Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Introduction To The Irish Famine
Introduction To The Irish Famine
Introduction To The Irish Famine
in
Ireland
Menu
Opening
Ireland before the Famine
Disaster strikes
Map – impact of the Famine
Dealing with death
Responses 1 – state aid or self-help?
Responses 2 – evictions
Responses 3 – emigration
The Famine in fiction for children & young adults & in poetry
The Spectre
Illustrated verse by 'H.D.', London 1851
The fell Spectre advanc'd - who the horror shall tell
Of his galloping stride, as he sounded the knell
Of thousands on thousands who 'neath his eye fell.
Starving Child
Anonymous watercolour, c. 1850
National Library of Ireland
The Gaelic word for elbow is 'uille', so these pipes are called uilleann pipes.
They are
the harp;
the accordion;
the piano.
A potato diet
Do you know how many potatoes an
Irish family ate each day in the early
19th century?
Mine which were safe a few days since are all going -
some gone - though I had none of the disease last
year.
Co. Galway priest, summer 1846
Oh, the praties they grow small over here, over here
Oh, the praties they grow small over here, over here
Oh, the praties they grow small, and we dig them in the fall
And we eat them, skin and all, over here, over here, over here.
Chorus
Come lay me down, and treat me decent
Oh we wish that we were geese, night and morn, night and morn
Come lay me down, and fill my can
Oh we wish that we were geese, night and morn, night and morn
Come lay me down love, and treat me decent
Oh we wish that we were geese, and could live our lives in peace
For surely you're an honest man.
Till the hour of our release, eating corn, eating corn, eating corn.
As I walked out through Galway City
Oh, we're down into the dust, over here, over here
As I walked out on a pleasant walk
Oh, we're down into the dust, over here, over here
As we were walking, I could hear them talking
Oh, we're down into the dust, but the Lord in whom we trust
Oh surely he's an honest man.
Will repay us crumb for crust, over here, over here, over here.
The crops are dying, the children crying
COME LAY ME DOWN
There is widespread hunger all over the land
But when you return, will you treat me decent?
For surely you're an honest man.
The baby was born dead and then they all got
fever.
Having for many years been intimately connected with the western portion of the County of Cork and
possessing some small property there, I thought it right personally to investigate the truth of several
lamentable accounts which had reached me of the appalling state of misery to which that part of the country
was reduced ....
I shall state simply what I saw there .... on reaching the spot I was surprised to find the wretched hamlet
apparently deserted.
I entered some of the hovels to ascertain the cause, and the scenes which presented themselves were such as
no tongue or pen can convey the slightest idea of.
In the first, six famished and ghastly skeletons, to all appearances dead, were huddled in a corner on some
filthy straw, their sole covering what seemed a ragged horsecloth ....
I approached with horror, and found by a low moaning they were alive - they were in fever ...
In a few minutes I was surrounded by at least two hundred such phantoms, such frightful spectres as no
words can describe ....
Their demoniac yells are still ringing in my ears and their horrible images are fixed upon my brain ....
This was written by Nicholas Cummins, a magistrate of Cork, to the Duke of Wellington.
The letter was also published in The Times, 24 December 1846.
The impact
of
the famine
The English satirical journal, Punch, consistently under-estimated the severity of the crisis in Ireland
and depicted the famine as a moral issue.
It blamed indolence of the Irish for the continuation of the famine and for ‘sponging’ on the British
taxpayer.
Hard work or industry (symbolised by a shovel) at home or emigration were Punch’s answers to poverty
in Ireland.
In the main, British press coverage of the Famine was coloured by anti-Irish prejudice and political and
practical considerations.
The general tenor was that the Irish were a backward race and lived on inferior food - the potato; they
were ungrateful and disloyal; Ireland was a drain on British resources; and Britain was being flooded
with Irish paupers.
Punch, in particular, along with The Times ‘reinforced traditional animosities and alienated the
sympathies of the British upper and middle classes’.
