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2 October 1997 Edition

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Remembering the Past: An Droch Shaol - The Irish Holocaust

The Famine that killed everything



Size of Holding    1845    1847    1851    1910
0 to 5 acres    182,000    140,000    88,000    62,000
5 to 15 acres    311,000    270,000    192,000    154,000
Over 15 acres    277,000    321,000    290,000    304,000
Total    770,000    730,000    570,000    520,000
The Irish Holocaust changed Ireland as dramatically as any other major upheaval in Ireland's history. The most visible was the drastic reduction in population from nearly nine million to six million in the space of five years.

Over two million died of starvation or its attendant diseases. Over a million emigrated, beginning an exodus of Irish people to foreign shores which was to continue unabated until the 1960s.

The majority of those who died were from the west of Ireland, where whole communities were wiped out. The fact that many of them had been Irish speakers accelerated a decline in the use of the Irish language and in Irish culture. By 1851 the number of Irish speakers had halved from its 1845 figure; continued emigration of over three million native speakers, the age-profile of `Gaeltacht' areas, post-Famine education policy, and a perceived association with poverty weakened it further.

The artificial famine was to change the face of Irish agriculture radically. During the Famine decade a quarter of all holdings disappeared, mainly farms of less than 15 acres, reflecting the end of the farm labouring/spailpín class, and those of very small holdings. This was in line with the British government's hoped-for consolidation of holdings, a move towards ranching and profit farming as opposed to tillage and family farming. By 1854 livestock accounted for half of total agricultural output, whereas the acreage under potatoes and grain halved in the second half of the 19th Century.

For the poorest groups in society, the standard of living remained perilously close to destitution. Many continued to subsist on potatoes despite crop yields dropping drastically. This was due to less intensive use of fertiliser, an increase in the amount of wasteland, the intermittent appearance of blight and the fact that only the young and very old were left to farm the land.

A new landscape emerged from the dramatic changes in agriculture. A description of an affected estate in Leitrim reads:

``The country is being divided into long straight farms, by long straight fences, running up to the mountains, the object being to give each farmer a pretty equal division of good and bad land, and to oblige him to reside on his farm.

``Formerly the land was divided by rundale, as it is called; a dozen people possessed alternate furrows in the same field, something similar to the ridge and furrow system in England on an extended scale. The system was necessarily attended with every evil, and improvement precluded.

``The agent is endeavouring to eradicate it by the means before-mentioned, and has given each tenant three years to build his house and his outside fences. These long straight fences are partly made, partly lock-spitted and in many places not laid out, and as the measure has met with great opposition it is difficult to say when they are likely to be completed.''

Both systems were contradictory and based on different sets of values. The former based on power and capitalism; the latter on tradition, kinship, co-operation and generosity.

The fact that little of the new prosperity of the large farmers was distributed to the labourers was a source of resentment and social division in the late 19th Century. The memory of the Famine provided an additional sense of injustice against landowners and, increasingly, the British state. In the 1880s, Michael Davitt and Charles Stewart Parnell harnessed this resentment into a powerful machine for demanding land reform.

The position of women also changed. The decline in domestic industry, the shift from tillage to pasture and the move to male primogeniture all undermined the position of women in society. Irish women without the advantage of a dowry were increasingly doomed to spinsterhood if they remained in Ireland. In addition, the growth in influence of the Catholic Church contributed to the growth of a more patriarchal society leading many single women to seek opportunities outside Ireland.

A description of the post-famine life in the Rosses in County Donegal speaks volumes:

``Tháinig blianta an Ghorta agus an droch shaoghal agus an t-ocras agus bhris sin neart agus spiorad na ndaoini. Ní raibh ann ach achan nduine ag iarraidh bheith beo. Chaill siad a' dáimh le chéile. Ba chuma cé a bhí gaolmhar duit, ba do charaid an t-é a bhéarfadh greim duit le chuir in do bhéal. D'imthigh an spórt agus a' caitheamh aimsire. Stad an fhilidheacht agus a' ceol agus damhsa. Chaill siad agus rinne siad dearmad den iomlán agus nuair a bhisigh an saoghal ar dhóigheannaí eile ní tháinig na rudaí seo ariamh arais mar a bhí siad. Mharbh an gorta achan rud.''

[The years of the Famine, of the bad life and of the hunger, arrived and broke the spirit and strength of the community. People simply wanted to survive. Their spirit of comradeship was lost. It didn't matter what ties or relations you had; you considered that person to be your friend who gave you food to put in your mouth. Recreation and leisure ceased. Poetry, music and dancing died. These things were lost and completely forgotten. When life improved in other ways, these pursuits never returned as they had been. The Famine killed everything.]

Series concluded
By Aengus O Snodaigh

An Phoblacht
44 Parnell Sq.
Dublin 1
Ireland