Dissertation, The Land and the People of Famine Kerry 1845-1851, Emma Catharina Linzel, 12004378

The Land and the People of Famine Kerry
1845 - 1851
Emma Catharina Linzel
12004378
BA Honours History Dissertation
University of the West of England

Table of Contents
Abstract 1
List of Maps, Tables, Charts and Illustrations 3
Introduction 4
Chapter 1: Agriculture 7
Chapter 2: Starvation, Disease and Evictions 19
Chapter 3: Outdoor Relief 29
Conclusion 39
Bibliography 42
Index 46

1
Abstract
“The outline history of the Great Famine is familiar.
So are its keywords – Black ’47, mass mortality,
the potato, clearances, fever, official neglect.”
(Cormac Ó Gráda, Black ’47 and Beyond, 1999)
This dissertation investigates the calamity of the Irish Famine with a focus on
County Kerry. This region was one of the worst hit by poverty, with the tenantry being
described as the most destitute in the whole of Ireland (see Chapter 2, p26) because of
the potato blight that reached the shores 1845. At a glance, historiography on the
subject is extensive and many people are familiar with the keywords Ó Gráda’s quote
acknowledges. However, further reading into the subject reveals various voids,
exposing the fact that not all aspects of the Famine have been fully reviewed. Just as
James S. Donnelly has scrutinized primary and secondary sources to compile his
sweeping book about the Famine and its effects in Cork, this dissertation, ‘The Land and
the People of Famine Kerry: 1845 – 1851’ will do justice to the situation in the
neighbouring county of Kerry, reviewing and accounting for the various grievances
experienced by the people. With a sparsely distributed population and no urban centres,
it can be argued that Kerry is a slightly neglected region and so to gain knowledge of the
hardships that faced the Kerry people is a valuable attainment.
Using a range of primary research including local and national newspapers,
pamphlets, Parliamentary Intelligence reports, Constabulary reports, letters and
correspondences has allowed the creation of a study which depicts events in Kerry over
this period. These will be supported with arguments obtained from secondary research,
such as that undertaken by those already mentioned, as well as Christine Kinealy, R. F.
Foster, John Crowley, Cecil Woodham-Smith and others.
This dissertation focuses on agriculture before and during the Famine, which
provides valuable knowledge and context to the era by outlining the economic and
social problems associated with the system of land tenure. Also discussed are deaths
and evictions, arguably the most horrific and catastrophic effect of the failure of the

2
potato crop. Lastly, the relief measures introduced by the British Government, private
philanthropists and local landlords in Kerry are examined, with a focus on outdoor
relief. These three topics combine to form a well-researched, justifiable, and intelligible
account of the Famine concentrating on Kerry, allowing for a distinctive contribution to
the history of the Irish Famine.
Word count: 9,117

3
List of Maps, Tables, Charts and Illustrations
Maps
Map 1. Irish counties and provinces 7
Map 2. Poor Law Unions in Kerry 8
Tables & Charts
Table 1. Percentage of potato acreage in various Irish counties in 1847 10
Table 2. Annual income of a male labourer in 1835 in various Irish Counties 11
Table 3. Number of smallholdings above 200 acres in the Poor Law unions of Kerry 12
Table 4. Potato prices at market in 1840 and 1845 throughout Kerry 17
Chart 1. Cause and numbers of deaths in the Famine years (1845 - 1851) 22
Table 5. Death rates in various counties from cholera in 1849 25
Table 6. Employment on public works in various counties per 10,000 of population 33
Table 7. Money and food relief granted to various counties by the Society of Friends
in 1846 and 1847 per 10,000 of population 35
Illustrations
Cover page photograph, Bonane, Co. Kerry (Emma Linzel) -
Figure 1. 'Potato Ridges', Ballygriffin, Co. Kerry 9
Figure 2. Famine ruin, Bonane, Co. Kerry (Emma Linzel) 14
Figure 3. Sugreana graveyard, Cahirciveen, Co. Kerry 20
Figure 4. Castleisland, Co. Kerry, relief committee poster, 19 October 1847 31

4
Introduction
Chapter 1 places the Famine in historical context using pre-Famine
agricultural methods and systems and geographical differences to account for its
significance in County Kerry. These include a review of the potato crop before it
failed in 1845, with explanations accounting for the high reliance people had on
the crop as their primary source of nutrition. This ties in with the history of land
tenure and landlordism in Ireland, which the chapter explores through analysis
of ‘conacre’ land rental and the hated middleman system of the land leasing
during this period.
The first chapter will also explore the population boom in Ireland prior to
the Famine, a long-term effect of the system of landholding in the country.
Consequently, this put a strain on the little available land there was, prompting
subdivision which then created grievances for the people, especially those in
Kerry. Landlords began leasing their land for higher prices due to increased
demand and using examples from the county, such as the Godfrey and
Lansdowne estates, Chapter 1 examines the destitution faced by many because of
this. Particularly shocking was the poor housing in which these penniless
labourers, or ‘cottiers’ as they were known as, lived.
Using this context, the blight and its immediate consequences are
investigated. The fact that many tenants in Kerry were already facing poverty-
stricken circumstances in life meant that the effects of the potato infection were
that much more harrowing. The blight and its ramifications are explored
chronologically with explanations of the effects and the tremendous misfortune
that it created in Ireland, with a focus on the south-western county of Kerry.
Chapter 2 focuses on the immediate effects of the potato blight: disease,
death, and the many incidents of forced eviction, which were arguably the most
tragic aspect of the Irish Famine. During the years 1845 to 1851 countless
hundreds of thousands perished from hunger and various horrific diseases and
infections. The chapter examines the figures of these, which unfortunately due to

5
lack of documentation and records from the time means historians can now only
estimate the totals.
In comparison with the rest of the counties of Ireland, Kerry was a
notably secluded locality, a factor contributing to the social and economic
backwardness in the area. The effects of the Famine were considerably worse in
the less developed regions of Ireland such as this, therefore accounting for the
higher number of victims. In 1847 there were more cases of deaths than any
other of the Famine years due to the increasing cases of various diseases that
consumed the country and a high percentage of its population. Illnesses suffered
most commonly by impoverished Irish at this time were typhoid fever and
relapsing fever, both proving to be deadly to the populace of the country. The
second chapter examines the causes and spreading of each, while measuring and
accounting for the vast numbers that died.
This chapter then reviews the relationship between landlords and tenants
during the years of the Famine with a close analysis of the situation in Kerry.
Primary research suggests that the landholding class in this particular county
were ruthless and more likely to act unmercifully towards the many hundreds of
tenants that lived and worked on their land. The matter of evictions is a critical
topic when investigating the cause of Famine deaths, as they created a quandary
for the poor Irish labourers by further exposing them to starvation and disease.
The final chapter examines what was done to relieve the grievances of the
starving and disease stricken people of Ireland, paying particular attention to the
differences between relief offered at the beginning of the crisis and that afforded
towards the end. These variations occurred mainly due to the shift of power in
the British Government, when the Conservatives headed by Sir Robert Peel lost
the election to the Whigs in 1846, which transferred the power of Prime Minister
to Lord John Russell. The administrative and ideological positions of these two
parties contrasted greatly, the outcome of which resulted in very ineffective
relief schemes and policies.
The Famine lasted six years; throughout which it was constantly featured
in the headlines with acclaimed newspapers such as The Times in England even
having a bi-weekly report with information on the state of the Irish. A prevalent
argument about the calamity was that the British people did not do enough to

6
save the country, and many blame this on Russell’s reluctance to pester the
English with requests to donate. The Prime Minister was also hesitant to spend
money on schemes to aid Ireland, which led to inefficient ones being introduced,
such as the public work scheme and the soup kitchens. Both were abolished
abruptly, and did not work well as labourers were far too drained from hunger
to manage manual exertion, with many in Kerry dropping dead as a result.
Chapter 3 also examines the extent of private relief granted to the people
of Ireland with the spotlight on Kerry. The lack of help given by the government
meant that independent relief commissions were introduced, but due to its
remoteness as a county in the south-west, some relief did not always reach its
borders. Figures from various sources however also give an insight into the fact
that in many cases Kerry was one of the counties that received most aid, proving
that it was suffering worse than most of the country. This chapter also examines
the extent of relief granted to the grieving tenants by their landlords who had
evicted them, again with a focus on Kerry.

