Pre-famine percentage of the population in regards to literacy and poor (4th class) housing in Kerry circa 1841: 60% Lowest class housing 23% Literate Excerpt from a description of his tour in Ireland by Gustave de Beaumont (1830s): Imagine four walls of dried mud (which the rain, as it falls, easily restores to its primitive condition) having for its roof a little straw or some sods, for its chimney a hole cut in the roof, or very frequently the door through which alone the smoke finds an issue. A single apartment contains father, mother, children and sometimes a grandfather and a grandmother; there is no furniture in the wretched hovel; a single bed of straw serves the entire family. Five or six half-naked children may be seen crouched near a miserable fire, the ashes of which cover a few potatoes, the sole nourishment of the family. In the midst of all lies a dirty pig, the only thriving inhabitant of the place, for he lives in filth. The presence of a pig in an Irish hovel may at first seem an indication of misery; on the contrary, it is a sign of comparative comfort. Indigence is still more extreme in a hovel where no pig is found... I have just described the dwelling of the Irish farmer or agricultural labourer. From a witness to the Poor Inquiry 1835-6: When they have dug the potatoes from the pits, they still have to collect fuel, and to wash them and boil them; in fact, between setting potatoes, digging potatoes, washing potatoes and boiling potatoes, they have hardly time to attend to anything else. They can never be clean or diligent at other matters until the nature of their food be changed. (local.ie) - Famine top Famine Years - 1845-50 (The Great Starvation) Potato Famine Kerry Lord Ventry - landowner, Corkaquiny Barony (Dingle Peninsula) Dingle Hospital During the Famine Why wasnt fishing a solution during the famine years? The overall impacts of the Famine included: *the decline of the Irish language and customs (in 1835, the number of native Irish speakers was estimated at four million -- in 1851, only 2 million spoke Irish as their first language) *the devastation of the landless laborer class and small tenant farmer. *a treeless landscape in many parts of Ireland. *the shells of homes that were rendered uninhabitable after the landlords evicted their tenants. *a massive decrease in farms of 15 acres and less. The 1841 census showed that 45% of land holdings were less than five acres. *Irish emigrants scattered around the globe. Today there are over 5 million people in Ireland, while it is estimated there are upwards of 70 million people of Irish descent throughout the world. The British Government on the Famine: The judgement of God sent the calamity to teach the Irish a lesson,that calamity must not be too much mitigated.... The real evil with which we have to contend is not the physical evil of the famine, but the moral evil of the selfish, perverse and turbulent character of the people Sir Charles Trevelyan head of famine relief
Posted on: Sun, 01 Dec 2013 10:26:03 +0000