1849 - 1850 AD

                                                                                                                                                               "The Worst Year of the Great Famine" 

1849 AD This was to be the "Worst Year Of All," for the population in Ireland, as the people were by now even more desperate to survive and even bled the Land Lords' cattle mixing the blood with any other meal type they could find to try and survive, and they also cut off the bullocks' tails and roasted them, stole ducks, geese, grass, sheep and any other livestock, consumed the birds of the air, the cats, the dogs, the frogs, the nettles, seaweed and any type of weed generally, while no fish or other types of seafood were allowed to be utilized by the starving population in Ireland, as most of these were now on the Land Lord Estates, and food riots were also common around the barges and the boats that were carting away the grain and the livestock out of Ireland, around the corn stores and the mills, while the speculators and the merchants still came under attack for charging excessive prices.  

    The first "Irish Tenant Protection Society," was established at Callan in Co. Kilkenny in the south - west of Southern Leinster.

   Co. Clare and Co. Limerick in the north - west of the Munster Province, Co. Galway in Southern Connacht, and Co. Offaly in the north - west of Southern Leinster were to have the "highest death rates" during this year.

       Sir John Russell was to remain the British Imperial Whig Prime Minister in England until 1852 AD, who also had Estates in Ireland, and under the Immoral Union he was to totally abandon all of those in distress in Ireland altogether, and Thomas Wyse was now also a Minister in his Government.

      Lord John Russell was personally to state the following, "The great difficulty in respect to Ireland, is one which does not spring from Charles Trevelyan or Charles Wood / Lord Halifax, but lies deep in the breasts of the British people and it is this, we have granted, lent, subscribed, worked, visited, and clothed the population of Ireland amounting to millions of pounds worth of money, with years of debate, and our only return is calumny / slander and rebellion, let us not grant, or clothe them any more and see what they will do."  

    The 3 non - denominational Queen's Universities in Belfast, Cork and Galway, were finally opened up to students in Ireland.

August: At this time, Thomas Marmion, (a land agent for the Ascendancy Church of England / Ireland minister, Rev. Maurice F. Townsend, presided over the great number of evictions on his personal Estate in Co. Cork in Southern Munster), when 154 tenant farmers there along with their families, involving all up a total of 350 people near Skibbereen, were to be removed from the Estate over a two year period and no official record of any of the previous tenant evictions from the Land Lords' Estates in Ireland, were kept until this year.

     There was to be the same number of emigrants leaving Ireland as there were in 1846 AD.

    A British Imperial Law was now passed in the Westminster Parliament, to allow another way out for the Land Lords who had Estates in Ireland, who were suffering from Encumbrance (debt).

   Agricultural products were to decline further, from 25% to 30 %, especially young cattle and butter.  

   600 people in Ireland were transported from Ireland in the first 3 months of this year, with riots and overall total desperation now occurring everywhere in Ireland.

   The only good thing that was to happen in Ireland this year was that all of this terrible ongoing turmoil was to finally bring about rent reductions of 20 - 25 %.  

    The "Great Famine" was still as bad as the ones in 1846 AD and 1847 AD, and it had now spread out all over Ireland, except for the north - east in the Ulster Province, where they were protected by the strong growth of the Linen Trade, and where they were violently opposed to paying any rate to alleviate the distress anywhere else in Ireland. The general population of Ireland was now also suffering from Typhus and Relapsing Fever, which was carried by body louse in the filthy conditions in the Union Workhouses, and in the so called hospitals there with dysentery, scurvy, and dropsy now rampant and the voluntary contributions for relief in Ireland had dwindled away, as the British Whig Government under Sir John Russell considered that the population in Ireland were irresponsible, ungrateful, treacherous and unfit to govern themselves, let alone be allowed to enjoy the same rights as the rest of the United Kingdom, although they were still under the restrictions of the Immoral Union, with no say in their destiny or any right or hope of ever governing themselves anyway.

August: Victoria, the German Hanoverian British Queen, visited Ireland, and from now on, and for another 50 years in Ireland any popular movements of Irish Independence were to be very short lived.

September 16th: James Fintan Lalor, along with 3 others decided to try and to do something physically, to draw attention to the terrible conditions and the plight of the general population in Ireland, and to this end they started another Irish Uprising in Co. Tipperary, and the adjoining County to the south - west, in Co. Waterford in the Munster Province, but received no support and it was abandoned after they attacked a police barracks at Cappoquin, and one of them was killed along with a constable, and their leader went off to America, while James Fintan Lalor returned to Dublin.