7
Chapter 1
Agriculture
Map1: Irish countiesandprovinces

8
Pre-Famine Ireland had been celebrated for its soil of superior fertility,
plentiful supply of meats and minerals, and the fact that it was in legislative
union with the most wealthy and industrious nation in the world.1 However,
beginning in 1845, a blight that we now know as ‘phytophthora infestans’
plagued the entire country affecting some areas worse than others.
Potatoes were grown on various large estates that originated in the
eighteenth century which were divided into portions ranging from a hundred to
a thousand acres. These sections of land would be handled by various
middlemen and re-divided in many cases, and sublet to farmers who would then
lease tiny portions of land to poorer labourers, known as cottiers.2 In Ireland,
land was the foundation for existence, as a family who had three to four acres
would be provided for3 and the small strip of land that they would rent, known
as ‘conacre’ was mainly used to grow potatoes, especially in county Kerry. The
land was sometimes let for free or for a very small price since it would be the
1 Valpy, Richard, The Resources of the Irish Sea Fisheries, Journal of the Statistical Society of
London, Vol.II, No.1, 1848, p11
2 Donnelly, James S Jr., The Land and the People of Nineteenth-Century Cork: The Rural Economy
and the Land Question, Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1975, p9
3 Waller, George, A Revolution in Irish Property: The Cause and Remedy, Cowen Tracts, 1848, p5
Map2: PoorLaw UnionsinKerry (keyin Index)

9
labourer’s job to manure and cultivate it.4 Figure 1 is a recent photograph of
where this type of land division can be seen, also known as ‘potato ridges’. 5
The popularity of the potato crop can be attributed to the fact that a tiny
patch of land could provide an excellent yield,6 was nutritious,7 and the ground
did not need to fallow in preparation for other crops such as wheat, oats and
barley.8 Due to this many became exclusively dependent on it, which proved
highly disastrous for the following reasons: the uncertainty of its arriving at
maturity uninjured, the impossibility of storage, the difficulty of transporting it,
and above all, the injurious effect it had in retarding the advancement of
4 Donnelly, The Land and the People of Nineteenth-Century Cork, p19
5 Crowley, John, Atlas of the Great Irish Famine, Cork University Press, 2012, p18
6 Magnusson, Magnus, Landlord or Tenant? A View of Irish History, The Bodley Head, 1978, p84
7 Foster, R.F., Modern Ireland: 1600-1972, Penguin Press, 1988, p319
8 Donnelly, James S. Jr., The Great Irish Potato Famine, Sutton Publishing, 2000, p9
Figure1: 'Potato Ridges',Ballygriffin,Co.Kerry

10
agriculture.9 These four problems were present in Famine Kerry, prompted by
the dependence that the people in this county had on the potato. This is clearly
shown by the fact that in 1847, the percentage of potatoes cultivated in the
county numbered 10-20% of the overall crops grown, the highest in the country
as shown in Table 1.10
Table1:Percentageof potato acreagein variousIrishcountiesin1847
This reliance that people had in the potato crop provoked vast poverty
once it began to fail as they had no other staple food source to survive off. Pre-
Famine Kerry people were already poor in many cases, as shown by the fact that
in 1841 the percentage of fourth class housing (one-roomed cabins) in the
county accounted for 45% and above11, while first class housing made up a mere
1-2% in the same year.12 In 1849 The Times reported that 66 families out of
every 160 were living in houses unfit for human habitation across the south-
west of Ireland.13 This poverty meant that when main source of food and income
was lost, the people had no extra money to live off.
9 Waller, A revolution in Irish Property, p4
10 Kennedy, Liam, Ell, Paul S., Crawford, E.M. & Clarkson, L.A., Four Courts Press, Mapping the
Great Irish Famine, Four Courts Press, 1999, p184
11 ibid, p83
12 ibid, p80
13 The Times, 27 October 1849
County Potatoes (% acreage under cultivation)
Kerry 10 to less than 20
Cork 5 to less than 10
Dublin Less than 5
Limerick 5 to less than 10
Kildare Less than 5
Sligo Less than 5
Down Less than 5

11
The poverty in this region can also be measured by looking at the wages received
by workers in pre-Famine Kerry, as shown in Table 2.14
Table2:Annual incomeofa male labourerin1835invariousIrishCounties
The middleman system that encouraged the continual subdivision and
subletting of land stimulated a population explosion. The rate in which the
population of Ireland grew in the decades leading up to the Famine was
previously unprecedented in Europe with an estimated increase of 172% during
the years 1779 and 1841. In Kerry during the years 1841 to 1861, 80% of males
were employed in the agricultural sector, with the abundance of the cheap
potato being argued as accounting for the large families of the “reckless Irish”15,
whose agricultural population was one of the highest in Europe at the time. The
rise in population during this century meant that demand for land was ever
growing, and the fragmentation of holdings was above all the worst of Irish
agrarian problems.16 Estate administration was usually careless and inefficient
and the treatment of cottiers from the middlemen was very poor in most cases.17
14 Kennedy, Ell, Crawford, & Clarkson, Mapping the Great Irish Famine, p143
15 Ó Gráda, Cormac, The Great Irish Famine, Cambridge University Press, 1995, p1
16 Donnelly, The Great Irish Potato Famine, p8
17 Waller, George, A revolution in Irish Property, p7
County Annual income (£)
Cork 7 to less than 9
Dublin 11 and above
Limerick Less than 5
Kildare 9 to less than 11
Sligo Less than 5
Down 9 to less than 11

12
Along with the increased reliance on the potato, contemporary writer
George Waller blamed the rise in the number of smallholdings at the time as
shown in Table 318 as “the cause of the present wretchedness and misery in
Ireland.”19
Table3:Number ofsmallholdingsabove200acresin thePoorLaw unionsof
Kerry
Throughout Kerry from 1852 until 1871, holdings from fifty to two
hundred acres numbered above six hundred, apart from Dingle where it
fluctuated between four to six hundred.20 Grievances were heavily debated in the
newspapers of the time, with the Tralee Chronicle arguing that both the gentry
and proprietors should increase wages, since some of the wealthiest only paid
4d. to 6d. a day.21 The “evil system”22 of land rental was done so on harsh terms,
with three “monster grievances”23, the first being that any improvements made
on the land while it was being let became property of the landlord once the
tenancy had expired. Secondly, the tenant had hardly any security of tenure,
meaning that they could be sent off the land whenever the landlord chose.24
Finally, if a poor cottier lost his cattle to disease, or if his harvest failed, all his
19 Waller, George, A revolution in Irish Property, p5
21 Tralee Chronicle, 19 December 1846
22 Muggeridge, Richard M., Notes on the Irish ‘difficulty’: with remedial suggestions, Hume Tracts,
1849, p10
23 Woodham-Smith, Cecil, The Great Hunger: Ireland 1845-1849, Penguin, 1991, p22
24 ibid, p22
Poor Law Union Number of smallholdings
1852 1861 1871
Listowel 90 to less than 120 60 to less than 90 60 to less than 90
Tralee 120 and above 120 and above 90 to less than 120
Dingle 30 to less than 60 60 to less than 90 60 to less than 90
Caherciveen 120 and above 120 and above 120 and above
Killarney 120 and above 120 and above 120 and above
Kenmare 120 and above 120 and above 120 and above

13
accumulated capital through the investment of seeds and stuffs to prepare the
soil for cultivation was lost.25
A prime example of a large and powerful estate of the time in Kerry was
the Godfrey Estate, granted to Major John Godfrey of Kent in 1667, the acreage of
which is estimated to have been between seven and eight thousand acres. This
land was inherited many years later by Sir William Duncan Godfrey, High Sheriff
of Kerry in 1841, a largely resident landlord which was an uncommon
occurrence in rural Ireland. There were over one hundred tenants leasing land
on the Godfrey estate,26 and almost all of them middlemen who let tiny plots to
cottiers in exchange for labour27, reportedly paying enormous rents fora very
small holding and a miserable cabin.28 It has been argued that the very
foundation of the economic problems that Ireland was undergoing at the time
was the cottier system.29
Although kept warm by a turf fire the homes of the Irish cottiers,
described by one contemporary writer as no better than cow-houses30, were
almost always poorly thatched and some did not even have windows31. Families
often slept on the muddy floor often with their livestock sleeping beside them.32
Godfrey tenants typically paid their rents from proceeds arising from the sale of
cattle and pigs, but during the Famine tenants purchased food with money
normally set aside for rents to ensure basic survival.33 This posed a problem as
many exhausted their funds when the potato failed, but on this particular estate
rent abatements were given when there was a poor harvest, flooding, and when
animals became diseased. In total, over £1,100 was written off by the William
Godfrey between 1845 and 1850.34 Tenants also had the right to petition, and
25 O’Brien, Lucius, Ireland in 1848: The Late Famine and the Poor Laws, Knowsley Pamphlet, 1848,
p3
26 Knightly, John, The Godfrey Estate during the Great Famine,
http://www.kerryhistory.ie/documents/5.%20Godfrey.pdf, accessed 10.02.2015, p128
27 ibid, p129
28 Minute Books, Tralee Board of Guardians, Vol. I, Kerry
County Library, 18 October 1845
29 Muggeridge, Notes on the Irish ‘difficulty’, p11
30 The Times, 10 January 1846
32 Woodham-Smith, The Great Hunger, p31
33 Knightly, The Godfrey Estate during the Great Famine, p136
34 ibid, p137

