Land cultivation in north Mayo saved starving families during the Famine
By Tom Gillespie
OVER 26 years ago, my old school pal, Eddie Bourke (Éamonn de Búrca) from Mountgorden, Castlebar, presented me with a signed copy of Transactions of the Society of Friends during The Famine in Ireland in 1846 and 1847, which he had just published for Edmund Burke Publishers.
When Éamonn emigrated to England after completing his Leaving Certificate from St. Gerald’s College, Castlebar, in 1968, he carried with him his most prized possession: an 1862 copy of The History of Ireland by Thomas Moore, which he bought for £1 (€1.27).
“That was the start of my bibliomania. I have been collecting ever since,” Éamonn said.
Since setting up De Búrca Rare Books in 1981, Éamonn has become one of the leading specialist in books of Irish interest. Now joined by his son, Will, this friendly family business has expanded to encompass books that range from very rare earliest printings to modern first editions.
Previously I republished harrowing extracts from Translations of the horrific descriptions of starvation and poverty in Mayo during the Famine years.
I was browsing through the book recently and came upon correspondence from Col. Knox Gore of Belleek Manor, Ballina, to the Central Famine Relief Committee detailing the effects of spade cultivation of 300n acres, undertaken by him in 1849.
He wrote on August 31, 1850: I was altogether induced to try the experiment of spade cultivation, in consequence of your Society having introduced it in the year before into the Ballina Union; and I felt it would be in vain too endeavour to extinguish out-door relief and its attendant evils, if employment were not to be had for the able-bodied.
I had determined to grow food to the utmost extent I could afford, and had arranged to cultivate 200 acres; and it was the kind offer of a loan from your Committee that enabled me to add another 100 acres.
I accordingly commenced to dig the clay land, part of it being dug 14 inches deep for turnips, and part of it nine inches deep for flax and oats, and to give a just idea not only of its state but also of a vast proportion of the best land in the district, I will just mention that to prepare those 100 acres for farming purposes, I was obliged to level 1,400 perches of small useless ditches and bands, to drain 10 acres of land hitherto unproductive, and to subsoil about 10 acres from its shallowness that had never been cultivated before.
These operations were carried on under the Land Improvement Act. The yearly instalment payable for 22 years for these improvements amount to eight pounds.
These lands had been left in the state described by the tenants who in 1846 emigrated to America. I endeavoured to get the digging done by task, and I offered the price per acre at which it had been done in other parts of Ireland; but the people were so wretched, and had so little confidence in each other, that they declared they could only work by the day, saying they would not subsist 24-hours without being paid their wages, depending almost entirely on out-door relief which would cease when they began to work for me.
I therefore most reluctantly felt obliged to give up my project, or employ men by the day at the usual wages of the country, viz. 6d. to 8d. per day, and I promised to pay them every evening.
I thus engaged in an undertaking, the difficulties of which none can appreciate who have not tried it; and although I was assisted by an efficient and energetic steward, yet as he had to attend my usual farm operations, which are on an extensive scale, the principal duty of overseeing and paying these labourers devolved to me; and from it I never flinched from December to July; being out each morning before light in winter, and at five o’clock during the other months, and not home 'til dark and eight o’clock according to the season.
I mention this solely for the purpose of showing proprietors who are similarly circumstanced, that if they wish to seriously regenerate their country, or their estates, they must not be stopped by difficulties which can be overcome by energy and resolution.
To return to my detail: I continued digging the land 'til, at the beginning of April, the quantity had reached 200 acres; of which 100 acres were sown with oats and barley; but this position does not necessarily enter into this report, as the cultivation was effected by my own funds.
The other 100 acres were intended for turnips; but having been fortunate enough to induce Messrs. Bernard and Hay to form an establishment for the steeping of flax on the patent system in Ballina, where I have built a scutching mill for them, at the expense of £1,000 (and which I could not have effected but for the loan of £200 afforded me by your Committee for the purpose), I found it necessary to sow nearly 100 acres of flax; the land for which I principally selected from that intended to have 100 acres of turnips.
I still, however, determine to haver 100 acres of turnips, so I continued digging fresh ground, and by the 1st of June, my operation extended over 300 acres.
The sowing of the flax crop was completed by 3rd of June, and proved a fair crop under all the circumstances.
For the reasons above stated, I was unable to commence the turnip crop 'til June. I then dug 100 acres a second time; harrowing and rolling after each digging; marking out rogue drills along a line by men with spades; opened the drills, put in the manure, and closed the drills, all they operations – except the harrowing, rolling and drawing the manure – being performed by men, women, and boys.
The seed was won by money with a machine, sowing two drills at a time. There was no failure over the entire; but owing to an uninterrupted drought during the months of June and the beginning of July, the seed lay dormant for several weeks, particularly in the strongest and best land; so that the crop, as far as the seeds were concerned, became a late crop.
The moment it was possible, the plants were singled and weeded with hand and hoe, and afterward the whole extent was dug over between the drills; then land then presented a garden-like appearance, not a weed to be seen, and not a blank in the crop.
During these operations, I have employed almost every person who asked for work, most of them unknown to me by name or appearance.
The thankfulness with which these poop people received their wages every evening was most gratifying; and as a proof of their gratitude and kind feeling, I may mention that my cattle and sheep were the only stock unwatched in the county, and yet I never lost one, nor can I complain of any injury done to my property.
Men actually came each morning six miles to work. When I found a family was large, I employed a sufficient number to support them all, and I thus gave employment to children who had never earned a penny before.