    Thomas Clarke Luby, was to be among those who were imprisoned and he went off to Australia, while Charles Gavan Duffy, the future Premier of Victoria, who was still for democratic reform only, was released from prison.

   From now on up until 1879 AD, emigration to Australia was to be assisted by a few of the Land Lords, including Fitz William in Co. Wicklow in the south - east of Southern Leinster, and Colonel Wyndham in Co. Clare in the north - west of the Munster Province, who also purchased land in America for some of their tenants. 

   The potato crop was now to suffer only a partial attack of the Blight, and it seemed the worst of the ""Great Famine" was now over, and remittance money was also coming in, from those relatives who had left Ireland earlier, for their remaining relatives in Ireland to also join them in exile.

     Another Encumbered Land Act was bought in by Sir John Russell, the British Whig Prime Minister, to increase the release of further encumbered Land Lord Estates in Ireland, under a Commission who would be able to sell the Estates for the Land Lords who had a British legal claim on the property in Ireland to pay off their debts, and give clear title to the new owner and the Encumbered Estates Commission, was to receive 23,000 pounds over 10 years, to buy back the encumbered land in Ireland from these particular Land Lords. The anti - Irish London Times newspaper in England released an article stating, "That in a few years a Celtic Irish man will be hard to find" in expectation of all of the land in Ireland to be once again taken over by Englishmen, who were men of means.

     At this time, Ireland still had 12,000 teachers, 4,321 schools and 500,000 pupils, and Father Theobold Mathew had also extended his Temperance Reform over to America.

     The Irish name for the city of Cobh in Co. Cork in Southern Munster was changed to Queenstown at this time, but it would be changed back to its original Irish name after the Anglo - Irish War was to end in 1922 AD when the Irish were to regain back, by armed struggle and the forfeiture of many of their lives, the control of 26 of the 32 Counties in Ireland from the British Imperial Government.

   James Clarence Mangan (18012 - 1849) died, who was to have a bust erected in his memory in St. Stephen's Green in Dublin.

December 27th: James Fintan Lalor, the 'Gaelic Miesian Irian Irish leader from Co. Offaly in the north - west of Southern Leinster, died, who was to be the father of Peter Lalor of Eureka Stockade fame in Australia.

1849 AD - 1851 AD During this period, there was to be no change to the overall rural situation existing in Ireland, with the Potato Blight striking again, but the grain crop was maintained, except for wheat, while the price of sheep and pigs fell, cattle numbers were up as well as butter.  

1850 AD This year, 200 tenant farmers in Ireland and their families were evicted by the agents O Neill and Webb from the Estate of Sir Riggs Falkiner at Kilbarry.

   20,000 Pounds was now also set aside by the British Imperial Government to buy back land from the "speculators" and the solvent Land Lords who still held Estates in Ireland. 

     The best laid plans of mice and men now went astray, when the Irish Franchise Act, giving certain members of the Irish population the right to vote, was bought in by the British Westminster Parliament, with the proviso that to obtain this democratic right, you must "own land in Ireland" to the value of 12 Pounds in the Counties, and 8 Pounds in the Boroughs an Act brought in by the British Imperial Government with the express purpose of excluding the poorer Irish families and the marginal voters, and to increase the County electorate, while decreasing the Borough electorate. Despite this wilful negative intention, the actual result was that the Irish electorate vote was increased from 61,000 to 165,000 voters with 135,000 of these in the Counties and this in turn then brought in "40" newly elected Irish members to the Westminster Parliament in England, who would only support any Government that would bring in the basics of William Crawford's previous Ulster Tenants Bill, which was based on the principles of theIrish Tenant's League."    

     Since the arrival of Archbishop Paul Cullen the Catholic Irish had gained in strength, as there was now 1 priest for every 2,100 of the people and 1 nun for every 3,400 of the people and from now up until 1900 AD the National Schools would double, and a Catholic Irish Synod was to be held at Thurles in Co. Tipperary in the north - east of the Munster Province for the first time since the 12th Century AD, after the Anglo - Norman Invasion. The educated Catholic Irish priests were now beginning to enter the political arena in support of the population and a motion was taken to condemn the introduction of non - denominational colleges previously set up by Sir Robert "Orange" Peel the previous British Tory Prime Minister as dangerous to their faith and morals due to their lack of any religious education. Despite the improvements the Catholic Irish people at Moneen in Co. Clare in the north - west of Munster were still refused permission to obtain land there on which to build a church, so they developed a mobile one instead.