14
could achieve a reduction in rent if they did so with success.35 But even so, those
who resided in these dwellings in Kerry were the section of society who most
suffered during the Famine era.
Similarly, in the parish of Cahirciveen tenants lived very miserably as
their houses were of very poor quality36 as landlord Mr. O’Connell sublet his
farms, said to be in a neglected state, at triple the rent which he himself paid.37
The Lansdowne estate which constituted 95,000 acres spanning across the west
of Kerry over three parishes38 reportedly had the worst houses in the whole of
Ireland. They typically measured thirteen feet by ten broad, and were built of
stone and mud with a thatched roof of straw, heath, or potato stalks and with a
floor of beaten earth.39 The ruin of one such house where a family of seven lived
still remains in the parish of Bonane (see Figure 2), a region inhabited by 1,400
Lansdowne tenants. The population of the entire Lansdowne estate was modest
in relation to its vast size and numbered a total of 12,800, most of whom lived in
an area called Tuosist.
35 ibid, p129
37 ibid, 20 January 1846
38 Anbinder, Tyler, From Famine to Five Points: Lord Lansdowne's Irish Tenants Encounter North
America's Most Notorious Slum, The American Historical Review, Vol. 107, No. 2, 2002, p351
39 ibid, p360
Figure2: Famineruin, Bonane,Co.Kerry (EmmaLinzel)

15
Since potatoes could not be carried over from one season to another and
were difficult to transport, the main method of conversion was to raise pigs and
feed them the crop. As a result of the Famine, there was a sharp decline in pig
numbers between 1841 and 1847,40 and such was the need to continue feeding
them during the Famine that a report published in a newspaper of the time
outlines how to preserve infected crop in order to do so. It states that diseased
potatoes prepared in the manner it goes on to describe will keep for twelve
months or more, and the reporter has proof that one man has already done this
successfully. The method is as follows: diseased potatoes are to be washed and
steamed and placed in a hole in the ground with some straw, and beat down into
a solid mass. Then it is to be mixed with a little Indian corn and the pigs will eat
it.41
The effects of the Famine were not nationwide; the worst hit areas were
the south and west regions of the country where there was a large poor, rural
population and excessive subdivision of land. An example of this in Kerry can be
seen in the town of Kilburn, which made up 133 statute acres and held by a
middleman who managed twenty-eight under tenants.42 The infection that
rendered the potatoes inedible was first noticed in September 1845, and in Kerry
the first report came from local James Prendergast. He reported that the crop
was only half destroyed43 even in Milltown, a very poor area of the county
according to the Kerry Evening Post,44 and thus the immediate effects of the
scarcity were not evident straight away.
However, the situation worsened the following year when there was
virtually complete failure of the crop. This was the case in Kerry in 1846,
described as the darkest county in Ireland at this time:45 “there was nothing but
distress and destitution.”46 The Times published an article describing the fact that
the ‘calamity’ as the Famine was sometimes known, had again visited the
41 Tralee Chronicle, 21 October 1848
43 Prendergast, James, Prendergast, Elizabeth, edited by Shelley Barber, The Prendergast Letters:
Correspondence from Famine-era Ireland, 1840-1850, 2006, p18
44 Kerry Evening Post, 22 April 1846
46 Anbinder, From Famine to Five Points, p351

16
country.47 As the year progressed, residents in the village of Kenmare began to
starve. A report of the potato crop in the nearby town of Listowel demonstrates
that this was the case throughout the county, it being “fearfully awful” and that
the small portions that were brought to market were inedible. Concerns were
expressed that there would be no potatoes for the people the following year, an
accurate prediction.48
A similar situation was occurring eighty kilometres away in Dingle, where
one observer commented: “the potato crop is a complete failure.”49 However, the
Tralee Chronicle wrote in 1846 that the land was being neglected in many parts
of the county and not being prepared for next season’s crop. Alvin Jackson agrees
that there was a sharp fall in acreage of potatoes planted which he estimates at
two million in 1845 to under 300,000 two years later throughout the whole
country.50 The Times commented on this blaming the lazy, ignorant Irish, who
they say were “content with discontent.”51 Though we cannot know for sure,
perhaps this neglect was due to the loss of faith and morale felt by the people. It
is also argued that there was a feeling of scepticism towards the gravity of the
problem52 as some were described as having a “naïve faith in the potato” which
ultimately proved to be fatal.53 This can be argued as being a harsh statement, as
the Irish people had survived on the potato for many decades, there was no crop
quite like it, and there had never been a shortage of it to this magnitude in
history.
It could also be argued that the farmers were physically drained from
starvation and so did not have the energy to cultivate the land efficiently. Many
also could not afford to pay for seeds to grow the crop; such was the case in
Kenmare for many tenants on the Lansdowne estate in 1848 who were also too
poor to afford seed potatoes to even plant54, many even walking to the
47The Times, 12 June 1846
48 Constabulary Report, sub-inspector Fletcher, Listowel, Co. Kerry, 5.09.1846, RLFC 3/12/12/26
49 Return from Inspecting Commander of Dingle District, 14.09.1846, RLFC 3/2/12/8
50 Jackson, Alvin, Ireland: 1798-1998, Blackwell, 1999, p70
52 Boyce, George D., Ireland 1828-1923: From Ascendancy to Democracy, Blackwell, 1992, p31
54 Anbinder, From Famine to Five Points, p351

17
neighbouring counties of Cork, Limerick and even Tipperary in search of work.55
Either way, the reporter for the Kerry newspaper denounces this behaviour as
“social suicide” and urges landlords, agents and the clergy to aid and encourage
farmers to make every effort they can to plant crops.56
The problem of what to feed the people soon came to the fore, as Sir
Charles Trevelyan outlined in 1849: “the small patches of land which maintained
a family when laid down to potatoes are insufficient for the purpose when laid
down to corn or any other kind of produce.”57 This was because to cultivate corn,
one needed to be skilled and have combined labour, which the Irish cottiers did
not possess. Some argued that fish could have been a good alternative for the
starving, as the coasts of Ireland were described at the time as being abounded in
all various species.58 On the Kerry coast in particular, the finest black sole in the
world could be caught according to contemporary writer Richard Valpy.59
However, due to the rocky and barren landscape of the area, roads between the
coast and the villages were few and bad, thus many places that might have
survived from fish in practice could not.
Prices of food in the markets can be looked at in order to gain an insight
into whether these were affordable for the poor and starving people. This data
also demonstrate the availability of food in the different poor law unions at
different times during the Famine. On Tuesday, 17 March 1846, the price of
potatoes at market was published for 1840 and 1845 as can be seen in Table 4.60
Table4:Potato pricesat market in 1840and1845throughoutKerry(highest
priceper stonein £)
55 ibid, p358
56 Tralee Chronicle, 9 January 1847
57 Muggeridge, Notes on the Irish ‘difficulty’, p11
58 Valpy, The Resources of the Irish Sea Fisheries, p55
59 ibid, p62
60 The Times, 17 March 1846
County 1840 1845
Dingle 2 4
Listowel 2 4
Milltown 2 3 ½
Tralee 3 4 ½

18
In 1846 it was reported that the Saturday food market in Tralee on the
19th of December was “plentifully supplied” with oats and wheat on the advance,
and a tolerable supply of bread available. Barley was scarce, but this was due to
the fact that not much was grown in Kerry anyway.61 On the downside, these
supplies were not always available to the poor because of high pricing and
exports. In the neighbouring county of Limerick, it was recorded that there were
about four thousand barrels of oats and wheat available but this was purchased
up immediately for exportation.62 Therefore this development meant absolutely
nothing to the hungry masses.
The following year has been nicknamed ‘Black ‘47’ as a testament to the
extent of the destitution that the Famine brought to Ireland. In January, a letter
to the editor of the Tralee Chronicle was printed which was sent from London,
outlining various methods that the Irish could use to cultivate healthy potatoes
in order to avoid the “destroyer of man food” from infecting the potatoes and
causing so many people to perish. The advice was printed due to the increased
urgency of the matter and the rise in cases of death due to starvation and
disease.
62 The Times, 2 September 1846

