1847 AD

1847 AD The cost to emigrate to the USA and Canada from Ireland was by now doubled to what it was in 1846 AD, due to the increased demand, and even later still it was to be further increased to go to the USA to 75 / - shillings, and 65 / - shillings to Canada, and 15 pounds for the families of any of the tenant farmers and shopkeepers until this year, while by now "500" people a week were actually dying in Cork City alone in Co. Cork in Southern Munster, and overall for every 1,000 persons in the Irish population 50 people were dying.

       It was truly "the survival of the fittest," now and many of those in dire straits who were still under the overall total control of Lord John Russell and the British Whig Government's and their Immoral Union, mainly due to the overall starvation now occurring, in desperation took matters into their own hands to gain sustenance and because of this 31,209 people in Ireland were to be charged this year with various offences and these figures in the future were to increase substantially as attacks occurred on the storage food depots, on the convoys of food that was constantly being exported out of Ireland, or other locations where the food was being hoarded, while the Irish people starved. (In desperation, the individual rural "Secret Associations" were to  continue to take on the Land Lords and their agents).

January: Temporary Soup kitchens were set up in Ireland @ 1/4 of a penny / a farthing a quart of watery soup, but as meagre as it was, it assisted to remove the pressure from off of those in charge of the Workhouses, who were by now in a quandary as to the humanity of the British Whig Government under Lord John Russell and their lack of response to the dreadful calamity that was by now occurring in Ireland.

January: Lord John Russel and the British Whig Government Cabinet now under extensive pressure from "World" opinion, finally had started to come to the reality that things were not so good in Ireland as they had intended for the rest of the World to believe and they decided to advance funds towards assistance, on the condition that they would have to be repaid for this concession together with the running costs by the ratepayers themselves in Ireland.

February: As there was by now terrible Famine, Daniel O Connell "The Liberator" made a last plea to the British Westminster House of Commons Parliament for relief in Ireland, but no one of any substance there seemed to be really interested and as the conditions in Ireland became worse, with 100,000 human beings now in the Institutions, of which 63,000 were children from the Irish population, the British Whig Government started up soup kitchens themselves, but also then stopped the relief, as the 130 Poor Law Unions in Ireland were bankrupted. The "Fever" by now was continuing to spread throughout the whole of the Irish population, especially due to the terrible dilapidated conditions that applied in the Workhouses themselves, as in one single Co. Limerick Workhouse alone "130" people were dying every week, just as a small Blight free Potato crop finally began to grow, which gave the opportunistic British Whig Government under Lord John Russell a reason to announce that they considered that the Famine was over and they then stopped any further financial assistance at all to the population in Ireland.  

     Charles Trevelyan the British Assistant - Secretary of the Treasury and the miserable opportunistic British Government Overseerer of Famine Relief was now to be given a British knighthood for his good works in Ireland by the British Whig Government, and he then publicly defended the export of all the produce from out of Ireland during the "Great Famine," and intimated coldly that, "The Famine was a design of GOD to relieve the overpopulation of Ireland." It seemed that there were those in power in England who saw the misery and starvation, the deaths and the emigration of the Irish population as an economic and political boon for the British Imperial Government as they could now clear the Land Lords' Estates in Ireland without too much further trouble from these unthankful "rebellious" people and easily bend their political will now, without too much bother.

     Lord John Russell was moved to comment that, "It forms no part of the functions of government to provide supplies of food or to increase the productive powers of the land. In the great institution of the business of society, it falls to the government to protect the merchants, and the agriculture in the free exercise of the respective employment, but not to carry on those employments. A remedy has been applied to that portion of the maladies of Ireland, which was traceable to political causes and the morbid habits, which still to a certain extent survive, are gradually giving way to a more healthy action. The deep and inveterate root of social evil remains. The cure has been applied by the direct stroke of an all wise Providence in a manner as unexpected and un - thought of as it is likely to be effectual. GOD grant that we may rightly perform our part and not turn into a curse what was intended for a blessing."

     Lord John Russell closed down the soup kitchens in Ireland and retired from his position, and received his knighthood and wrote a book personally about the Famine. The overall responsibility for the continuing distress in Ireland was now thrown on local rates in Ireland by the British Whig Government and the population of Ireland was left to the operation of "Natural Causes" although they had no actual overall control over their own lives under the Immoral Union. Was all of this once again blatant ethnic and religious opportunism ?, for when it suited the British Imperial Government to set aside their policy of Laissez Faire, they did, as even Charles Trevelyan himself was to do later on in India.

    The "London Times," which was an Ascendancy Establishment newspaper with total anti - Irish bias ran an article this month stating," Before our merciful intervention the Irish nation were a wretched, indolent, half - starved tribe of savages ages before Julius Caesar landed on this isle, and not withstanding a gradual improvement upon the naked savagery, they have never appreciated the standards of a civilized World. We help all those who help themselves, but we do not like throwing money in a ditch."

