Castlebar parish devastated during Famine

PART ONE

By Tom Gillespie

DURING the Famine years - 1845 to 1852 - the population of the Castlebar parish - that of Aglish - was overwhelmed by mass starvation, going from 10,464 in 1841 to 9,153 in 1851.

The failure of the potato crop during these years devastated the people that had come to rely so heavily on it. Mayo was one of the most badly affected areas.

Stories of people deliberately getting arrested to be fed in the gaol were reported in The Connaught Telegraph.

The workhouse in Castlebar, where the Sacred Heart Hospital now stands, opened in 1842 for a capacity of 600 people. However, because of overcrowding the authorities had to rent other premises such as Walshe’s Brewery to accommodate 1,952 people by 1850.

In the early 1840s the government spent twice as much on the maintenance of the jail than it did on the infirmary, both in Castlebar.

The third Earl of Lucan, George Bingham, was known as ‘The Exterminator’. He chose this time to increase his lands, clearing villages such as Drumconlon and Aughadrina of hundreds of people to facilitate pasture, and building sheds from the stone of their houses.

Castlebar historian Brian Hoban has researched the period when over one million people died of starvation in the country, while many more emigrated to Britain, the United States, Canada and Australia.

Farm holdings of peasants rarely exceed 15 acres and their lands were divided into strips of bogland, arable land and land suitable for grazing. The arable land was used to grow potatoes, while income generated from the rest of the land was used to pay rent to the local landlord.

The first account of potato failure is reported in the Castlebar area in the local papers in 1845. In some areas there was total crop failure but in 1846 there was almost total crop failure.

The year 1847 was perhaps the worst year, with little or no food available and the widespread occurrence of typhoid and other diseases. This year became known as Black ’47.

Castlebar probably suffered more than other areas as the potato was the staple diet, while thousands who had been experiencing hardship or had been evicted in outlying areas flew to Castlebar in search of relief.

As the hardship spread tenants experienced extreme difficulties in paying their rents. The response of the landlords varied.

Sir Robert Blosse-Lynch in Balla treated his tenants well, as did George Henry Moore, while Sir Charles O’Malley supplied grain to his tenants.

As the situation worsened landlords experienced financial problems and while some continued to provide relief, others used the situation to clear their lands of tenants and increase the size of their holdings in an effort to make them more viable.

Lord Lucan, who had no love for Irish Catholics, is quoted as saying he ‘would not breed paupers to pay priests’. He evicted 200 families so that Simpson, a Scots Presbyterian, might have a holding of 2,000 acres.

The village of Aughadrina was cleared by Lucan’s agents and developed into a racecourse.

Sir Roger Palmer, who had vast holdings north of Castlebar, was no less ferocious in his treatment of tenants. His famous Crowbar Brigade cleared large tracts of land in the Glenisland area.

Some attempts were made to relieve the plight of the starving, but these proved to be insufficient.

In 1845 Sir Robert Peel introduced a scheme to import Indian Yellow Meal from the United States. The meal, known as Peel’s brimstone, saved many from starvation although it was not adequate to prevent widespread hardship.

In 1847 the Tory government was defeated and replaced by the Whigs but the new government was not as sympathetic and this was demonstrated by the defeat of O’Connell’s Poor Law Amendment Acts.

Sir Charles Trevelyan discontinued the provision of imported meal and operated a policy of ‘Laissez faire’ having formed the opinion that there was sufficient grain in Ireland to feed the entire country. The price of whatever grain was available soared - in Castlebar the price of corn rose from 14 shillings to 18/6 per cwt.

The decision to build a workhouse in Castlebar was made following the Poor Law Act of 1838 and the first admissions were made on October 22, 1842.

The workhouse was built on Lord Lucan’s estate, on a seven-acre site, donated by him, in an area of little agricultural value. It cost £12,000.

The old workhouse existed up to the 1960s where it was used as an old folks home but was replaced as a modern geriatric hospital and most recently as a state-of-the-art facility.

By early 1846 Lord Lucan was in arrears with his payments to the Board of Guardians and by the autumn the board were refusing admittance to the destitute.

Only for the aid of Lord Lucan, inmates already admitted would have died of starvation or from the bitter cold.

The Board of Guardians was in disarray and could not cater for 130 inmates although the building had been built to cater for 600. Mr. C.G. Ottaway described the services provided by the board as ‘cruel neglect of their highest duties’.

In December of that year the weather was particularly bad, yet patients were often left in large wards without adequate food, clothing or heat. On Christmas Day they had no food from 5 p.m. until 7 p.m. the following day.

Mr. Ottaway, in mid-January of 1847, tells of ‘paupers being left without breakfast for up to three days’.

NEXT WEEK:

Hundreds of starving people crawling in from the countryside.