19
Chapter 2
Starvation, Disease and Evictions
“Famine and plague have taught all classes that the real evils of Ireland
are social, and not political.”63 There is no denying the Famine inaugurated a new
era, as the demography of the country completely transformed with the total
population falling by approximately 20%.64 Collecting reliable evidence of
population figures for Ireland before and after the Famine however is a
“hazardous enterprise”65 according to historian and data analyst Paul Ell. This is
owing to the fact that Ireland lacked a system of civil registration of deaths and
births and even though these figures were recorded in parish registries, their
accuracy is questionable.66 Therefore, historians tend to rely on the censuses of
1841 and 1851 to estimate the population of Ireland to gain an insight into the
extent of the ‘unpeopling’ of the country from the destructive effects of the
potato blight.
Many social commentators dismiss this data however, such as Sir William
McArthur, who argues that the estimation of deaths is understated by more than
one half.67 This is because the statistics of Famine casualties are questionable as
they were compiled from hospital returns and also from information from
householders. The former were often illegible and the causes of death not always
clear to the doctor, and as a result what was written depended on the
administrator’s preference. Relying on household evidence provided gross
inaccuracies, since “whole districts were cleared”68 during the years of blight, as
63 Illustrated London News, 4 August 1849
65 ibid, p36
66 O’Grada, Cormac, ‘Black ’47 and Beyond: The Great Irish Famine in History, Economy and
Memory, Princeton University Press, 1999, p85
67 McArthur, Sir William, A Medical Survey of the Irish Famine of 1846, The Ulster Medical Journal,
Vol. 10, No. 1, 1951, p13
68 Illustrated London News, 16 December 1848

20
crowds of starving people took to the roads, many of them to cities69 hoping to
escape certain death from hunger. Consequently, there were no witnesses left to
provide information on the dead.
In 1997 a stone was erected in Tralee, with an inscription reading “in
memory of the many hundreds of unknown dead who were buried here in ‘God’s
Acre’.”70 Another similar example can be seen from a recent photograph (Figure
3)71 taken in the parish of Sugreana, Cahirciveen, showing a graveyard where
many unnamed Famine victims are buried.
It was reported in 1847 that: “the people are dying with such rapidity that
it is deemed an impossibility to hold inquests”, while deaths by starvation and
fever were so common that the police no longer deemed it necessary to report
them.72 The fact that many hundreds of unknown were buried in these small
localities puts into perspective the many thousands of nameless bodies all over
69 Freeman’s Journal, 9 January 1847
70 Kelleher, Margaret, Hunger and History: Monuments to the Great Irish Famine, Textual Practice,
Vol. 16, No. 2, 2002, p257
71 Crowley, Atlas of the Great Irish Famine, p611
Figure3: Sugreanagraveyard,Cahirciveen,Co.Kerry

21
the country. Therefore, calculating the number of deceased is arguably an
impossible venture.
The victims of the Famine were not distributed evenly across the country;
with those in the provinces of Munster and Connacht being twice as likely to die
during the years 1845 to 1851 as those in Ulster and Leinster.73 Within these two
western provinces, the South was the region that suffered most due to
differences in social and economic structures. These were characterized by tiny
landholdings, low incomes, low urbanisation and industrialization and a very
heavy dependence on the potato crop.74 Kerry was especially remote and
isolated, where commentators of the time noticed that “famine was visible in the
faces of all.”75 The Times reported in April 1846 that there was already proof that
in the interior of the country many families were starving as they were
attempting to live off one meal of insufficient quality a day.76 A statement in The
Nation echoes the extent of death in the West: “in Munster, the living are not
there to bury the dead.”77 Those few that were still alive in Dingle had “no
strength to dig them graves – there let them lie.”78
1847 was the year in which most people perished of various causes
during the Famine and in June it was stated in the Irish Ecclesiastical Journal that,
“disease has followed the Famine; fever rages in many places.”79 Adding to the
distress was the fact that Ireland experienced a particularly harsh winter that
year, with “the ground covered in snow”80 thus worsening the sufferings of the
feverish and the homeless in their already hopeless fight for survival. Reports of
the time expressed fears of this social catastrophe, such as the Freeman’s Journal:
“The state of destitution in some parts of Ireland is very appalling, thousands of
suffering accepting the miseries of hunger and many dying in consequence.”81
Also during the year, a poem by Lady Wilde published in the popular magazine
73 O’Grada, ‘Black ’47 and Beyond, p88
75 Letter from Charles Rector, of the parish of Goyer of Dingle, to a correspondent in Dublin, RLFC
3/2/12, 1847
76 The Times, 14 April 1846
77 The Nation, 27 March 1847
78 Killeen, John, The Famine Decade: Contemporary Accounts, 1841-1851, Blackstaff Press, 1995,
p155
79 Anon., The Condition of the Country and the Duty of the Church, Irish Ecclesiastical Journal, 1
June 1847
80 Letter from Charles Rector, RLFC 3/2/12, 1847

22
The Nation, depicted the feelings of the deprived poor across the country, with
emotive verses such as: “dying as a dog would die, by the wayside as we go”.82 It
has been observed that very few deaths occurred from actual starvation
however, as shown in Chart 183.
Chart1: Causeand numbersofdeaths inthe Famine years(1845 - 1851)
It was more common that people perished from Famine-related diseases,
such as fever, dysentery and diarrhoea that tended to spread easily in crowded
conditions with poor sanitation. Those that suffered from these mostly died, due
to from being untreated and also because medical technology was powerless in
providing cures.84 The types of fever most commonly suffered from during this
era were typhus, or typhoid fever, and ‘relapsing fever’.85 The former spread
uncontrollably across the country during the Famine, as it was contracted
through skin contact, making it highly contagious and as a consequence, death
rates were estimated at 1 in every 30 cases.86 It was also known as the ‘Irish
Plague’87, and ‘Irish Ague’88 because it was so endemic, with contemporaries
82 Killeen, The Famine Decade, p155
83 The Census of Ireland for the year 1851, Table of Deaths, Vol.2, BBP, 1856
85 Boyce, George D., Nineteenth Century Ireland: The Search for Stability, Gill & MacMillan, 1990,
p107
87 ibid p117
88 Jones, Greta, Malcolm, Elizabeth, Medicine, Disease and the State in Ireland, Cork University
Press, 1999, p122
0
50,000
100,000
150,000
200,000
250,000
Fever Dysentery and Diarrhea Starvation

23
describing it as “the disease natural to our climate.”89 ‘Relapsing fever’ was also
highly contagious, especially due to the crowded and unclean conditions in
which the poor lived during the Famine as it was spread through lice.
The sum of deaths resulting from both diseases is estimated at numbering
slightly over 400,000, but which O’Grada argues is a serious underestimate.90 In
the Famine-related deaths of those from Kerry, only 39% were due to fever
however, compared to a 59% in Dublin, and 65% in Belfast.91 This could be
explained by the fact that in localities where typhus had been endemic, such as
the southwest, those native to the place would generally suffer less severely from
the disease since they would have built up a slight immunity towards it.92
However, many argued that disease was rife in Kerry during the Famine
years, demonstrated in a depiction of Tralee Gaol by Dr. Crumpe who visited in
1849: “on the door being opened I was uniformly seized, on entering, with the
most violent retching; and it is singular that I should be so affected, who
dissected so much, having opened so many bodies, performed so many
operations, and see often such forms of loathsome disease.”93 The extent of
illness is evident as the doctor was utterly shocked that such a scene could
provoke an experienced surgeon like himself to feel profoundly sick to his
stomach.
Dysentery was another highly infectious illness and was also transmitted
easily by food, fingers and flies, with contemporary medical evidence confirming
that it was widespread in every county. Again, those hit hardest by the Famine
such as Kerry fared the worst as they experienced the highest mortality rates.94
Diarrhoea fatality was also highest in the south-west regions of Ireland where
the most starving people lived at the time of the ruinous food crisis, as this
illness marked the terminal stage of malnutrition. It was non-infective as it
resulted from the digestive system reaching a stage where it was unable to digest
food of any kind, including that which the poor would scavenge in futile attempts
89 McArthur, Sir William, A Medical Survey of the Irish Famine of 1846, The Ulster Medical Journal,
Vol. 10, No. 1, 1951, p3
91 ibid, p88
92 McArthur, A Medical Survey of the Irish Famine of 1846, p7
93 Report upon the recent epidemic fever in Ireland, DQJMS, vol. 7, 1849

24
to survive.95 Vagrancy and hunger, already prominent features of Irish life
soared to record heights as people thronged to the cities in search of food and
relief (see Chapter 1, p19).96 This social dislocation created exactly the sorts of
conditions in which disease could flourish and disseminate on the people. An
estimated one in every seven recorded Famine deaths was due to these diseases
in Ireland, demonstrating the extent of their destructive effect on the
population.97
Another illness that swept across the country was cholera, described as
the “final assault on a population debilitated by Famine”98, as it also contributing
to the distressingly high death figures of Famine Ireland. Although not caused by
hunger such as those previously discussed, the effects of cholera were
considerably worsened due to the depleted nutritional state of the people. The
total estimation of deaths from cholera during the Famine was calculated at 42%,
although this is arguably an underestimation.99 An epidemic of this deplorable
sickness that struck Europe in 1848 reached Irish soil the following year,
unfortunately coinciding with the Government’s “stern refusal to give outdoor
relief.”100 Also, the fact that doctors of Famine era Ireland did not understand
how it was transmitted101 meant that it became much more widespread than it
would have could the disease have been combated. Again, western counties
including Kerry fared the worst, where approximately 50 per 1000 sufferers
died of the disease while in contrast, eastern counties suffered only about one-
fifth of that rate.102
Typhus, ‘relapsing fever’ and cholera took their toll on the Irish
population even more so due to the fact that the poor were generally ill informed
about hygiene and basic sanitation. They mostly travelled barefoot, relied on
second hand clothes that were often dirty and many shared their homes with
95 ibid, p119
98 ibid, p104
99 ibid, p120
100 Donnelly, The Land and the People of Nineteenth Century Cork, p97
102 McPartlin, Joseph, Diet, Politics and Disaster: The Great Irish Famine, Proceedings of the
Nutrition Society, Vol. 56, No.1, 1997, p219

