Ireland (15 page)

The Famine had its origins in the English policy of plantation, begun 300 years before by Henry VIII, and continued by other monarchs. Under this policy, the land was taken from the Irish people and given to English and Scottish settlers. By the time of the famine nearly 90 per cent of all Irish land was owned by these settlers. The original owners had either been killed or forced to flee to other parts of the country where they eked out a miserable existence. Those who had remained rented land from the new settlers at very high rents. Others worked as servants or labourers for the new owners. As a result, most Irish people now lived on the verge of starvation, existing mainly on potatoes. Any failure of the potato crop would have devastating effects.

The man supposedly responsible for bringing the potato to Ireland is Sir Walter Raleigh. He was born in 1552 and became a special favourite of Queen Elizabeth I. It’s said that one day, when the queen was alighting from her carriage, a puddle of water lay at her feet. She would have to step into the puddle, an undignified thing for a queen to do, but Raleigh removed his cloak and covered the puddle. The queen was impressed with this act of chivalry, and afterwards favoured her champion, knighting him in 1585.

Though he appeared a chivalrous gentleman, Raleigh was a ruthless, greedy man who wished to be rich and powerful. He was sent to Ireland to help subdue the rebellions that occurred during Elizabeth’s reign, and was present at the massacre at Smerwick, on the Dingle Peninsula, where 600 people were slaughtered. As a reward for his endeavours, Elizabeth granted him land in Munster and eventually he owned 40,000 acres, making him the largest landowner in the province.

But his greed knew no bounds. When he heard of the fabulous wealth to be found in South America, he went there, seeking the legendary city of El Dorado, the City of Gold. He did not find it but found other treasures, which he brought back to England. He also brought back two plants, the tobacco plant and the potato plant.

There is an amusing story told about him smoking. One day, while sitting in his garden smoking his pipe, a servant saw the smoke rising. Thinking her master was on fire she threw a bucket of water over him. It’s claimed that this happened while he was living in Ireland, but we have no proof of this. What we do know is that after Elizabeth’s death he fell out of favour with King James, who had him imprisoned. Eventually, he was beheaded on 29 October 1618, perhaps deservedly so, for he had been responsible for a great many deaths in Ireland and elsewhere.

After the potato plant was brought from South America, it was introduced into Ireland, where a variety known as the Lumper became the staple food of the poor. It grew well in the Irish climate, produced a fine yield from a small area of land, and was nourishing and filling. It could also be safely stored over the winter. For those with very little land, and who couldn’t afford to buy food, the potato was the ideal crop.

By 1845 the population of Ireland had risen to around 8 million. The vast majority of these were Irish Catholics, and they were desperately poor. They lived, for the most part, in mud cabins and were almost completely dependant on the potato for food. Even those who were tenant farmers were poor. Most of their land was used to grow grain, which was then sold to raise money to pay the high rents.

One of the Penal Laws forbade a Catholic from leaving his land to his eldest son. Instead, it had to be divided between all of his sons. The eldest son could only inherit the land if he became a Protestant. This policy meant that the amount of land owned by individual Catholics got smaller and smaller. By the time of the Famine, Catholic landowners were almost as poor as the labourers who worked for them, and were also dependant on the potato for food. With millions dependant on the potato, if anything happened to the crop then the Irish poor faced a catastrophe. From previous famines, the people had some idea of what might happen. But no one was prepared for the scale of the disaster of 1845–1847.

When the people awoke on the morning the blight struck they noticed that the atmosphere was heavy and damp. It seemed as if the sky was pressing down on them. But what was worse than this was the terrible stench that hung in the air. It was as if some giant, dead animal was rotting in their midst.

The stench quickly led the people to their potato patches where the stalks and leaves were already limp and falling over. With terrible cries and wails they threw themselves onto their knees and began to root in the earth with their fingers for the potatoes. Instead of finding firm potatoes, their hands came up holding fistful of rotting mush, the stench of which made them want to vomit. Feverishly they ran hither and thither through the potato patches, men, women and children scrabbling in the earth with their bare hands. But few plants had escaped the blight. Most had already been reduced to a stinking pulp.

At first the reaction was disbelief. Most thought they were in the midst of a nightmare, and would soon wake to reality. But this was no nightmare. This was real, and what now faced the people was the prospect of starvation and death. Desperately, they gathered what good potatoes they could find. But the blight had already afflicted most of these and they quickly rotted. The very poor were immediately affected. They possessed only small patches of land where they mostly grew just potatoes. Now with the failure of the crop, they had hardly any food at all.

Neighbours were always good to each other in Ireland and those who still had some food shared what little they had with those less fortunate. But it was a hopeless situation. Millions depended on the potato. The kindliness of neighbours could not feed all those who were soon starving. Within weeks, people were dying of hunger and disease, the weak and the old and the sick succumbing first.

People hoped that the landlords and their agents would help them. Many landlords did help their tenants, and saved many from death. But other landlords and agents were indifferent to the plight of the people. They still demanded that the rents be paid, and refused to give any food to the poor. Any farmer who couldn’t afford to pay the rent, or who refused to do so, was evicted with his family. Without a home, these unfortunate people dug out holes in earth banks, burrowing into the ground like animals. Others built crude shelters of earth roofed over with heather or grass. In these terrible conditions many soon died from hunger and disease. They were not even allowed to hunt on the landlords’ estates, or catch fish in the rivers. Those caught doing so were severely punished.

As people starved, soup kitchens were set up around the country. Many of these were organised by the Quakers, who are also known as the Society of Friends. They believe in charity and helping their fellow human beings, and many more would have died but for them. Other desperate people found refuge in workhouses, which were places set up to house and feed the poor during the time of Daniel O’Connell.