      The "Young Irelanders" in desperation of it all had now set up a rival organization, to Daniel O Connell's Repeal Association, known as the Irish Confederation under the leadership of William Smith - O Brien, who was himself a Land Lord and an M.P. in the Westminster Parliament in England, as they were intending to bring about an Irish Republic where those who were destitute would not be made to suffer the consequences of the Immoral Union under the British Imperial Government's overall control anymore. The British Whig's Lord Lieutenant in Ireland was now in a quandary as to what tactics he should now follow in Ireland, as the Conservatives in England were now somewhat in disarray after their split and he was also pushing for Public Works that would increase productivity. (This was also the policy of Daniel O Connell's Repeal Association and the Young Irelanders new association, the Irish Confederation, giving them all now another common cause). A meeting was held in Dublin of all the Peers, the Landed Gentry and the Irish M.P.s in the Westminster Parliament  and there was a demand now to bring about a radical change in the British Whig Government's policies towards Ireland, which should have been the opportunity for any chance of National Unity in Ireland, but unfortunately it did not come about. An Irish Tenant's Rights Association was now also formed in Co. Cork in Southern Munster, as due to the terrible circumstances to try and just survive in Ireland that they now faced on the home front, they had lost their interest in any chance of Repeal of the Immoral Union or in an Irish Republic, as they now only wanted to concentrate on trying to stay alive instead, if possible, and this culminated in Irish Tenant Protection Associations in Ireland that would increase further over the next 5 years.

April: An Order was now given by those in control in the Dublin Castle in Ireland acting for the British Imperial Government to drive the excess Irish population, who were still starving, out of the Cities, and to this end 22 Special Constables were now employed to carry it out, while at the same time in the first six months of the year 2,850,000 tons of foreign grain arrived into Ireland for sale at 13 pounds a ton, if you could afford it.

May: Robert Beamish a Land Lord at Highfield near Skibbereen in Co. Cork in Southern Munster evicted 117 tenant farmers and their families from his Estate this month while the Ribbonmen, the Hearts of Oak, the Whiteboys, and other rural Secret Societies continued to carry out successful organized attacks on the Landed Gentry and the Land Lords in general by securing their livestock, burnt their barns and houses, while the Land Lords. their families, and their agents, were threatened or shot at and even killed, all of which had a certain stabilizing effect on some of the Land Lords and the actions they were taking against their tenants in Ireland. It also backfired on occasions, such as when Major Mahon, a Land Lord, was killed in Co. Roscommon in the east of the Connacht Province, and this was then used as an excuse to ensure that Famine Relief was not to be discussed at all, as all of these activities were only seen by those in the British Whig Government's Dublin Castle authorities as acts of betrayal and ingratitude.    

June: Bessborough the British Whig Government's Lord Lieutenant in Ireland, died this month, who had previously been "opposed" to the export of food from Ireland during his period in office, but to no avail, and Lord Clarendon was appointed to the position and stated that."He was being thrown into an Irish bog," and at this time he was convinced that, "The failure of the Potato crops and the establishment of the Poor Law would eventually be the salvation of Ireland, as the failure of the crops would prevent the land from being used." 2 years later on he was to have a rethink and with further hindsight he was to openly attack the British Whig Prime Minister, Lord John Russell, stating "What is to be done with these hordes? Improve them off of the face of the Earth, you will say, let them die, but there is a certain amount of responsibility attaching to it. Surely this is a state of things to justify you asking the British House of Commons for an advance, for I don't think there is another legislature in Europe that would disregard such suffering as now exists in the west of Ireland, or coldly persist in a policy of extermination. There never was so open or so widely extended a conspiracy for shooting Land Lords and their agents, and my fear is this will spread and that the flame that now rages in certain districts in Ireland will become a general conflagration."

    Daniel O Connell was by now totally discouraged by the sorry mess that Ireland now found herself in under the the British Conservative Whig Imperial Government's total apathy to all of the misery still occurring in Ireland, and he decided it was time to make a last visit to Rome once again before he died, but he was only to reach Genoa where on May 15th he did die. During his previous push for Catholic Emancipation many non - Catholics had moved to the Ulster Province, including the Industrialists who nevertheless still held onto their Estates in the south of Ireland. Daniel O Connell's heart is kept in the Chapel of the Irish College in Rome and his body was interred in Glasnevin Cemetery in Dublin. One of his sons, Maurice O Connell became the M.P. for Tralee and the Manager of the Association for Deeds, and his other son, John O Connell was the M.P. for Athlone, and took over the administration of the Repeal of the Immoral Union, and he also had 3 daughters, Ellen, Kate and Betsy.