25
livestock.103 When the potato crop failed and they began to slowly starve, it was
widely reported that the poor lived upon the carcasses of diseased cattle, dogs
and horses. Their main source of nutrition was reportedly herbs of the field,
nettle tops and watercress. In some localities bodies were found with grass in
their mouths,104 and some reportedly tried desperately to curb the sharp feelings
of hunger with tree bark, roots of fern and dandelion and wild berries.105 The
poor sanitation and diet combined aided in exaggerating the harrowing effects of
fever and disease and meant that death came quicker and at a higher rate.
However, the death rate from cholera in Kerry was relatively low compared to
other counties, as evident in Table 5106:
Table5:Death rates invariouscountiesfromcholerain1849
In the years preceding the Famine, the relationship between tenant
farmers and landlords was not a favourable one, described by one reporter in
1847 as one of “mutual distrust”.107 During the years of the blight especially,
relations between the two was deemed “a state of hopeless disorder”108. This
was due to a rise in tension arguably because the landowner feared that the
104 Killeen, John, The Famine Decade: Contemporary Accounts, 1841-1851, Blackstaff Press, 1995,
p155
105 Donnelly, The Great Irish Potato Famine, p9
County Deaths per 100,000
Cork 600 and above
Dublin 600 and above
Limerick 600 and above
Kildare 100 to less than 200
Sligo 200 to less than 400
Down 400 to less than 600

26
tenant would consume the crop and not pay rent, while the tenant was
concerned that the landlord would pounce on the crop as soon as it was cut.109
Poor cottiers in the southwest have been described as suffering from
these tensions more than in other areas of the country, as in 1849 one
contemporary wrote: “the poor inhabitants of Kerry have borne their
unexampled sufferings of the last three years”110. The worst off within Kerry
were the tenantry of Derrynane, described by The Times as “worse off than any
tenantry in Ireland… They are more lost, filthy and wretched.”111 People at the
time blamed the landholding class, dismissing them as “nominal and
embarrassed proprietors”112, especially those in Kerry who were described as
“malign” in nature.113
This negative resulted from the mass evictions that added to the suffering
of the poor and further deprived families, exposing them to disease and
starvation. The Times blamed these mass clearances as causing the speedy death
of thousands of men and women in 1849,114 and Bell’s Life in London and
Sporting Chronicle agreed that evictions augmented the already fearful amount of
pauperism that was present in the country.115 Even though proving to have led to
the death of many thousands, the expulsion of tenants was supported by law
therefore making it difficult to avoid.116 The ‘Society of Friends’ reported one
case of evictions where an owner of 100,000 acres of land declared himself
irresponsible for his estate, thus completely abandoning his tenants.117 Destitute
Irish poor like these would have no option but to settle by the sides of the road,
in the woods, or in bogs, where countless thousands perished.118
There is a vast array of cases of evil evictions that occurred in Kerry
during the Famine such as this to select from in order to portray the great extent
of distressing scenes that many families were forced to endure. It was even
110 Scrope, George Poulett, The Irish difficulty and how it must be met, Knowsley Pamphlet
Collection, 1849
112 Scrope, The Irish difficulty and how it must be met, 1849
114 The Times, 27 October 1849
115 Bell’s Life in London and Sporting Chronicle, 22 April 1849
116 McPartlin, Diet, Politics and Disaster:, p218
117 Circular of the London Society of Friends, 20 June 1848
118 McPartlin, Diet, Politics and Disaster, p218

27
reported that the gentlemen of this county were guilty of “the most wholesale
evictions that have occurred in the history of modern extirpation.” On one of
Lord Lansdowne’s estate in Lixnaw for example, a powerful instance of
extermination took place, with “23 houses, it seems, occupied by 29 families
have been levelled to the ground within the last fortnight. The total number of
the evicted amounted to 157 souls,” who were not solely peasant farmers, but
included a vast array of industrious tradespeople including shoemakers,
carpenters and surveyors.119 This evidence demonstrates how misery was
inflicted on every class of people. Even before the Famine, this particular
landlord had treated his tenants with minimal compassion (see Chapter 1, p14),
as tenants here reportedly lived in the worst conditions known of across Ireland.
Another case was recorded in Kerry where a combination of landlords
apparently evicted “no fewer than 1000 individuals”, but their names were
suppressed much to the regret of the Freeman’s Journal120 and Bell’s Life in
London, describing the event as a “social evil”.121 Another similar episode
occurred in the area of Callinafercy but where full details of the perpetrator came
to public attention in a letter written by the parish priest of Milltown, Kerry. It
stated that Mr. Robert Marshall Leeson dispossessed many tenants, and violated
an agreement he had made with them, which was that they could maintain their
employment on the drainage works that he was continuing. Their houses were
demolished and “the starving occupiers forced out, and two fathers of families
labouring under the fever during the act of destruction died shortly after.”122 It
was also stated that some people remained in the houses while they were being
pulled down.
Reverend John Buckley the parish priest of Milltown, a locality close to
Callinafercy, spoke to his congregation about witnessing this traumatising event:
“I have heard the weeping’s and wailings of these 35 families, whose houses
were levelled yesterday, and in their wailings I have heard them joined by
another 35 families… Out of these 70 families, 5 fathers have died since
yesterday”, and who were then forced to take shelter by the smouldering ruins of
120 Freeman’s Journal and Daily Commercial Advertiser, 19 April 1849
121 Bell’s Life in London and Sporting Chronicle, 22 April 1849
122 Freeman’s Journal and Daily Commercial Advertiser, 19 April 1849

28
their once fond homes.123 Another shocking case of tenant expulsion occurred in
Dingle in 1848 on the various estates of Lord Ventry, where a total of 170
families comprising 582 souls were forced from their homes.124 These scenes
clearly demonstrate the harshness of the landholding class and depict their
complete lack of sympathy towards their tenants, whose death came much
sooner as a result of this mistreatment.
In a ‘Parliamentary Intelligence’ report published in The Times in 1848, it
was argued that if Irish landlords did their duty, they would have the means and
the power “to end the period of all suffering and convulsion now experienced in
Ireland.”125 However, in an 1851 letter to the editor of the same newspaper, one
commentator stated that he had very little hope of any change for the better with
relation to the “relentless spirit”126 of the landholding class in evicting their
tenants. Although there were a select few landlords in Kerry with bountiful
wealth, the proprietors of land in this county were reported to have shared in the
general wretchedness during the Famine years. This means that even if they did
want to aid their tenants, they did not have the means to do so as they would
have been attempting to support themselves and their families through the
crisis. Whether the owners of great estates that could provide aid to their tenants
did or not depended entirely on the personal fancy of each landlord. With regard
to those in Kerry, it seems that the tenants did not fare well in general, and so it
became the task of the British Government, as rulers of the Irish nation to
provide relief to the hundreds of thousands who required aid.
123 Cork Examiner, 30 March 1849
124 The Times, 31 July 1848
125 ibid, 31 July 1848
126 ibid, 9 April 1851

29
Chapter 3
Outdoor Relief
When the blight first struck Ireland and “the food of more than 3 million
people had utterly failed”127, Sir Robert Peel held the position of Prime Minister.
Having been Irish Secretary in 1822 he was well accustomed to the affairs and
grievances of the Irish, and knew it was imperative to act quickly to provide
relief for the people. Just two months after the diseased potatoes were reported
in September, he purchased £100,000 worth of maize and meal from America,
thus creating a situation where a buffer stock was immediately built without any
complications or probability.128 The problem with Indian maize was that it was
very difficult for the Irish to cook as they had no experience with anything of the
sort, and its hard shell meant it was difficult to grind. It ended up causing severe
stomach problems for many, and thus became known as ‘Peel’s brimstone’.129
Peel also set up a Scientific Commission in Ireland to investigate what
science could do to save the failing potato crop. Within two days of surveying the
diseased yield, the scientists discovered that over half the crop for 1846 had
succumbed to the infection and was therefore inedible.130 In their report to Peel
they argued that the problem in Ireland “cannot be looked upon in any other
than a most serious light.”131
The Temporary Relief Commission was another remedy introduced by
Peel which had various duties including advising the government as to the extent
of potato loss and distress within Ireland, overseeing the storage and
distribution of Indian corn and meal. It also directed, supported and co-
127 ibid, 15 July 1847
129 ibid, p216
130 Woodham-Smith, The Great Hunger, p44
131 Kinealy, Christine, The Great Irish Famine: Impact, Ideology and Rebellion, Palgrave, 2002, p34

