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| Illustrated London News, June 25, 1842 — Attack on a Potato Store
— THE GALWAY STARVATION RIOTS
This illustration was "intended to convey an idea of the state of desperation to which the poor of Galway have been reduced by the present calamitous season of starvation." To see the full test of this article go to THE GALWAY STARVATION RIOTS, JUNE 25, 1842 | |
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| Print collection of Maggie Land Blanck | |
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| Print collection of Maggie Land Blanck
The Conflict at Ballinhassig, Cork
As people assembled for a fair in Ballinhassig in County Cork the Royal Irish Constabulary perceived themselves to be under attack and consequently fired on the crowd. Ten (or possible 11) people were killed. | |
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| Print collection of Maggie Land Blanck
IRISH MENDICANTS BY ALFRED FRIPP, 1845
Mendicants = beggars.
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| Illustrated London News, February 20, 1847
The following "sketches on the west of Ireland" by Mr James Mahony were taken from The Illustrated London News, February 20, 1847. The purpose of the article was to "direct puplic sympathy to the suffering poor " in the west. | |
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| Print collection of Maggie Land Blanck
Boy and Girl at Cahera, Illustrated London News, Febraury 20, 1847 | |
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| Print collection of Maggie Land Blanck | |
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| Print collection of Maggie Land Blanck | |
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| Print collection of Maggie Land Blanck | |
| Notice the poor souls on the side of the road.
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| Illustrated London News, December 22, 1849 Conditions of Ireland
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Print collection of Maggie Land Blanck
Village of Moveen "Sixteen thousand and odd persons unhoused in the Union of Kilrush before the month of June in the present year; seventy one thousand one hundred and thiry holdings done away with in Ireland, and nearly as many homes destroyed in 1848; two hundred and fifty-four thousand holdings of more than one acreand less than five acres put an end to between 1841 and 1848; six-tenths in fact, of the lowest class of tenantry driven from their now roofless or annihilated cabins and houses, makes up the general description of that desolation of which Tullig and Moveen are examples. The ruin is great and complete.Moveen is in the parish of Moyarta, County Clare. See Emigration - Clare Heritage and Genealogical Centre
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Print collection of Maggie Land Blanck
Scalpeen, December 15, 1849, Illustrated London News The accompanying article was missing. A scalpeen was a temporary hut build against a wall of a home from which the tenants had been evicted. It usually had a roof and walls but was very crudely made from the remnants of the tumbled house. | |
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Print collection of Maggie Land Blanck
Scalp of Brian Connor, near Kilbush Union-House Illustrated London News, December 22, 1849 Part of the article is missing form the two pages that I have. The explanation of the "Scalp of Bran Conner" is referred to in the remaining article: "The Scalp of Brian Conner (here represented) has already been described: it is another illustration of the worse than pig-sty habitations of those who did live in the in the now roofless cottages." A scalp was even cruder than a scalpeen and generally consisted of little more than a hole in the ground. | |
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Print collection of Maggie Land Blanck
Miss Kennedy distributing clothing at Kilrush Miss Kennedy was the seven year old daughter of Captain Kennedy, the Poor-law of the Kilrush Union. She engaged "in the daily occupation of distributing clothing to the wretched children brought around by their more wretched parents." It is explained that the young Miss Kennedy was so upset at the sight of the impoverished peasant children that she gave away some of her own clothes and then, with the help of other, started to make clothes for the children.
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Print collection of Maggie Land Blanck
Scalpeen of Tim Downs at Dunmore "... the scalpeen of Tom Dunmore in the parish of Kellard where he and his ancestors resided on this spot for over a century, with renewal of the lease in 1845. He neither owed rent arrears nor taxes up to the present moment, and yet he was pitched out on the roadside, and saw ten other houses like his own leveled at one fell swoop on the spot the ruins of which are seen in the sketch. None of them were mud cabins, but all capital stone-built houses."A scalpeen was hole or make shift shelter. | |
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Print collection of Maggie Land Blanck
Bridget O'Donnel and Children "I lived," she said "on the lands of Gurranenatuoha. My husband held four acres and half of land, and three acres of bog land our yearly rent was £7 4s.; we were put out last November; he owed some rent."Her husband dead or gone her house was "tumbled" while she was still lying in it sick with fever. Two neighbor women carried her from the house. Eight days later she had a still born child. She had no shelter or food for her children. | |
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Print collection of Maggie Land Blanck
Searching for potatoes in a stubble field Illustrated London News, December 22, 1849 | |
The evection problem as explained in the article was a result of the Poor Law enacted in 1838.
The law technically offered relief to those in need. However, aid could be received only in the
workhouse. Condition of the workhouse were made as harsh as possible so as to discourage
people from wanting help. The Board of Guardians who administered the Poor Law
had power to collect
a Poor rate as a form of taxation.
As long as there was no legal provision for the poor, a landlord had some repugnance to drive them from every shelter; but the instant the law took them under its protection and forced the landowner to pay a rate to provide for them, repugnance ceased; they had a legal home, however, inefficient, to go to; an eviction began...... | |
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Print collection of Maggie Land Blanck An Irish Board of Guardians The accompanying article was not available. Date and periodical unknown. Notice that the Irish peasant (represented by the two men leaning across the table and making fists) are given ape-like facial features.
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Print collection of Maggie Land Blanck IRISH HARVEST HOME — FROM AND ORIGINAL SKETCH Illustrated London News, September 15, 1849. The text was missing on the copy that I bought. However, in Representing Ireland: gender, class, nationality edited by Susan Shaw Sailer, Chapter 4, Irish Identity and the Illustrated London News 1849-1841 Famine to Depopulation, Leslie Williams says: The text describes the "frolic and fun".... [of] a night's amusement for the boys and girls who assisted in reaping and securing the gifts of Ceres" (188). Ceres is, of course, the goddess of grain. Around the barn, however, the candlesticks are draped with potato plants. Nothing in the scene suggests the desperation of those who were suffering famine and with it choler, typhus, and other fevers"While the originally article says that the "sketch" was by and Irish Artist. Susan Shaw Sailer says that this work was by a Scottish artist, Sir David Wilke, and was "more a product of the art academy than a piece of reportage. The incongruity of the happy harvest image and the actual famine that was occurring in Ireland at the time has been noted by several other writers. The use of the potato plant as decoration instead of the traditional wheat sheafs used in England has also been noted. This image may be looked on as propaganda, suggesting that things were not so bad in Ireland after all.
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