June - July: A British Poor Law Amendment Act recognized all "poor destitute" persons, but only in emergencies, yet the Workhouses were still to be overcrowded until 1849 AD with 1 in 4 persons in Ireland now "dying" due to malnutrition and the subsequent onset of disease, but the Dublin Castle authorities acting for the British Imperial Government still tried  to force them to enter the Workhouses despite the continuing outbreaks of Cholera etc. so as to test their eligibility, as they were now subject to many of the Poor Law Unions, rejecting women and children whose husbands did not apply  for admission. (Under the Gregory Clause anyone at all who was renting 1/4 acre or more was barred regardless of their circumstances.) The British Whig Government had only granted 50,000 Pounds to originally begin the Poor Unions who had tried to feed 3,000,000 destitute human beings in Ireland, and who had no chance of collecting any taxes from the wealthy ""Absentee" - Land Lords who were living in England. 

July: Every Poor Law Union had a soup kitchen / Relief Committee. The English Earl of Cork who was a Land Lord at Charleville / Rath Luirc in Co. Cork in Southern Munster evicted 400 of his tenant farmers and their families this month from off of his Estates and it was recorded that 10,000 people "died" in the Workhouse  in Co. Cork out of a population there of 100,000. Skibbereen in the west of Co. Cork was to typify the never - ending starvation and suffering that was occurring during the "Great Famine" while under the overall control of Lord John Russell and the British Whig Government that no longer gave protection to its most susceptible citizens, under its Immoral Union. Lord Dufferin and George Frederick Boyle M.P. recorded that "The terrible scenes we have seen in Skibbereen are equal to anything that has been recorded in history or could be conceived by the imagination." Meanwhile the Poor Unions who had to run the Workhouses were also now made totally responsible for outdoor relief, despite the fact that many of them were bankrupt and the roads leading to the Workhouses were known as Cosan na Marbh (The Pathway of the Dead), as 25% of all those admitted to them were to die.

     "It's well I do remember that bleak December day, The Land Lord and the Sheriff came to drive us all away, They set the roof on fire with their demon yellow spleen, and that's another reason why I left old Skibbereen, O Father dear, the day will come when vengeance loud will call, and we will rise with Erin's boys and rally, one and all, I'll be the man to lead the van beneath our flag of green, and loud and high we'll raise the cry "Remember Skibbereen."

Summer: General Elections were held for the Westminster Parliament in England and 39 M.P.s who were now fully committed to Repeal of the Immoral Union this time were to be successful, but with Daniel O Connell gone from off the scene any chance of still receiving the proceeds of his Repeal Rent also, Repeal of the Immoral Union seemed to now be on the downward slide, but some positives were still in the future pipeline, as Isaac Butt a non - Catholic lawyer in the Ulster Province had taken over the leadership of the Irish Parliamentary Party, and O Gorman - Mahon was also elected the new  M.P. for Ennis in Co. Clare.  

August: The price of grain was now reduced to 7 - 10 pounds a ton, which assisted the soup kitchens no end and 40,000 tons of Potatoes were now also to be eventually produced, although they were small, due to the previous affects of the Blight.            

    Later on in Skibbereen an association was slowly founded to defend the tenant farmers and their families there, and as it was illegal to seize the tenants' crops on Sunday they tried to harvest their crop on that day, and hide them, but there was also a double fine if the tenants were found taking measures to stop the Land Lords from collecting the crops, if proven.  

    3,000,000 people in Ireland were now being fed on a daily basis just to keep them alive and the Poor Law Unions who were responsible were nearly bankrupt, as it was impossible under the continuing prevailing Famine to collect any rates from anyone at all in Ireland.

   The British Whig Government still under Lord John Russell now made the Guardians of the Irish Poor Law Unions personally legally liable for any money that they advanced them, and they also abandoned the imposed Workhouse Test to get in, as they were totally overcrowded and the British Whig Dublin Castle authorities now reluctantly had to embrace "Outdoor Relief" as an emergency measure, which had to be then continued during the following year in 1848 AD, and then again in 1849 AD.

    The Blight in the Potato crop eased, but due to the previous prevailing conditions of decay there was only a small crop retrieved, and 215,000 people from out of the Irish population emigrated, with those going to Canada leaving from Liverpool, seeing 1 in every 14 of their people also die on that torrid journey, while of those who left from Cork in Co. Cork in Southern Munster 1 in every 9 died in the deplorable "Coffin Ships." -

    William Crawford the progressive Land Lord from Co. Down in the north - east of the Ulster Province who championed tenant rights, put forward a Bill to legalise the tenant rights customs at this time occurring in Ulster, but it was defeated and later on he and James Mac Knight were to found the Ulster Tenant's Association backed up by the Presbyterian ministers.