30
ordinated the activities of local relief committees132 established in every town in
the country, but these could only provide as much help as they could afford so
were often ineffective. This was because they were financed by local funds which
were then matched by the government, putting a financial burden on the poorer
districts.133 The demand for relief in Kerry meant that the county was among the
highest receivers of daily rations dispensed by each poor law union by the Relief
Committees set up under this Commission. This is evident from the fact that on
the 3rd July 1847, more than 45% of the people in every union in Kerry were
receiving these daily distributions.134
These unions had been set up in 1838 to alleviate the distress of
‘deserving poor’ in Ireland, and they were then adapted to relieve those suffering
during the Famine. This network had a total of 130 workhouses, with the final
seven being established just before 1846, meaning it was unlikely that they could
provide adequate relief for such masses of people.135 By 1852, there were 163
workhouses in operation. Workhouse relief in Kerry in the year 1849 was
afforded to above 200 people per 1000 of the union population; among the
highest in the whole country.136 The total number of people in Ireland who
received relief from the workhouse in 1849 was 932,284, and this number
slowly decreased to 504,864 in 1852 as the blight and its effects subsided.137
The British government was well aware of the suffering that certain
unions experienced, and in a ‘Parliamentary Intelligence’ report it was clear that
they knew that the destitution was not distributed around the country evenly.
“In the great part of the east and north of Ireland assistance was not more
necessary than in the south of England.” The article uses Listowel union in Kerry
as an example of one which faced “great disorder… and it was necessary in order
to save thousands of persons from perishing through starvation, that some
assistance should be provided.”138 Similarly, The Times published a report
132 Sources in the National Archives for researching the Great Famine: The Relief Commission,
National Archives Ireland, http://www.nationalarchives.ie/topics/famine/relief.html, accessed
03.01.2015
133 Kinealy, The Great Irish Famine, p35
135 ibid, p135
136 ibid, p127
137 ibid, p125
138 The Times, 8 February 1849

31
outlining the distress faced by many district relief committees who were
continuously hearing waning voices and cries of the hungry, described as
“painful to the ear.”139 The money given to the unions was not just put towards
workhouses however, as we can see from a 1846 poster from the union of
Castleisland (Figure 4), offering to buy seed, rye, barley and bere from local
farmers for a higher price than usual. The idea of this was that the crops would
then be used to ease the suffering of the starving. The problem was that most
farmers did not have any of these supplies due to the impoverishment and so the
advertisement provided little consolation for the starving masses in the
surrounding areas.
139 ibid, 14 April 1846
Figure4: Castleisland,Co.Kerry,reliefcommittee
poster,National ArchivesofIreland,RLFC
3/2/12/44,19October1846

32
Evidence of the extent of the suffering endured by the farmers was
reported in The Times in 1851, where Sir H. W. Barron spoke to the House of
Commons about the issue. “Cities and towns are desolate, villages are levelled to
the ground, and their farmer occupiers wandering about the country beggars or
thieves.”140 To relieve this widespread anguish, the general consensus in early
1846 was that the object of affording food might be combined with the execution
of a public works scheme in Ireland141, and this was Peel’s next remedy.
Unfortunately, his Conservative government did not win the election that year,
and Lord John Russell of the Whig administration replaced him as the new Prime
Minister. In 1845 the effects of, and the severe destitution caused by the Famine
had not yet been felt by the people, but Peel had arguably still introduced and
planned more competent relief measures for Ireland than Russell ever did. When
he entered the Cabinet, there were widespread pleas for public works142 as
people protested about the inefficiency and lack of relief afforded to the masses
of poverty-stricken Irish: “the Government must come to the rescue with more
speed and effect, or the catastrophe will be overwhelming.”143
However they did not meet these demands, and in contrast to Peel’s head
on approach to relief provisions, Russell’s course of action was one of ‘laissez-
faire’. This was partly due to his government’s underestimation of the potato
blight, as it was predicted that 1846 would bring a sufficient crop, as never
before had Ireland experienced a total crop failure.144 So, it can be argued that it
was not entirely their fault that the Whigs had this optimistic belief and slower
approach to relief schemes.
But they did provide some assistance that year and a bill was introduced
for the extension of public works, and grants of up to £50,000 were given in
order to make these competent which would be paid back over a period of 20
years.145 This public relief scheme mainly took the form of making or repairing
roads, and for many became the only means of earning enough to stay alive.146
141 ibid, 15 July 1847
142 Ó Gráda, The Great Irish Famine, p34
143 The Times, 14 April 1846
145 Downpatrick Recorder, 7 February 1846

33
Employment on the works was quite an average number in Kerry in comparison
to the rest of the country, as evident from the data in Table 6147. It was high for
the south of the country, but low when compared to the west of the Ireland:
However, this scheme was only in operation for a little over six months
and cost over £4,500,000, half of which was a loan that Ireland would have to
repay. When more help was required to suppress the harrowing effects of the
blight, Russell did not respond adequately as he was nervous to spend too much,
even if it was a loan.148
The public works did not prove to be a competent method of relief, which
contemporaries blamed on the British Government: “it was entirely the fault of
the Board of Public Works and of the Government that the works were ill-
chosen.”149 The following year in 1847, complaints in Kerry about the project
began, and in May, it was proposed that the works would be abolished, as it was
evident that “it was impossible for the works to be well done.”150 However, they
continued to be intermittently operational in the county until the early months of
147 Kennedy, Ell, Crawford, & Clarkson, Mapping the Great Irish Famine, p132-3
150 ibid, 1 May 1847
Table5:Employmentonpublicworksinvariouscountiesper100,000population
County Week ending 8 August 1846 Week ending 13 March 1847
Kerry 1000 to less than 2000 12000 to less than 16000
Cork 500 to less than 1000 8000 to less than 12000
Dublin 500 to less than 1000 Less than 4000
Limerick No Relief 12000 to less than 16000
Kildare 500 to less than 1000 4000 to less than 8000
Sligo 1000 to less than 2000 16000 and above
Down 2000 to less than 3000 4000 to less than 8000

34
1849, when finally their ineffectiveness was realised. A report in April of that
year stated: “Government appear, by dear-bought experience, to be thoroughly
convinced of the total failure and ruinous effect of the public works system as a
mode of alleviating the great national calamity.”151
Lord Monteagle in particular, whilst commenting on the Irish Poor Law in
the House of Lords agreed that the public works were ineffective, arguing that
relying on it as a test for relief “was utterly absurd.”152 The major problem with
these work schemes was that people were too starving and rife with disease to
carry out manual labour. There were many incidents of death on the public
works in Kerry, an example of which can be seen from a destitute family in
Tarbert where labourer John Frawley dropped dead on his walk home in
1846.153 A similar case was reported in 1847, where many labourers in
Clanmaurice employed by the Board of Public Works in the building of a road,
“were falling to the earth from want of food.”154
The lack of support from the government funded relief committees
prompted the introduction of unofficial relief committees, private persons and
religious bodies to bring help to the sick and the hungry.155 Evidence of privately
funded relief was extensive throughout Kerry, an example of which is provided
by Reverend John O’Sullivan, where £200 was gathered over a few months in
1846 in his parish, and sent out to Kenmare, a “distressed district, for the
purchase of provision, which was rapidly consumed.”156 An example of a private
philanthropist in Kerry was Richard Leahy, a lawyer who purchased £10,000
worth of Indian grain “to be ground at his mills at which 60 men are daily
employed and which turn out, weekly, 200 tons of flour.”157 This meant that he
was not only providing a source of employment for many men, who could then
support their families through the starvation, but also a provision of cheap flour
for the district.
152 ibid, 27 March, 1847
153 Letter to Sir R. Rouch, Chairman of the Board of Works, The Humble Petition of John Frawley,
Dublin Castle, National Archives of Ireland, RLFC 3/2/12/28, 18 November 1846

