John - The History of the Great Irish Famine of 1847 (3rd ed.) (1902)

With Notices of Earlier Irish Famines

Published by Good Press, 2019

EAN 4057664643841

Table of Contents

The Author of this volume has, for a considerable time, been of opinion, that the leading facts of the Great Irish Famine of 1847 ought to be put together without unnecessary delay. Several reasons occurred to him why such a work should be done: the magnitude of the Famine itself; the peculiarity of its immediate cause; its influence on the destiny of the Irish Race. That there should be no unnecessary delay in performing the task was sufficiently proved, he thought, by the fact, that testimony of the most valuable kind, namely, contemporary testimony, was silently but rapidly passing away with the generation that had witnessed the Scourge.

Having made up his mind to undertake such a work, the Author's first preparation for it was, to send query sheets to such persons as were supposed to be in possession of information on the subject. And he has here to express his gratitude and thanks to his numerous correspondents, for the kindness and promptness with which his queries were answered. He cannot recall even one case in which this was not done. But there is a dark side to the picture too. In looking over the query sheets now, it is sad to find how many of those whose signatures they bear have already passed from amongst us.

Other materials of great importance lay scattered over the Public Journals of the period; were buried and stowed away in Parliamentary Blue Books, and Parliamentary debates;were to be sought for in pamphlets, in periodicals, and more especially in the Reports of the various Societies and Associations, which were appointed for dispensing the alms given with such free hand, to aid in saving the lives of the famishing people. Those Records will be found quoted and referred to in the course of the work.

Amongst them, it is but just to acknowledge, how much the Author owes to the Report of the Census Commissioners for 1851; to the "Transactions" of the Society of Friends; and to the Irish Crisis, by Sir Charles E. Trevelyan, Bart.; which originally appeared as an article in the Edinburgh Review for January, 1848, but was reprinted in a small volume of two hundred pages. Although far from agreeing with many of Sir Charles's conclusions (he was Secretary to the Treasury during the Famine), still the Author cheerfully acknowledges, that the statistical information in the Irish Crisis is very valuable to a student of the history of the Famine period.

It was to be expected, that the alarm about the Potato Blight and the Famine would be first raised through the public Press. This was done by letters from various localities, and by Special Reporters and Commissioners, who travelled through the country to examine the state of the people, as well as that of the potato crop. There was a Commissioner from the London Times in Ireland at this period. His letters written to that Journal were afterwards collected, and they made an octavo volume of nearly eight hundred pages.

The English people, and many in Ireland, long adhered to the opinion, that there was much exaggeration in the Irish Newspapers regarding both the Blight and the Famine; but subsequent investigation showed, that there was very little, if any, exaggeration; nay, that the real facts were often understated. As to the Famine, several of the gentlemen sent by the Charitable Societies to make Reports, wrote back, that there was no exaggeration whatever, and, for a very sufficient reason, namely, that, in their opinion, it was impossible to exaggerate the dreadful condition in which they found the people.

Another mode of acquiring information adopted by the Author was, to visit those parts of the country in which the Famine had raged with the greatest severity. On such occasions he not only had the advantage of examining the localities, but of conversing with persons whose knowledge of that awful Calamity made them valuable and interesting guides.

As to the rest, it is left to the kindness of the Reader.

ST. MARY'S, MAYNOOTH,

1st December, 1874.

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

The Potato--Its introduction into Europe--Sir Walter Raleigh--The Potato of Virginia--The Battata, or sweet Potato--Sir John Hawkins--Sir Francis Drake--Raleigh's numerous exploring expeditions--Story of his distributing Potatoes on the Irish coast on his way from Virginia groundless--Sir Joseph Banks--His history of the introduction of the Potato--Thomas Heriot--His description of the Opanawk a correct description of the Potato--That root in Europe before Raleigh's time--Raleigh an "Undertaker"--The Grants made to him--The Famine after the War with the Desmonds--Introduction of the Potato into Ireland--Did not come rapidly into cultivation--Food of the poorest--Grazing--Graziers--Destruction of Irish Manufactures--Causes of the increasing culture of the Potato--Improvement of Agriculture--Rotation of Crops--Primate Boulter's charity--Buys Corn in the South to sell it cheaply in the North--Years of scarcity from 1720 to 1740--The Famine of 174041--The Great Frost--No combined effort to meet this Famine--Vast number of Deaths--The Obelisk at Castletown (Note)--Price of Wheat--Bread Riots--Gangs of Robbers--"The Kellymount Gang"--Severe punishment--Shooting down Food-rioters--The Lord Lieutenant's Address to Parliament--Bill "for the more effectual securing the payments of rents and preventing the frauds of tenants"--This Bill the basis of legislation on the Land Question up to 1870--Land thrown into Grazing--State of the Catholics--Renewal of the Penal Statutes--Fever and bloody flux--Deaths--State of Prisoners--Galway Physicians refuse to attend Patients--The Races of Galway changed to Tuam on account of the Fever in Galway--Balls and Plays!--Rt. Rev. Dr. Berkeley's account of the Famine--The "Groans of Ireland"--Ireland a land of Famines--Dublin Bay--The Coast--The Wicklow Hills--Killiney--Obelisk Hill--What the Obelisk was built for--The Potato more cultivated than ever after 1741--Agricultural literature of the time--Apathy of the Gentry denounced--Comparative yield of Potatoes a hundred years ago and at present--Arthur Young on the Potato--Great increase of its culture in twenty years--The disease called "curl" in the Potato (Note)--Failure of the Potato in 1821--Consequent Famine in 1822--Government grants--Charitable collections--High price of Potatoes--Skibbereen in 1822--Half of the superficies of the Island visited by this Famine--Strange apathy of Statesmen and Landowners with regard to the ever-increasing culture of the Potato--Supposed conquest of Ireland--Ireland kept poor lest she should rebel--The English colony always regarded as the Irish nation--The Natives ignored--They lived in the bogs and mountains, and cultivated the Potato, the only food that would grow in such places--No recorded Potato blight before 1729--The probable reason--Poverty of the English colony--jealousy of England of its progress and prosperity--Commercial jealousy--Destruction of the Woollen manufacture--Its immediate effect--"William the Third's Declaration--Absenteeism--Mr. M'Cullagh's arguments--See Note in Appendix--Apparently low rents--Not really so--No capital--Little skill--No good Agricultural Implements--Swift's opinion--Arthur Young's opinion--Acts of Parliament--The Catholics permitted to be loyal--Act for reclaiming Bogs--Pension to Apostate Priests increased--Catholic Petition in 1792--The Belief Act of 1793--Population of Ireland at this time--The Forty-shilling Freeholders--Why they were created--Why they were abolished--The cry of over-population.