    Edward Walsh a Hedge Schoolmaster who had been imprisoned during the Tithe Wars was dismissed as a teacher in Co. Cork in Southern Munster for interviewing John Mitchell the Unitarian progressive while he was in prison.

September: John Norris a non - Catholic tenant was evicted from the English Earl of Shannon's Estate at Brownstown in Co. Cork in Southern Munster and he was so upset that he actually shot the man who removed the first slate from his roof, while earlier on tenants had prevailed by taking possession of the house, but soon the Land Lords also began to totally remove the rooves from their abodes and this action was then followed by firing, burning and the levelling of the homes altogether to the ground, as the Land Lords hired crowbar brigades at 3 shillings a house, who were supported by armed police and the British Military forces.

   Eventually the combination also of the Famine and the resulting disease was to undermine the tenants' resolve to resist as the evictions from the Land Lords' Estates were to be on an even much larger scale.     

    The unrelenting Whig Conservative, Sir Charles Wood / Lord Halifax the British Imperial Government's Chancellor of the Exchequer insisted that the Irish Poor Rates should be at the normal rate, and this cruel  unfortunate decision would be continued to be carried out and not be over ruled for another 5 years under Lord John Russell until 1852 AD, while Lord John Russell the British Whig Prime Minister replaced the Public Works with Outdoor Relief, and the Irish Poor Law Extension Act was enacted, which denied relief to anyone who held over 1/4 of an acre.

     The Earl of Shannon now borrowed huge sums of money to create employment and charity at Killaloe in Co. Clare in the north - west of the Munster Province and no deaths were to be reported there.

     A private charity, The British Association for the Relief of Extreme Distress in the remote parts of Ireland were feeding 200,000 children daily in the west of Ireland.

     Father Theobold Mathew of Temperance fame from Co. Cork in Southern Munster was to be severely overworked during the Famine Relief, and a new charity the St. Vincent de Paul Society was conducting their own soup kitchens.

     Alfred Webb, who was a Quaker, noted that the non - Catholic religions distributed their relief believing the people would abandon their Catholic faith, which turned out to be baseless, and he felt that they had sacrificed their influence for good as it would have been better to have left  their beliefs alone. The Society of Friends / Quakers, (who built up great credit in Ireland personally) and other various charitable groups in America and England, sent 500,000 Pounds worth of food, mainly grain, on 118 ships to Ireland, while privately money was also sent by friends and relatives from there.

     At this time, Charles Gavan Duffy who was later to become the Premier of Victoria in Australia joined the Irish Confederation as did Michael Doheny who also wrote articles for The Nation newspaper who was to later on found the Fenians in America of the Clan na Gael / The Organization where the anti - British Government movement would then be forced to set up their headquarters and he would then be in a position to greatly assist those in Ireland financially to gain Irish Freedom and eventually drive out the Conservative Coalition British Governments at that time initially from 26 of the 32 Counties for starters.

   The Tomb of the ancient Irish Kings dating from 2000 B.C. in the Valley of the River Boyne, between Drogheda and Slane, was opened up at Dowth in Co. Meath in the south - east of Northern Leinster this year, and explored by a Committee of the Royal Irish Academy and it is composed of a conical hill artificially constructed of stone as a Passage Grave over which grass has grown, with a Sepulchral Chamber below, that has a passage leading into it, with the entrance formed also by large stones set on their ends and roofed with large flagstones, that is 27' long leading into a Central Chamber 9' x 7' 11'  with side recesses. In the centre of the chamber is a shallow stone basin adjoining 3 recesses with the southern one leading to another lot of chambers and passages running southward. In the central chamber, and the passage that leads to it, there are several stones with spiral, concentric, zigzag and lozenge patterns on them and many antiquities and relics were found including the bones of human remains and domestic animals, amber and glass beads, bracelets, fibulae, copper pins and iron instruments .

     The "Young Irelanders" at this time began negotiations now with John O Connell, who is known now as the "Young Liberator," who was the son of Daniel O Connell and who was now the leader of the Repeal Association in an attempt to unite both of the Repeal of the Immoral Union associations.

     This year due to the continuing privation that was occurring in Ireland under the overall control of Lord John Russell and the British Whig Government and their Immoral Union of Ireland with Britain, 41,989 Irish people were now charged with various offences, which was up from the 20,000 average in 1842 AD - 1846 AD.    

    149,703 tons of Cereal grains were again exported from out of Ireland to Britain, which was totally deplorable and totally unjustifiable as the Irish population still only ate once a day, if they were lucky.

1847 AD - 1848 AD 2,000 people from out of the population of Ireland were still to be transported by the British Whig  Government under Lord John Russell every year.

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