The Great Famine in Tralee and North Kerry

Bryan MacMahon

• Publisher: Mercier Press
• Year: 2017
• ISBN:
  9781781174685
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: Irish History
• Index: History

Bryan MacMahon focuses on human stories rather than statistics as he depicts the unprecedented events, upheavals and challenges of the famine years through the eyes of those who were there and reveals information which has lain hidden and untapped for 170 years.This book gives an account of incidents in Tralee and North Kerry. It gives a detailed overview and a moving insight into the suffering endured by thousands in the area. The contemporary accounts allow the reader to relive the shocking events, and to understand the stark dilemmas faced by those who were not themselves directly affected by hunger or disease. Here too are the names and inquest details of some of the dead, and poignant descriptions of life in the workhouses of Tralee and Listowel. Included are stories of scandals and possible sexual abuse in the workhouse but also many examples of selfless humanitarian work.

1.
‘A Dark and Withered Appearance’

1845

The Rev. Mr McCarthy, P.P. directed that a special committee … should form a central meeting at Causeway once a fortnight to watch the progress of the disease.

Kerry Examiner, 14 November 1845

In August 1845 it was the price of potatoes rather than their quality that was of concern to the Kerry press, with reports that potatoes were selling at fourpence (4d) a stone in Listowel. This was considered expensive and the reason given was ‘forestalling’.¹ The Post condemned this price-control practice, by which traders bought in bulk from farmers and then released the potatoes on the market in a controlled way in order to keep prices high. It stated that this was akin to usury, with the result that it was the poor who suffered most.

The concern with price, however, was followed by even more alarming concerns. Later in August of that year another newspaper carried a report from the Sussex Advertiser about the failure of the potato crop in that part of England. It remarked how a species of blight had suddenly attacked the crop, resulting in ‘a dark and withered appearance’, followed by ‘a speedy decomposition of the vegetable matter … causing an intolerable stench to arise’.² This heralded the arrival of the potato blight in England. On 7 October the Kerry Examiner (hereafter Examiner) reported that the disease had made an appearance in Cork. In mid-October, a report in the Post stated that ‘Kerry, which was hitherto safe, is beginning to complain’.³ The Examiner was concerned that prospects for the potato crop in Kerry were ‘anything but encouraging’, although the editor, Patrick O’Loughlin Byrne, was determined to be positive: ‘But for our part, we have not yet seen one diseased potato; our market abounds with the finest potatoes … It may be that fear magnifies the danger, at least it is so to be hoped.’⁴

Constabulary reports show that there was no cause for general alarm in late October 1845. In Tralee, County Inspector Hawkshaw concluded that ‘about one-fourth of the white potatoes or lumpers is in a diseased state and all sorts have been affected in a slight degree. The digging here is late and the state of the crop will not be ascertained till about 10th of November.’⁵ From Listowel, Sub-Inspector Fletcher reported that digging and storing had already commenced and there was ‘general complaint of rot but not to any great extent’. The farmers were afraid, however, that the crop might rot in the storage pit. Hawkshaw gave his view that, while statements were conflicting, ‘the alarm at present is very considerable’. However, he went on to say that there was a vast quantity of sound potatoes in the country and that every year there was a crop failure to some degree.⁶

A correspondent to the Examiner gave advice on how to use diseased potatoes to make bread which was ‘sweet, sound and wholesome’, but others advised that neither man nor beast should consume the blighted crop.⁷ This belief that some of the diseased potatoes could be salvaged and used to make starch was in general circulation for a short period, until it was found to be impractical. By November the editor of the Examiner was convinced that potato crop failure was the exception rather than the rule, that alarm was ‘as groundless as it [was] mischievous’ and that ‘the alleged failure of the potato crop will be found to exist more in men’s heated imaginations than in reality’.⁸ He pointed out that the Maharees near Castlegregory had just produced the finest potatoes and that there were no complaints from the ‘poor and wild district of Iveragh’.⁹

There was, however, clear cause for alarm a short time later. After a meeting of parishioners held in Causeway, John Sheehy, a local Repeal warden (a representative and collector for the Repeal Association), wrote as follows to the Examiner about the experiences of farmers in Ballyheigue, Killury and Rattoo:

I regret that the grievances set forth by many who had been present on the above occasion were most appalling. One man asserted that he saw a barrell [sic] of potatoes offered for one pound; others stated that they relinquished the digging of their potatoes altogether in consequence of finding them so unsound, while many more said that they had but a few weeks provisions and even those partially injured. I am happy to state that the Rev. Mr Plummer, a gentleman who is never wanting in the cause of humanity, presided at this meeting, offering his most strenuous support to meet the exgience [sic] of the time. Mr Maurice Cushion of Rattoo came forward also and offered to sacrifice the rents of his Con-acre land he had let, in consequence of the unsound state of the crop thereon. The Rev. Mr McCarthy P.P. directed that a special committee from each of the above parishes should form a central meeting at Causeway once a fortnight to watch the progress of the disease in the potato crop and to report thereon.¹⁰

The date of this meeting, 9 November, is significant, particularly as the first meeting of the Relief Commission, under the chairmanship of Edward Lucas, the under-secretary at Dublin Castle, did not take place in Dublin until 20 November. By then, the situation across the country was considered serious enough to warrant the setting up of this temporary commission to coordinate the work of local relief committees throughout the country and provide food distribution depots. However, the Relief Commission did not issue instructions to local relief committees until February 1846, in a deliberate policy of delaying any support in order to ensure that initiatives would be taken locally. Then the government could act in the guise of assisting local efforts.¹¹

The Causeway proposal seems to have been among the earliest local responses to the looming crisis, although nobody then could have had any concept of the enormity of the catastrophe that lay ahead. Great credit is due to those involved in taking this prompt action, particularly Fr Eugene (or Owen) McCarthy, who was parish priest for Ballyheigue, Killury and Rattoo from 1822 to 1857; Rev. Plummer, who was rector of the Church of Ireland parish of Killury from 1833 to 1872; and the aforementioned John Sheehy.

The letter from John Sheehy contrasts with a report from a member of the coastguard in Ballyheigue, Henry Lawrence, RN (Royal Navy). He struck an optimistic note, expressing his confidence that reports of diseased potatoes were unfounded. His letter was written on 29 November 1845 to the Coastguard Office, Dublin, in response to a general query:

I have much pleasure in stating for the information of the Inspector General that the crop of potatoes as previously dug and pitted in this district … is considerably beyond that of the last four or five years, consequently no apprehensions of scarcity are entertained in this locality. I have not heard of any injury happening to those dug early in the season.¹²

Reports in the Kerry-based newspapers were mixed. The editor of the Examiner remained sanguine. While he did express concern for the prospects of the poor in 1846, he saw ‘no reason to apprehend an absolute famine’. He cited ‘the most severely scourged’ areas of the county as ‘the districts of Kenmare, Ballyheigue and Ardfert, and the tract of country thence on by Rattoo to Ballylongford’.¹³ Meanwhile the Post reported that accounts of the crop from around the county were ‘chequered’ but that ‘from Castleisland and parts of Clanmaurice, accounts are very gloomy’.¹⁴ A few weeks later it cited the area west of Dingle, as well as Castleisland, Ballylongford, Ballyheigue and parts of Kenmare, as the worst affected by crop failure.¹⁵

Nevertheless, by 26 November the Post was adamant that ‘notwithstanding the croaking of the Repeal press, it is evident that disease in the potato is checked’. By 9 December the Examiner likewise believed that ‘in this county at least, the alarm seems to have considerably subsided as to the failure of the potato crop’. Even so, it advised that ‘immediate measures must be adopted for the relief of the real sufferers’. Noting that Killarney had taken prompt action, the paper posed a question about the ‘sluggard’ response in the county capital: ‘What is Tralee doing?’¹⁶

John Hurly, who was chairman of Tralee board of guardians (the managerial board for the Tralee Poor Law Union) at the time, offered a clearer – albeit more negative – view of the situation. He reported to the government on 11 October 1845 that one-third of the potato crop thus far was totally lost and that no locality had been spared.¹⁷ A great deal of the crop was still in the ground, but he was anxious about its quality. He was fearful for the future of the poor, anticipating price rises and the prospect of a much-reduced harvest the following year due to a lack of seed potatoes. He advised the government that every precaution should be taken. Having begun by stating that he was writing ‘without any intention … of creating unnecessary alarm’, Hurly’s stance by the end of the report was that ‘in the present case, alarm to a considerable extent is warranted’.¹⁸ John Hurly’s alarm would prove to be fully justified as events...