W.B. Yeats described the author William Carleton (1794–1869) as ‘a great Irish historian’. According to Yeats, ‘the history of a nation is not in parliaments and battlefields but in what the people say to each other on fair-days and high days, and in how they farm, and quarrel, and go on pilgrimage’, and these were … Read more
Dr Dominic Corrigan was technically incorrect when he stated that famine and fever were cause and effect, and so, by extension, was Carleton. What we now know, but which Corrigan and his professional colleagues in the pre-Famine period did not, is that fever is caused by germs, specific micro-organisms, and that human head and body … Read more
In his painting Departure, Pádraic Reany depicts an apocalyptic human procession trudging across a blighted and bloodied potato field, the emaciated dead lying beneath the feet of the mourners, the living marching towards perpetual exile on a famine ship. The anger of the piece encapsulates the mood of the inaugural exhibition of the newly opened … Read more
Throughout the nineteenth century the west of Ireland experienced frequent subsistence crises and famines, as the region’s resources were incapable of supporting its large population. During the Great Famine the contributions of private charities such as the Society of Friends played a major role in alleviating the distress in areas such as Letterfrack and the … Read more
Sir,—Hundreds of large boilers (‘Famine pots’) were brought into Ireland by the Quakers during the 1840s. Many of those have survived. I am looking for information and/or pictures of Famine pots for a forthcoming documentary. All sources will be acknowledged.—Yours etc., MATTIE LENNON Kylebeg Lacken Blessington Co. Wicklow mattielennon@gmail.com