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Poor Law
In the first decades of the nineteenth century it became apparent that poverty in Ireland was a problem impossible to ignore. A committee, set up to explore the options, suggested a broad variety of measure including subsidised emigration, public works, such as road works and drainage, and a Poor Law. The British however feared a great surge of Irish to Britain and yet an other commission was established. This commission, chaired by the Anglican Archbishop of Dublin, Richard Whately, suggested among other things economic developments and poor relief based on charity. The British system of workhouses, intended for able-bodied men to work, was declared unfit for Ireland by Whately. In his opinion the Irish were more then willing to accept any kind of work.
The recommendations of Whately were also brushed aside by Lord John Russell, then Secretary of State for the Home Department, and a third commission was established. The assignment of this commission, led by the English Poor Law Commissioner George Nicholls, was narrowed. He had to find out whether it would be effective to finance poor relief by a local tax and whether a workhouse system could be established. In a way Nicholls had to evaluate his own work and instruments and his exploration would turn out to be a career move.
Poor Law
Old Chapel Lane, Skibereen, Illustrated London News, 13 February 1847.
(source: Views of the Famine)
The recommendations of Nicholls were more to the liking of the government and in June 1838 the Act for the Effectual Relief of the Destitute Poor in Ireland, in short Poor Law, passed. The British system of workhouses was to be introduced in Ireland. Furthermore the whole poor relief system in Ireland was to be financed by a local rate. The Poor Law is one of the rare issues opposed by both the Protestant landlords, liable to the Poor Law Rate, and their Catholic tenants, who saw the storm coming.
George Nicholls was appointed Commissioner for Ireland. The country was initially divided in 130 Poor Law Unions, but in the late 1840's an additional 33 Poor Law Unions were created. Each Union was to be equipped with a workhouse and a Board of Guardians. The Board of Guardians, responsible for the administration of the Poor Law, was elected every year on 25 March by rate payers. The value of one's vote depended on the valuation of the estate, hence, the more valuable the estate the more votes. The day-to-day running of the workhouses was consigned to Poor Law Guardians.
Workhouses
The construction works of the first 130 workhouses commenced in January 1839. These early workhouses are all designed by the same architect, George Wilkinson, and therewith interchangeable. They all were cheap, yet durable, straightforward and undecorated. Definitely not built with the intention to please, in the contrary: the steps for example are unassailable barriers for elderly and impaired people.
The first problems raised with the delivery of the first 112 workhouses in April 1843. Due to a lack of funds the opening of several workhouses was postponed. The landlords were extremely reluctant in paying the Poor Law rate. Even with the assistance of the Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC) or military personal the Poor Law Guardians could not collect the finances needed for their activities. A sad example is the Wexford workhouse which was delivered on 15 November 1842, but was unable to operate for almost three years until 5 November 1845.
Once the landlords could not evade the rate the passed the costs to their tenants. Farmers who were unable to pay had to give up the harvest, the sowing weeds and the tools. Without any means of living they could not pay the next term and eviction was inevitable.
The living conditions in the workhouses were disgraceful even before the Great Famine. In the course of the famine these conditions worsened.
The dormitories were packed and cramped. The few toilet facilities were often flooded with drain water, while the lack of fresh water was
almost structural.
The workhouse of Skibbereen was intended for 800 inmates, but eventually it accommodated 1449. To tackle the over-population problem washrooms and even stables were transformed in makeshift dormitories. The Boards of Guardians also rented buildings never meant to accommodate people to act as auxiliary branches.
Due to the conditions, the over-population and the lack of specialised fever hospitals the workhouses became the focus of infectious diseases. In a hurry some Unions appointed sheds to isolate the ill. Especially the highly infectious typhus caused thousands of casualties. Typhus could easily be contracted just by standing in line for food, pouring soup or administering the last sacraments. The disease was commonly known as road fever due to the infected corpses alongside the road. The fever epidemic reached its peak in April 1847 when the workhouses reported 2,613 deaths in one week.
In 1847 the workload of the workhouses was a bit lightened by the Temporary Relief Destitute Persons Ireland Act, also known as the Soup Kitchen Act. This act, which allowed poor relief by charitable institutions, was however short-lived and after just six months succeeded by the Poor Law Extension Act.
One of the most controversial aspects of the 1847 Poor Law Extension Act was that only those with less then a quarter of an acre of land were eligible for relief. Whereas there is no relation between surface area and yield, farmers with less then a quarter of an acre quality land latched onto their land, while those with more than a quarter of an acre barren land abandoned their fields.
It was impossible for the workhouses to provide shelter to everybody who was in distress. Especially in the first years of the Great Famine witnessed small disorganised disorders near the workhouses and corn depots. As people with hunger tend to fight viciously troops, instead of food, were brought in to put down the unrest. Starving people however are not likely to rebel and, apart from the Young Ireland Revolt, the final years of the Great Famine were actually quit calm in this aspect.
