hi Paddy

I am delighted you were able to read Fr Murphy’s books, I am attaching a report from the EPPI papers on an outbreak of Cholera in 1854 in the Querrin area :
http://www.clarelibrary.ie/eolas/coclar ... nlands.htm , http://www.clarelibrary.ie/eolas/coclar ... uerrin.htm
I thought I had posted this in an earlier post but it seems I did not. In the report you will come across the account of the conditions the people lived in, nine years after the start of the famine. You put it very succinctly at the end of your post on why people would up and leave. In one of medical reports the plight of ordinary people of Kilkee and surrounding areas are highlighted and the terrible conditions they lived under. They would never have been reported on but for the outbreak of cholera and all this going on within yards of the well heeled men and women on holidays in Kilkee.
http://www.eppi.ac.uk/eppi/digbib/view? ... 1765&p=337
On EPPI it goes from page 145 to 149, reports from the resident medical officer Dr Griffin Kilkee Dispensary and Dr Geary Medical Inspector

Hope you get to read a Pride of Paper Tigers as well
Slán Michael

PS On page 147 http://www.eppi.ac.uk/eppi/digbib/view? ... 1765&p=340 Dr Geary is reporting on an outbreak at " Moyarta in the Electoral District of Einagh " should read Moyasta in the Electoral..... a slip by the clerk writing the report maybe, as Moyarta refers to a parish, a baroney and townland. And Moyarta the townland is not in the electoral District of Einagh Moyasta is. http://www.clarelibrary.ie/eolas/coclar ... nlands.htm http://www.clarelibrary.ie/eolas/coclar ... oyasta.htm and this is the link to Einagh ded http://www.clarelibrary.ie/eolas/coclar ... gh_ded.htm . It makes sense as there was plenty of turf boats piling there trade from Moyasta, Poulnasherry Bay to Limerick. More anon on the other post re The importance of sea and waterways to Clare History about turf boats. moc66

[Paddy Casey]

Thanks very much for flagging these EPPI papers, Michael. Very interesting reading. I guess the area along the north of the Shannon was ideal for a cholera epidemic. Brackish coastal waters, lots of effluent from habitations, lots of human traffic with boatpeople who may have been tempted to drink water from the river (OK, that's speculation), and a waterborne agent (the bacterium Vibrio cholerae) which is infective in extremely low doses. Experiments have shown that 20 vibrio bacteria suffice to produce infection.

Such a pity that they didn't know at that time that it suffices to infuse simple intravenous fluids to ensure survival from cholera but, even had they known it, probably wouldn't have had the wherewithal for intravenous therapy.

I've been wondering what killed off 40 families in one week in the ciseach in Moyrhee Commons in the north of Clare (see http://www.ourlibrary.ca/phpbb2/viewtop ... seach#p393 ) and suspect that it was cholera. I must trawl the EPPI reports again for individual reports from medical officers. Thanks for this pointer, Michael.

Paddy

[mcreed]

It's always as well to bear in mind that calamities and disasters in Irish history (famine, cholera etc) are usually part of a worldwide trend, though their effects may have been disproportionate in Ireland due to social conditions resulting from colonial exploitation of the mass of the people. Cholera outbreaks in Ireland were part of global pandemics. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cholera where it says "1829-1851 - Second cholera pandemic reached Europe, London and Paris in 1832. In London, the disease claimed 6,536 victims; in Paris, 20,000 succumbed (out of a population of 650,000) with about 100,000 deaths in all of France. The epidemic reached Russia, Quebec, Ontario and New York in the same year and the Pacific coast of North America by 1834". The potato blight that so affected Ireland (Phytophthora infestans) "can been traced to a valley in the highlands of central Mexico. The first recorded instances of the disease were in the United States, in Philadelphia and New York City in early 1843. Winds then spread the spores, and in 1845 it was found from Illinois to Nova Scotia, and from Virginia to Ontario. The fungus crossed the Atlantic Ocean with a shipment of seed potatoes destined for Belgian farmers in 1845". (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Late_Blight_of_Potato).
In the same way, I've always seen a close relation between the experience of the Native Americans (the 'Indians') and the Irish, as a result of the very same westward expansion of (mainland) European power (whether Anglo-Saxon or Spanish). Irish history is best understood as a part of global history. If anyone's interested in following this up then I'd heartily recommend Charles C. Mann's "1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus" - also published in Europe as "Ancient Americans: Rewriting the History of the New World". Forgive me if I've gone off-topic, but it is all too easy to see Irish history as somehow unique. Mike