35
A private Quaker organisation, The Society of Friends, provided
thousands of pounds worth of relief for Ireland through their ‘Central Relief
Committee’ established in November 1846. They donated food, clothing and
established soup kitchens to aid the Irish. As the south-western counties of
Ireland were the most destitute, most of the relief was concentrated there with
Kerry being the county where most food was distributed, as demonstrated in
Table 7158:
Table7:Moneyand foodreliefgrantedto variouscountiesbytheSocietyof
Friendsin 1846and1847per 10,000ofpopulation
However, private relief was completely insufficient in aiding the masses
of starving and homeless Irish poor, even to relieve those in the one county of
Kerry. Mr. Rector of Dingle therefore wrote a letter to a Dublin correspondent of
the Relief Commission, petitioning for help by describing the destitution that the
locality was facing: “it is my opinion that more than half the population here will
perish if relief is not afforded them by the Government.”159 In early 1847, before
his passing away that May, Daniel O’Connell, dominator of Irish politics from
1824 until his death160 wrote that there was “abundant individual humanity and
charity.” But, in agreement with Mr. Rector, he did stress that governmental
159 Letter from Charles Rector, National Archives of Ireland, RLFC 3/2/12, 1847
County Money granted (£) Food relief granted (tons)
Kerry 350 and above 200 and above
Cork 350 and above 200 and above
Dublin 150 to less than 250 Less than 50
Limerick 350 and above 150 to less than 250
Kildare Less than 50 Less than 50
Sligo 350 and above 150 to less than 250
Down Less than 50 Less than 50

36
relief was “daily diminishing”. He argued that the Government was unwilling to
place upon the British people the burdens absolutely necessary to give efficient
relief to Irish misery.161
Contemporary commentator of the time William Carleton also blamed
Britain and its policy leaders for Irish grief. In his 1847 book, he criticized
Russell’s lack of remedies for Ireland profoundly: “Although I believe that both
you and he [Peel] are sincerely anxious to benefit our unhappy country, still I
cannot help but thinking that… [the] principles of Government have brought our
country to her present calamitous condition, by a long course of illiberal
legislation and unjustifiable neglect.”162
By 1851 many English had lost interest in reports about Ireland’s
difficulties and the best means of its alleviation, which were discussed in all the
metropolitan and provincial newspapers. A contemporary commentator wrote
about this in a letter to the editor of The Times that year: “Alas, Sir, I am well
aware that the public are sick of the Irish grievances, very fed up of the many
attempts to enlist sympathy for the peasantry of the west of Ireland.”163 We can
see that the Famine in Ireland was a topic that dominated English news from the
vast articles in the main newspaper, The Times, which featured a bi-weekly
special report called ‘The State of Ireland’. This explored the many grievances
that were being experienced and followed the story of the poor Irish through
their hopeless struggle for survival.
Even more problematic for the journey toward relief was the death of
O’Connell, which meant Irish MPs in Westminster were left without leadership
and thus could not resist the new policies that were introduced by Russell. The
consequence of this was that along with many other counties, the people of
Kerry were left wanting, as reported in the Tralee Chronicle which uses the
example of the town of Dingle to depict the extent of misery and destitution:
“some slight relief has been afforded by the government”, but even so, “the
people are dying with such rapidity.”164
161 The Times, 10 February 1847
162 Carleton, William, The Black Prophet: A Tale of Irish Famine, Simms & McIntyre, 1847, p. vi.

37
Many landlords therefore offered relief to tenants and sometimes gave
them a small offering as compensation for their loss when evicted. In Kerry when
Lord Lansdowne evicted tenants off his estate in Lixnaw, he reportedly offered
them 20l. to be distributed among the 29 families. This was a tiny amount
compared to the generous contribution of another wealthy landlord in the
county, Sir John Welshe, which amounted to 30l. that he donated to a single poor
woman obliged to quit his lands. He had also given 20l. to a farmer who had been
evicted, as well as forgiving him five years rent and giving him all the crops on
the lands. It was said at the time that landlords were always disputing about
what their proper cause of duty was in relation to affording relief to their
tenants. Many argued that they showed great pusillanimity and want of proper
knowledge about the situation, due to the fact that most in Kerry were absent
from their estates.165 Some contemporaries in Kerry did argue that landlords
were doing their best however, and that “there [are] a large number of
charitable, kind-hearted, benevolent men amongst those who are a credit to
human nature and an ornament to Christianity.”166
In 1847, thousands perished from starvation and hunger-related diseases,
more than in any other year of the Famine (see Chapter 2, p21). This motivated a
slight abandonment in ‘laissez faire’ policy, with the setting up of soup kitchens
in February where the destitute in many places received soup for free, and those
earning wages insufficient for their needs could purchase it. By July, the month in
which operations peaked, 3 million were surviving off this form of outdoor relief
daily, prompting McPartlin167 and Donnelly168 to argue that it was by far the
most effective form of relief administered by the government. The Lord
Lieutenant for Ireland expressed his disapproval of soup kitchens however, due
to the belief that they were causing more casualties, and estimated that “half the
deaths in Ireland that year were due to bad food, or food that had been
inadequately cooked.”169
The following year in 1848, Russell visited Ireland but one contemporary
dismissed this as unnecessary and pointless, arguing: “it is difficult to see how
168 Donnelly, The Land and the People of Nineteenth Century Cork, p93
169 Bessborough to Russell, Russell papers, PROL, 30.22.6C, 12 April 1847

38
Lord John Russell can have added much to his stock of acquired knowledge upon
Irish affairs by his journey. To be surrounded by a crowd of wretched, half-
starved Irish peasants would tell nothing new.”170 This prompted many angry
voices of those that had the strength to speak out against the Government and
their lack of relief administering. One such protester was Reverend Dr. M’Ennery,
of Tralee chapel. His New Years Eve sermon of 1848 spoke about the
inefficiencies of the government, and put the blame on “the present Ministry of
the day [which] can never, and will never, take upon themselves to feed the Irish
people for any length of time.”171
The Whig government seemed to have a pattern of abstaining from giving
aid until it was completely overdue, and then the help that was given proved to
be insufficient. This can be seen by the grant of £50,000 given to Poor Law
Commissioners in February 1849, which was evidently not an ample sum since it
was exhausted just two months later, as it was well short of the £10,728 of the
estimated amount that was required by the Commission.

39
Conclusion
The great Famine left an indelible mark on the landscape of Ireland. Land
tenure throughout the country preceding the Famine had been increasingly
unstable with exorbitant subdivision of the land, short-sighted and irresponsible
landlords and middlemen, thus creating a large population of poverty-stricken
cottiers. Kerry was no exception due to its dependence on the agricultural
industry and lack of social and economic development compared to the rest of
the country. These shortcomings led to the over reliance on the potato as a
source of food and income, ultimately proving to be the downfall of the people of
this region. We can see this through the examples of Kerry domains such as the
Godfrey, Lansdowne and the land owned by local proprietor Mr. O’ Connell.
The intensity of the potato blight varied from year to year during the
period 1845 to 1851. This led to a situation where people were completely in the
dark about what the effects would be. Only partly destroyed in 1845, many were
optimistic for a better crop in 1846 but alas, this year brought a complete failure
of the yield throughout the country, including Kerry. Consequently, 1847 was the
year when most perished since they had no food to sustain themselves from the
previous harvest.
The Illustrated News argued that the problem in Ireland was social and
not political and this became evident when the sweeping deaths across county
Kerry and the country occurred. To gain insight into the numbers of victims the
censuses of 1841 and 1851 are used, but these arguably underestimate the
figures greatly and are based on unreliable sources. We can observe the data as a
basis for forming knowledge about the extent of deaths, but must bear in mind
that many more died than previously assumed. This is due to the innumerable
mass graves throughout Ireland where countless unknown bodies are buried
and the fact that in many rural areas such as Kerry, copious numbers of small
towns and villages were completely abandoned by death or migration.
Victims of the Famine are assumed to have died from starvation after
their staple food source was cut off, causing them to suffer from deadly
malnutrition. Evidence suggests however that various diseases such as typhus

40
‘relapsing’ fever wiped out more Irish, as they were infections that thrived in the
crowded and unsanitary conditions that poverty-stricken people would live in.
Since vast numbers of Kerry tenants were living in poverty even before the
potato blight, the effects of these illnesses and undernourishment were
particularly agonizing. Various diseases nevertheless affected areas differently,
which can be seen with the fact that when the cholera epidemic reached Ireland
in 1849 the death rate in Kerry was relatively low compared to the rest of the
country. It can be argued that the reason for this was that the people had slowly
built up a slight immunity to the various viruses in the region which they had
been exposed to it quite frequently in the past.
An added calamity faced by these poor people was the sweeping evictions
that were commonplace in Kerry, prompting the people to look on the
landholding class with particular hatred. Landlords such as Mr. Leeson and Lord
Ventry evicted hundreds from their large properties in the county with a
complete disregard for the safety of their tenants.
Many respected commentators would argue that if starvation on that
scale had happened on any other part of the United Kingdom, the Government
would have pulled out all the stops to alleviate or avert the tragedy. The British
did attempt to relieve this far-reaching destitution faced by the Irish poor using
previously organised Poor Law Unions that had provided help to the poor, but
the nature and scale of outdoor relief was deemed to be derisory and utterly
inadequate. The seven unions of Kerry proved to have financial difficulties,
especially after Russell was elected Prime Minister. The former Conservative
leader, Sir Robert Peel, had been passionate about aiding the Irish from the
moment the blight appeared, while the Whig leader who came into power in
1846 was far less concerned with providing relief. This same year saw the
introduction of much pleading for public work schemes in Kerry but these were
subsequently abolished after they proved to be too expensive and irrelevant for
the Irish labourers, who were dropping dead due to hunger and exhaustion. The
introduction of soup kitchens by private philanthropist group The Society of
Friends inspired the Government to set up official units but these again were
short-lived.