Emergency Relief
After the bad harvest of 1845 was confirmed Sir Robert Peel, then the British Prime Minister, ordered Indian corn from the United States to be shipped to Ireland. The purpose of these shipments, with a value of 100,000 Pound, was primarily to control the market prices. When the corn prices started to increase the government would throw their stocks on the market to lower the prices. The overwhelming resistance against government interference in the open market thwarted the release of these stocks.
This Indian corn, sometimes referred to as Peel's Brimstone because of the yellow colour and the connotation, was therefore never meant to feed the Irish and even if so it would be just a drop in the ocean. It is a delusion that 100,000 Pound of corn is able to compensate a loss of three to four million Pound of potatoes.
Apart from the dissident depots of Cork, Clonmel and Longford the corn depots remained closed until May 1846 as ordered by Charles Trevelyan, the Permanent Secretary at the Treasury. The order to provide corn at market price instead of the lower cost price was ignored at most depots.
At the moment that the first signs of blight became visible in 1846 Charles Trevelyan decided that the government, except in extreme distress, would not import any corn and that the laws of supply and demand had to be respected. As a consequence corn depots and public relief works were closed. The few depots which stayed open were not supplied and were empty in no-time. This causes unrest and riots in especially the harbours. Instead of relief troops were sent to county Cork.
Even after three bad harvests in 1847 the British government had no intentions whatsoever to sent relief to the ungrateful and rebellious Irish. The British blamed the Irish for their stupidity to gamble on one unreliable crop. Trevelyan even felt God's Judgement when he wrote It is hard upon the poor people that they should be deprived of knowing they are suffering from an affliction of God's Providence.
The Doolough Tragedy
Doolough Tragedy Memorial.
(authors collection)
Apart from some rare exceptions the Boards of Guardians and others entrusted with enforcing the Poor Law perfectly mirrored the government's frosty attitude towards the needy. Countless stories and memorials on the roadside are reminiscent of tragedies caused by plain negligence of the relief authorities. One of these tragedies occurred in the early spring of 1849 at Doo Lough in County Mayo.
In March 1849 a group of starving people seeking relief had gathered at the workhouse of Louisburgh. The Relief Officer on duty told the hungry crowd that only the Board of Guardians was authorised to hand out food or tickets for admission to the workhouse. It was a terrible shame that the members of the Board were not in, but luckily two of the members would attend a meeting the next day in Delphi, a mere 18 kilometres from Louisburgh. Because it was already getting dark and the shortest route was just a narrow trail through rivers and mountainous, barren terrain the scruffy men, women and children spent the night in the open.
Those who woke up the following morning set off for Delphi where they arrived around noon. They were informed that the Guardians couldn't be disturbed during lunch. After finishing their meal the Guardians, Colonel Hograve and Mr. Lecky, showed an ingrained insensitivity towards the pleas of the starving people in front of them and told them that their journey had been in vain.
Empty handed the group commenced the trip back to Louisburgh. Physically exhausted and mentally broke, but above all deprived of all hope, they were an easy prey for the cold rain and freezing winds. Hundreds of people perished alongside the trail or drowned in the rising swirling waters of Doo Lough.
The next day a small expedition, composed of inmates of the workhouse of Louisburgh and led by the Relief Officer, set off to bury the corpses without coffin on the spot where they had perished. Near Doo Lough, a name derived from Dubh Lough, meaning Black Lake, however there wasn't enough earth to provide every dead body its own grave. Instead the bodies were dumped in a shallow glen and covered with a thin layer of soil.
For lack of records it's impossible to determine the extent of the Doolough Tragedy. Widely accepted estimations assume that the initial group consisted of 400 to 600 impoverished homeless people from which just a few dozen returned in Louisburgh alive.
Relief Works
Initially the government launched public relief works to provide employment and therewith income. The wages, between eight and ten pence a day for male workers, but less for women and children, were far below subsistence level. A ten pence wage was barely sufficient to buy food for one day for one person.
Nevertheless the public works provided income and even during the extremely severe winter of 1846 the works continued: undernourished and badly dressed ghosts worked in the snow and stinging wind. Sometimes, when the whether conditions were too extreme, the works were closed and workers who showed up at the morning call received half the wages. Most of them had walked several miles to get to the morning call.
In 1847 all public works closed down. Private initiatives from landlords were allowed with the restriction that the works did not yield any profit. Maintaining drainage systems and paving major roads was therefore forbidden, while improving and paving country roads from nowhere to nowhere was perfectly allowed. A sad example of such initiative is a canal between Lough Corrib and Lough Mask, in County Mayo, complete with locks but without water. Due to the limestone nature of the terrain the water simply disappeared into the ground.