In ‘Union is Strength’, 17 October 1846, John Bull (England) presents his Irish ‘brother’ not only with
food but also with a spade to help him ‘to earn your own way of living’.
Punch assumed that self-help was a priority and came to see Irish indolence for the continuing
catastrophe.
Reponses 2
Eviction
‘Skibbereen’
The Alias Acoustic Band
Irish Songs, Tunes, Poetry and Speech of Rebellion, Resistance & Reconciliation
Proper/Retro, R2CD 40-73
Re-enacting the
eviction
1. Working in groups.
Look at the picture.
You have to become the
main people in the picture.
Freeze frame.
2. Judging everyone's
freeze-frame
Give it a mark from 1 (not
like the picture) - 5
(exactly like the picture).
3. Asking questions
Make a list of the
questions which
you need in order to
‘The Ejectment’ understand the
Illustrated London News, xiii, 16 December 1848 importance of the of the
scene in the
See next page for a commentary on this scene picture.
Ejectment of Irish Tenantry Illustrated London News, xiii, 16 December 1848
A grimly effective rendering of an eviction: the A second illustration shows the makeshift shelter along
brutal bailiff, the pleading tenant, his weeping wife the ditch, into which the evicted tenant retreated.
and children, the unfeeling onlookers and the stony-
faced soldiers standing by are all convincingly The stance of the major figure in the picture is one of
presented. utter despair.
Many of the starving found themselves not only The apparent callousness of landlords stemmed from
without food, but also without habitation. two major problems.
In the pre-Christmas edition of 1848, The Illustrated On the one hand they suffered a drastic reduction in
London News published a scathing article their incomes as tenants defaulted on rent.
condemning those Irish landlords who were using
the current crisis to unpeople their property. On the other hand they were faced with rising taxation.
The two illustrations accompanied the text. Circumstances varied from district to district.
The first depicted an ejection scene, and is one of Nevertheless, some landlords were particularly ruthless,
the most exquisite engravings of the entire Famine justifying their action by the slogan 'evict . . . debtors or
collection. be dispossessed'.
Oh, Father, dear, I often hear you speak of Erin’s isle Your mother, too, God rest her soul, fell on the snowy
Her lofty scenes, her valleys green, her mountains ground
rude and wild She fainted in her anguish, the desolation round
They say it is a lovely land, wherein a prince might She never rose but passed away from life to mortal dream
dwell She found a grave and place of rest in dear old Skibbereen.
Oh why did you abandon it, the reason to me tell.
You were only two months old, and feeble was your frame
My son, I loved my native land with energy and pride I could not leave you with my friends, you bore your
Till the blight came over all my crops, my sheep and father’s name I wrapped you in my cótamór, at the dead of
cattle died night unseen
My rent and taxes were so high, I could not them We heaved a sigh and bid goodbye to dear old Skibbereen.
redeem
That’s the cruel reason I left old Skibbereen. Oh father, dear, the day will come when on vengeance we
will call When Irishmen both stout and stern will rally one
It’s well I do remember the year of ‘48 and all
When I arose a Fenian to battle against our fate I’ll be the man to lead the van, beneath the flag of green
I was hunted through the mountains as a traitor to And loud and high we’ll raise the cry, ‘Revenge for
the Queen Skibbereen'.
That’s another reason I left old Skibbereen.
It’s well I do remember the cold November day ‘Skibbereen’ (later 19th century)
When the landlord and the sheriff came to drive us all Skibbereen was one of the areas worst affected
away by the famine – and one of the most publicised
They set our roof ablaze in fire with their damning
yellow spleen
That’s another reason why I left old Skibbereen.
The song 'Skibbereen' as evidence
What effect did the Famine have on Anglo-Irish relations?