     The 3 Queen's Universities were now linked together, and had low fees, generous scholarships, and were much easier to attend, but they also came under attack from the Ascendancy Church of England / Ireland clergy and the Presbyterian clergy for also being Godless. Mac Hale, the previous Irish Catholic Archbishop of Tuam in Co. Galway in Southern Connacht, who was also against the National Board, had previously warned Sir Robert "Orange" Peel against bringing in Secular Universities, and had then been backed up by Daniel O Connell "The Liberator." Despite the debate the Queen's College in Belfast in Co. Antrim in the north - east of the Ulster Province, which was predominately being attended by Presbyterians, was operating quite successfully, and some half - hearted attempts were to be made in this decade to meet the grievances of the Catholic University, whose degrees were still "not recognized," but nothing was to come of it.

     John Gray, the editor of the Freeman's Journal, and Charles Gavan Duffy, (the future Premier of Victoria), who was the editor of The Nation, were now the only "Young Irelanders" who were still active in Irish politics at this time.

August: Frederick Lucas, the editor of "The Tablet" newspaper, who was an Englishman, who had become a Catholic, called an Irish National Tenant Rights Conference  to be held in Dublin, which was to lead on to the foundation of the "Irish Tenant League" as. 50,000 Irish families had by now been evicted from off of the Land Lord's Estates, and the Irish Tenant League had been initially founded to bring in legislation to "legalise" the rights of the tenants, as to the customs being carried out in the Ulster Province and it was to spread out all over Ireland, and they were to put forward their own candidates for political seats in the British Westminster Parliament. Also formed, due to the continuing tenant evictions from the Land Lords' Estates in Ireland, were 20 Irish "Secret Societies" in the south and the west of Ireland, who were to be followed by others being formed elsewhere to try and bring in "fair rents" by impartial valuation. During this time the tenants in Ulster, who previously were not so subject to the hardships meted out in the south and the west of Ireland, were now also forced to begin to defend their own tenant rights there also, against the ongoing greed of the Land Lords and this once again, created a "common cause, and need" placed on all of the tenant farmers in Ireland, and the possibility of an "Irish National Tenant" movement, as even the Presbyterian General Assembly was to be eventually forced to petition the British Westminster Parliament to bring in legislation to ensure the continuance of the previous rights of the tenants in Ulster. 

      The Tara Brooch, that had been created in the 7th Century AD, was found this year on the seashore by a child at the mouth of the River Boyne at Betaghstown in Co. Meath in the south - east of Northern Leinster, and it was then sold in Drogheda in Co. Louth in the north - east of Northern Leinster by the mother of the children who found it.

    The sixth Duke of Devonshire restored Lismore Castle in Co. Cork in Southern Munster, and Killyleagh Castle in Co. Down in the south - east of the Ulster Province was also rebuilt.

   Maria Edgeworth who was born in 1767 AD - 1849 died this year, who had been the author of the first Irish novel, "Castle Rack Rent," that had been published in 1800 AD describing the irresponsibility of the Landed Gentry in Ireland.

   A Canal was built to create work during the "Great Famine" between Loch Corrib in Co. Galway and Loch Mask at Cong, the isthmus in Co. Mayo in the mid - west of the Connacht Province, which was connected by an underground river, but the water simply disappeared into the porous limestone. 

    314,000 tons of Cereals were once again exported again this year from out of Ireland to Britain.

1850's In the later part emigration from Ireland became a torrent of landless labourers and farm servants.

   4 acres were now needed per cow, just to survive.

    1850 AD - 1860's. During this period 25% of the population of Co. Cork in Southern Munster alone, would emigrate, which this time involved more women then men, as all of the Irish families remaining there continued to suffer from the ongoing rural crisis.

     In the 21st Century AD, Tony Blair, the British Labour Prime Minister, would be forced to comment, "That one million people should have died, in what was then the part of the richest, most powerful nation in the World, is something that still causes pain, as we reflect on it today. Those who governed in London at that time failed their people, by standing by, while a crop failure turned into a massive human tragedy. We must not forget such a dreadful event. It is right that we should pay tribute to the ways in which the Irish people have triumphed in the face of this catastrophe."  

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