41
Russell as a Prime Minister was much more concerned with English
affairs and was reluctant to spend money on the Irish grievance even if they
were to pay it back as a loan. Therefore, aid from unofficial sources began with
the previously mentioned Quaker society donating food and clothes to the
poorer regions of Ireland. With this data we gain an insight into which areas
were therefore most affected by Famine tragedies, one of which was Kerry since
the Society of Friends distributed more food there than to any other county in
the country. Parish priests also encouraged donations and many in Kerry raised
fruitful amounts, as the British were said to have been weary about continuously
being pressed to help the Irish in their fight for survival. Landlords throughout
the country also contributed, with some in Kerry giving out small sums of money
to evicted tenants, but most in this county were not generous in their donations
such as Lord Lansdowne.
Areas of this topic that could be further explored with the availability of a
more in depth project include the various types of relief measures that
attempted to tackle the vast poverty that the Irish poor experienced, such as
indoor relief. Another interesting area to explore is the crime and protest aspect
of the people of Kerry, as evictions and starvations plagued the county. Lastly,
the phenomenon of emigration that completely transformed society, as millions
migrated to England and the faraway lands of America and Australia is also a
topic of great importance in relation to the great Irish Famine.
As this dissertation argues, pre-Famine land tenure, evictions, death,
disease and the ineffective relief offered during the years of the blight
contributed to the impact of the Famine in Kerry Ireland. By providing deeper
insight into these factors, it has illustrated the complex political, social and
economic landscape at the time and highlighted the devastating impact this had
on County Kerry in particular.

42
Bibliography
Primary
Constabulary Reports, Letters and Public Records
Constabulary Report, sub-inspector Fletcher, Listowel, Co. Kerry, 5.09.1846,
National Archives of Ireland, RLFC 3/12/12/26
Letter from Charles Rector, of the parish of Goyer of Dingle, to a correspondent in
Dublin, National Archives of Ireland, RLFC 3/2/12, 1847
Letter to Sir R. Rouch, Chairman of the Board of Works, The Humble Petition of
John Frawley, Dublin Castle, National Archives of Ireland, RLFC 3/2/12/28, 18
November 1846
Return from Inspecting Commander of Dingle District, 14.09.1846, RLFC
3/2/12/8
Report upon the recent epidemic fever in Ireland, DQJMS, vol. 7, 1849
Bessborough to Russell, Russell papers, PROL, 30.22.6C, 12 April 1847
The Census of Ireland for the year 1851, Table of Deaths, Vol.2, BBP, 1856
Newspapers
Bell’s Life in London and Sporting Chronicle
Circular of the London Society of Friends
Cork Examiner
Downpatrick Recorder
Freeman’s Journal
Illustrated London News
Kerry Evening Post
The Nation
The Times
Tralee Chronicle

43
Pamphlets
Douglas, John, Life and Property in Ireland assured as in England by a Poor Rate on
Land to Provide Employment for the Destitute Poor on the Wastelands of Ireland,
Hume Tracts, 1846
Scrope, George Poulett, The Irish difficulty and how it must be met, Knowsley
Pamphlet Collection, 1849
O’Brien, Lucius, Ireland in 1848: The Late Famine and the Poor Laws, Knowsley
Pamphlet, 1848
Minute Books, Tralee Board of Guardians, Kerry County Library , vol. I,
18.10.1845
Muggeridge, Richard M., Notes on the Irish ‘difficulty’: with remedial suggestions,
Hume Tracts, 1849
Waller, George, A Revolution in Irish Property: The Cause and Remedy, Cowen
Tracts, 1848
Books
Carleton, William, The Black Prophet: A Tale of Irish Famine, Simms & McIntyre,
1847
JournalArticles
McArthur, Sir William, A Medical Survey of the Irish Famine of 1846, The Ulster
Medical Journal, Vol. 10, No. 1, 1951
Valpy, Richard, The Resources of the Irish Sea Fisheries, Journal of the Statistical
Society of London, Vol.II, No.1, 1848
Anon., The Condition of the Country and the Duty of the Church, Irish Ecclesiastical
Journal, 1 June 1847

44
Secondary
Books
Boyce, George D., Ireland 1828-1923: From Ascendancy to Democracy, Blackwell,
1992
Crowley, John, Atlas of the Great Irish Famine, Cork University Press, 2012
Donnelly, James S. Jr., The Land and the People of Nineteenth-Century Cork: The
Rural Economy and the Land Question, Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1975
Donnelly, James S. Jr., The Great Irish Potato Famine, Sutton Publishing, 2000
Foster, R.F., Modern Ireland: 1600-1972, Penguin Press, 1988
Jones, Greta, Malcolm, Elizabeth, Medicine, Disease and the State in Ireland, Cork
University Press, 1999
Kennedy, Liam, Ell, Paul S., Crawford, E.M. & Clarkson, L.A., Mapping the Great
Irish Famine, Four Courts Press, 1999
Kinealy, Christine, The Great Irish Famine: Impact, Ideology and Rebellion,
Palgrave, 2002
Magnusson, Magnus, Landlord or Tenant? A View of Irish History, The Bodley
Head, 1978
O’Grada, Cormac, ‘Black ’47 and Beyond: The Great Irish Famine in History,
Economy and Memory, Princeton University Press, 1999
Prendergast, James, Prendergast, Elizabeth, edited by Shelley Barber, The
Prendergast Letters: Correspondence from Famine-era Ireland, 1840-1850,
University of Massachusetts Press, 2006
Woodham-Smith, Cecil, The Great Hunger: Ireland 1845-1849, Penguin, 1991
JournalArticles
Anbinder, Tyler, From Famine to Five Points: Lord Lansdowne's Irish Tenants
Encounter North America's Most Notorious Slum, The American Historical Review,
Vol. 107, No. 2, 2002

45
Kelleher, Margaret, Hunger and History: Monuments to the Great Irish Famine,
Textual Practice, Vol. 16, No. 2, 2002
McPartlin, Joseph, Diet, Politics and Disaster: The Great Irish Famine, Proceedings
of the Nutrition Society, Vol. 56, 1997
Online Resources
Poor Law Unions in Kerry, http://mykerryancestors.com/kerry-links-and-
resources/, accessed 10.02.2015
Knightly, John, The Godfrey Estate during the Great Famine,
http://www.kerryhistory.ie/documents/5.%20Godfrey.pdf, accessed
10.02.2015
Sources in the National Archives for researching the Great Famine: The Relief
Commission, National Archives Ireland,
http://www.nationalarchives.ie/topics/famine/relief.html, accessed 03.01.2015

46
Index
1. Map 2: Poor Law Unions of Kerry during the Famine
1. Aghadoe
2. Aghavallen
3. Aglish
4. Annagh
5. Ardfert
6. Ballincuslane
7. Ballinvoher
8. Ballyconry
9. Ballyduff
10. Ballyheige
11. Ballymacelligott
12. Ballynacourty
13. Ballynahaglish
14. Ballyseedy
15. Brosna
16. Caher
17. Castleisland
18. Cloghane
19. Clogherbrien
20. Currans
21. Dingle
22. Dromod
23. Duagh
24. Dunquin
25. Dunurlin
26. Dysert
27. Fenit
28. Finuge
29. Galey
30. Garfinny
31. Glanbehy
32. Kenmare
33. Kilbonane
34. Kilcaragh
35. Kilcaskan
36. Kilcolman
37. Kilconly
38. Kilcredane
39. Kilcrohane
40. Kilcummin
41. Kildrum
42. Kilfeighny
43. Kilflyn
44. Kilgarrylander
45. Kilgarvan
46. Kilgobban
47. Killaha
48. Killahan
49. Killarney
50. Killeentierna
51. Killehenny
52. Killemlagh
53. Killinane
54. Killiney
55. Killorglin
56. Killury
57. Kilmalkedar
58. Kilmoyly
59. Kilnanare
60. Kilnaughtin
61. Kilquane
62. Kilshenane
63. Kiltallagh
64. Kiltomy
65. Kinard
66. Knocknane
67. Knockanure
68. Lisselton
69. Listowel
70. Marhin
71. Minard
72. Molahiffe
73. Murher
74. Nohaval
75. Nohavaldaly
76. O'Brennan
77. O'Dorney
78. Prior
79. Ratass
80. Rattoo
81. Stradbally
82. Templenoe
83. Tralee
84. Tuosist
85. Valencia
86. Ventry

Dissertation, The Land and the People of Famine Kerry 1845-1851, Emma Catharina Linzel, 12004378

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