Read the words of the song about the Famine, which was written some years after the event.
a. Identify the two characters in the song and say which verses belong to each.
b. Describe the circumstances surrounding the father’s departure from Skibbereen (keywords: blight,
rent, eviction and death).
d. What effect, to judge from the song, did the Famine have on relations between Britain and Ireland?
e. What do you think are the strengths and weaknesses of using such songs as historical evidence?
What do they tell us?
Eviction scenes
In
Irish art
An Irish Eviction
Frederick Goodall, 1850
Leicester Museum & Art
Gallery
The Eviction
Erskine Nicol
1853
National Library of
Ireland
Evicted
Lady Butler
1890
University College, Dublin
Migration was a
disorienting experience.
This picture conveys some
of the dislocation. Once in
Liverpool emigrants
sought lodging and
passages. Swindlers,
'runners' and
'mancatchers' preyed on
them, often robbing them
of baggage and carefully
hoarded cash.
The Famine
in
Irish fiction & poetry
Under the Hawthorn Tree by Conlon-McKenna, Marita, O'Brien Press, 0-86278-206-
6
Under the Hawthorn Tree is the first of an award-winning trilogy,* a gripping story
of love, loyalty and courage set in the time when Ireland was devastated by the
Great Famine of the 1840s.
Three children, Eily, Michael and Peggy, are left to fend for themselves.
Starving and in danger of the dreaded workhouse, they escape in the hope of
finding the great-aunts they have heard about in their mother's stories.
With tremendous courage they set out on a journey that will test every reserve of
strength, love and loyalty they possess.
There are also a Channel 4 film of the book, available on video from 4 Learning,
and a study guide (O'Brien Press, ISBN 0-86278-383-9) to both the book and the
film.
* The other books in the trilogy are The Wildflower Girl, set in America (0-86278-
283-X) and Fields of Home (0-86278-509-X), set in Ireland.
Famine by McKeown, Arthur, Poolbeg Press, 0-85371-505-0
Joe and his daughter Maggie lived on a farm in Co. Antrim, in the north-east of Ireland
more than one-hundred-and-fifty years ago.
In the summer Joe worked in his fields. In the winter he worked at his loom making
linen. Maggie looked after some hens in the yard.
One morning they went out to the field to check on the potato crop - the potatoes
were rotten!
All over the county starving families took to the roads. One day Jack was forced to
sell the family cow and he and Maggie walked to Belfast, where they set sail for
America on the sailing ship, Electra - their lives changed forever.
In 1847 the Choctaw Indians raised 170 dollars for famine relief in Ireland.
This superbly illustrated book tells the moving story of that tribe's own dispossession
and enforced exile.
Young Choona struggles to understand why his people would care about white men
dying on the other side of the world.
In doing so, he learns the history of the Choctaw's tragic Long March to freedom to new
lands in the West, and appreciates the historical similarities between the two peoples,
including great respect for the land, dispossession and potato eating.
Gill & Macmillan, 0-71713-150-5 OUP, 0-71713-150-5 Pan, 0-33030-328-7
A fictional diary told in the voice 'Turned out of their home, their The hero, Dualta Duane, a young
of twelve-year-old Mary crops destroyed, too hungry to Galwayman, is forced to flee his
home after tangling with the son of
O'Flynn, this is the story of the sleep, and cold to their very
the local landlord. Journeying
courage and determination with bones.' This is the story of through the west and south-west of
which one family survived the Eamonn's struggle for survival. Ireland in his fight to survive as a
appalling ordeal of the Famine. Can he keep himself and his second-class citizen in his own
It is illustrated by authentic family alive through the cold country, he comes across the
photographs of landscapes, and the famine - through the constitutional nationalist Daniel
O'Connell and Cuan McCarthy who
interiors and genuine period coldest winter Ireland has ever
advocated political violence. The
artefacts. known? novel reaches its climax at the height
of the Famine.
III. From
Live skulls, blind-eyed, balanced on
wild higgledy skeletons 'At a Potato Digging'
scoured the land in 'forty-five, Seamus Heaney
wolfed the blighted root and died.