Before Henry VIII closed them, the monasteries had been a source of food and refuge for the poor. But with their closure, the poor were left to fend for themselves. Anyone unfortunate enough to fall on hard times was likely to die unless they had family or friends to take care of them. Daniel O’Connell had campaigned to remedy this situation and in 1838 the Poor Law came into force. Under this law, refuges for the poor, called workhouses, were set up. Now they became a last hope of salvation for the starving. Families were separated once they entered the workhouse, and the conditions within were harsh. Yet many counted themselves lucky to obtain refuge there.

Those who found no refuge were reduced to scavenging for whatever they could find to eat. People ate nettles and roots of plants and even leaves and grass. Many were found dead by the roadsides, the green juice from chewing grass staining their mouths.

Daniel O’Connell and other Irish members of parliament tried to convey to the British government the plight of the people. But the government was indifferent, and at first did little to help. Many saw the Famine as a final answer to the Irish problem. Centuries of war, massacres, plantation, brutality and cruel laws had not broken the spirit of the Irish people. Now those who wished to see the Irish people utterly broken thought that famine and disease would succeed where everything else had failed.

While the people starved, shiploads of grain, which could have prevented much of the starvation, left Irish ports. The British government could have ensured that this grain remained in the country and was distributed to the poor. But they did nothing, and so the people continued to starve and die.

Those who managed to survive the first year hoped that the potato would not suffer from blight in 1846. But the blight was worse than it had been in 1845. Whole families died in their cabins. Carts piled with corpses were a common site on the roads and in the towns as the dead were taken to be buried in mass graves without coffin or shroud. Some mass graves held hundreds of people, and all hope seemed to have vanished from the land.

Many realised that if they remained in Ireland, they and their families would perish. They became determined to leave the country, and thousands did so, most sailing for America. Others sailed to England, and even as far away as Australia. But travelling by sea had its own dangers, and many of those who left died before they reached their destination.

Even in the midst of the most unimaginable suffering, there are always those who will seek to gain from it. Men who owned ships offered passage to those wishing to emigrate from Ireland to America. Some of these ships were not seaworthy, nor were they suitable for carrying passengers, or crossing the Atlantic, one of the roughest oceans in the world. Ships carrying Irish emigrants fleeing the Famine often sank on the voyage with everyone on board drowned. As a result, these ships became known as ‘coffin ships’.

Even on ships that were seaworthy, conditions for passengers were appalling. They had to endure fierce storms, which battered the ships and tossed them about on the waves. When that happened, people were seasick. With so many people crammed into the dark, stinking holds for weeks on end, disease quickly spread, bringing with it terrible suffering and death. Those who died in the holds were thrown overboard like sacks of rubbish, while those who still lived barely had enough to eat or drink.

Even when the unfortunate people reached America, their suffering did not always end. Those who were already living in America were terrified that these poor Irish emigrants, who were emaciated and dressed in rags, would bring disease and other problems. Because of this fear, many emigrants were attacked and murdered. Despite this, the Irish, desperate to escape the hunger and disease, left in their tens of thousands hoping to find a new life in the New World.

By 1846 the famine in Ireland was so serious that the British government was forced to act. It introduced Public Relief Works, which employed men, women and even children building roads and walls and other structures, many of which served no purpose. The workers were paid a small sum of money for their labour with which they could buy food. But the situation continued to deteriorate through 1846 and 1847, and the government began distributing food through Relief Committees, which were set up throughout the country. In some areas Catholics were given food only if they agreed to become Protestants. Those that did so were described as having ‘taken the soup’, and were called ‘soupers’.

Yellow meal, also known as Indian meal, was imported, and used to make porridge. It was an animal foodstuff and not suitable for human consumption. It had little nutritional value, but nevertheless must have seemed like manna from heaven to those who were literally starving to death. Shiploads of food were sent from America, and even the Choctaw people, a Native American tribe, sent assistance to Ireland to help feed the starving. People in Britain also gave money for famine relief and many landlords also continued to help their people.

But it was not enough, and the help came too late. During the Famine, and in the years following it, it’s estimated that 1 million Irish people died while another million emigrated. Such was the impact of the disaster, that just fifty years after the Famine the population had been reduced to just over 4 million. What successive conquerors had tried to do – destroy the spirit of the Irish people – seemed to have been achieved by a tiny disease-carrying spore, so small that it’s not visible to the naked eye.

But the Irish people proved more resilient than anyone might have thought possible. Though reduced almost to the role of beggars in their own country, and with most of their finest young people gone to America or elsewhere, they still refused to be defeated. Even as famine raged, a group of young men were planning yet another rebellion. During the Famine they had seen the consequences of Ireland not having its own parliament. Now they were determined, like so many before them, to win Ireland her freedom, or die in the cause. These men were the Young Irelanders, who had once supported Daniel O’Connell’s peaceful struggle for Irish freedom. Disillusioned by O’Connell’s failure and the horrors of the Famine, they decided that only rebellion would gain Ireland her freedom.

T
he Young Ireland movement had its origins in a newspaper,
The Nation.
It was founded in 1842 by Thomas Davis, Charles Gavan Duffy and John Blake Dillon, young men who looked to Wolfe Tone for inspiration and began to plot rebellion. The most important of them, Thomas Davis, was born in Mallow, County Cork, in 1814. He composed ballads and wrote articles about Irish history and ancient Ireland. These were intended to rouse the Irish people’s sense of patriotism. His best known ballad, ‘A Nation Once Again’, is a rousing song in which Davis recalls when Ireland was a proud nation. His dream was that she would be a proud nation again some day.

He never saw his dream fulfilled because he died at the age of thirty-one in September 1845. By then, famine was ravaging the country, and people were struggling to stay alive. In the midst of starvation and disease, songs of Ireland’s heroic past and hopes for a rebellion to restore that past were the last things on people’s minds.