Author Topic: Book about Irish Famine 1840's  (Read 9605 times)

Offline miggs 191

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Re: Book about Irish Famine 1840's
« Reply #18 on: Friday 30 October 15 13:41 GMT (UK) »
In "my" part of Ireland, which is the far south west of Cork,my family survived because they were lucky enough to have a good piece of land and they lived close to the sea. There are dreadful reports in the area of men being made to work on roads that started and went nowhere because the British land owners did not want them to think they got something for nothing.They were paid pennies which could not support a family. One man found collapsed in the townland my family came from had an autopsey which showed that he had had nothing to eat for days and his muscle was wasted away.

When families died there was no one to bury them.Some were eaten by the rats.

There is a huge pit in Skibbereen where no one knows for certain how many thousand are buried.

My grandfather born in 1864 always told my mother born 1918 that when they killed a pig the best piece of meat was to be taken to the neighbours. The neighbours did the same.Probably tradition which meant when you had little your neighbour would help you out.

Famine occurred. It was a disaster. The bit I can't cope with is the landed gentries attitude to the poor and starving. They were treated as disposable rubbish...read the accounts of the time.

I know things were bad elsewhere even in the UK but Ireland was worse because of the British .
 :'(
Maslin,Devizes
Perry, Devizes
Grace,Devizes
Eyles,Upavon
Banks,Lacock
Davies Islington & Aberystwyth
Jones Aberystwyth
Howells Aberystwyth
Bohane , Killaderry Skibbereen ,Cork

Offline hallmark

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Re: Book about Irish Famine 1840's
« Reply #19 on: Friday 30 October 15 14:22 GMT (UK) »
It's strange OK, the neighbouring Landlord in Clonakilty went broke trying to support his tenants even setting up Co-Ops and exporting Butter to markets in London where it got premium prices yet poor old Skibb suffered so badly.
Give a man a record and you feed him for a day.
Teach a man to research, and you feed him for a lifetime.

Offline miggs 191

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Re: Book about Irish Famine 1840's
« Reply #20 on: Friday 30 October 15 14:34 GMT (UK) »
Hi Hallmark,
I know modern Con.and know what you mean.

I think Skibb was so out on a limb that no one bothered.There is a tragic article published in the Times (I think) from two journalists who went to see for themselves.They were told not to take food because they would be mobbed.They took bread and I believe had to run for their lives.

There is also a recipe I've seen somewhere for soup that was given out to the desperate.It was water ,salt and some sort of old veg.Nothing in it really but the powers that be thought it would do !

My great grandmother lived through the famine. My late mother would talk of her sitting by the fire wearing a linen cap.A cousin still has it.She was about 105 when she died and made the Southern Star Newspaper.Probably she wasn't quiet that old as there was no proof of birth and people added on years when pensions were brought in but she was still very ancient.Somehow they must have had food.
For info there is the 'Skibbereen and District Historical Society Journal' I only have Volume 10 but there are many references to the Famines in these volumes.
Maslin,Devizes
Perry, Devizes
Grace,Devizes
Eyles,Upavon
Banks,Lacock
Davies Islington & Aberystwyth
Jones Aberystwyth
Howells Aberystwyth
Bohane , Killaderry Skibbereen ,Cork

Offline conahy calling

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Re: Book about Irish Famine 1840's
« Reply #21 on: Friday 30 October 15 20:03 GMT (UK) »


Offline Viktoria

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Re: Book about Irish Famine 1840's
« Reply #22 on: Friday 30 October 15 23:19 GMT (UK) »
Many people came to Manchester to  get away from the conditions in Ireland. Sadly it was at the time workers in the mills were trying to get better wages but with no success . The Irish immigrants were willing to work for low wages, after all  they`d had   severe  deprivation and were literally starving. But they unwittingly undermined the cause of Lancashire textile workers and this caused dreadful bitterness for generations .The wages and conditions in the mills were dreadful too  and the living  conditions horrific in the hastily erected slum housing built for the rural workers who flooded into the towns when hand weaving and spinning became mechanised.                         I can remember how sectarian the Whit walks were for many years.Bitter memories prevailed.
Angel Meadow and Chorlton on Medlock  had  streets known as Irish Row.
I can never understand what good it did and who it benefitted to take the roofs off the turf cabins when the Irish poor could not pay the rent due. They then were homeless and  had lost their main food crop --potatoes- and so illness followed and starvation.
How cruel and senseless.
Many thanks for the info re the book.I know it will be a heartbreaking read  but I`m really
 interested.   
                            Viktoria.

Offline lyndo

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Re: Book about Irish Famine 1840's
« Reply #23 on: Saturday 31 October 15 00:34 GMT (UK) »
Thanks majm,

I went and got the book and read the chapter last night. I really appreciate you finding it and sharing it.
It shows that some people in gov't were trying to help. Just not enough.

Seems like an Enclosure Act enacted in a different way once people began suffering.

This probably gives us understanding of the French, who got fed up with their oversight, rebelled, and put them all to the guillotine -
         only the Irish were starving and dying, and couldn't fight back. :'( :'( :'(

lyndo
MacDermott, Feeley, Ireland. 1850's Govan Lanarkshire
Scotland in the shipyards.

Offline lyndo

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Re: Book about Irish Famine 1840's
« Reply #24 on: Saturday 31 October 15 01:57 GMT (UK) »
Thanks conahy calling,

I just read that article you posted the link for.

I think that it balanced my view of things a bit to see how much money was put into play in the face of this disaster. AND clearly a lot of people were trying to do something.

 Miggs 191 - Thanks for that observation on your great grandma. Its easy to understand that if you lived through that time you might be drawn into yourself in reflection and sadness.

There is a Kerrisk memorial at Aghadowie Castle in Kerry. Its for all Kerrisks. That is my family.
Now that I am learning more about this I can understand why the descendants might feel the desire to do that.

lyndo
 


MacDermott, Feeley, Ireland. 1850's Govan Lanarkshire
Scotland in the shipyards.