The Administration of the Poor Law

The Administration of the Poor Law

The Vice Guardians, George Keogh and Charles Taylor (who acted with Captain Holland, the Inspector of the Union) were the first Vice Guardians who took over the Galway Union on 8th January 1848. They were full-time paid officials of the Union, unlike the elected Guardians who were unpaid and met only once a week. The chief task facing the Galway Vice – Guardians was to collect sufficient rates to finance the work of the Union.

Relief – indoor and Outdoor
Until the Oughterard workhouse was opened in October 1849, the poor of the three western divisions or parishes received relief in the Galway workhouse. The Vice – Guardians decided who were entitled to relief. The numbers in the Galway workhouse increased from 1,227 on January 18th 1848 to 2,983 on December 6th. Over 600 died in the house in the first half of 1848, with an average of 20 to 30 a week and sometimes 40. Dr. Browne, medical officer of the Galway workhouse, reported on 26th February that almost all of the deaths were of those admitted from the southern part of Killannin and Oughterard ED’s. This was due, he said, to their exhausted state on admission. They suffered from dysentery, want of food and clothing, and being exposed for weeks to cold and wet. They were brought directly to the hospital and died in the course of a few days.

Outdoor Relief
It was to e given to the able – bodied, i.e. those unable to provide for themselves. The able – bodied had to work eight to ten hours a day, breaking stones, to qualify for outdoor relief. It was decided that one pound of meal was the daily ration allowed persons over nine years of age and half a pound to those under nine years. The poor entitled to outdoor relief had to turn up each day for their ration of food, usually cooked at the workhouse, or the food depot of the district..
People sometimes had to walk several miles to the food depot. Food depots for outdoor relief were at Spiddal, Costello Bay and Moycullen, the three western ED’s of the Galway union.

The Vice – Guardians of the Galway union appointed extra Relieving Officers on the 21st February 1848 at £50 per annum. The following were the Relieving Officers:
Killannin South – Patrick Burke
Killannin North – Martin Griffin
Killannin West – Francis O’ Connor
Oughterard North – Walter Amos
Oughterard South – John O’Connor
Oughterard West – Michael Duffy
Moycullen – Morgan D’Arcy
These officers drew up lists for the Vice- Guardians if they were entitled to outdoor relief and those who could enter the workhouse. Large numbers received outdoor relief in the three ED’s or parishes of Oughterard, Killannin and Moycullen in 1848. In a three week period from the 5th to 26th of February, 17, 469 persons received a ration of outdoor relief in these three ED’s. The cost for the first week was £125 – 18 – 7. The numbers increased up to late July where they reached a peak of 32,191 for the Galway union in total. The numbers decreased in the second half of 1848 with the coming of the harvest.

Problems with Outdoor Relief
Large numbers availed of the outdoor relief rations, yet deaths continued in the barony of Moycullen in 1848. The outdoor relief ration was inadequate to save the people who were starving. There was the difficulty in transporting food to the Islands and south coast of the barony
of Moycullen, sometimes food carts were plundered and required a police escort. The Vice-Guardian reported to the commissioner in Dublin on 29th January that three of their delivery officers could not leave Galway till late the previous day with bread for the outdoor paupers of Killannin, Oughterard and Moycullen as they could not secure an escort. A bread cart had been plundered on the road near Galway. Francis O’ Connor, Relieving Officer of the district of Killannin reported to a meeting of the Galway union on 9th February that there was 12 or 14,000 persons in his district in a state of starvation. Many were dying by the roadside and among them many to whom he had given relief, but it was too late to preserve their lives.
The chief cause of the failure of outdoor relief to save lives was that the Vice- Guardians of the Galway union and the Relieving Officers were enforcing the quarter strictly to limit the number of persons who could get relief – i.e. nobody who occupied more than a quarter acre of land could get relief until they surrendered their land and house to the landlord.

Oughterard E.D.
There was a depot for outdoor relief at Oughterard. Fr. Mc Grath reported to a meeting of the Galway workhouse on the 1st March on the great destitution of his parish. He complained that relief was not being distributed in his district by the Relieving Officer according to the
recommendations of the rate payers. He said the Relieving Officer was not able to attend all the calls on him and that he had told the poor people that while they possessed a particle of furniture, even as small as a tongs, he would not relieve them. Rev. Mc Grath instanced a poor man named Walsh, and the Relieving Officer when called up admitted he said; ‘no relief could be given to any person possessing a house or furniture’. He said he relieved Walsh and gave him a ticket to the workhouse to which place, it appeared, he was unable to walk. Rev. McGrath said that he was satisfied that the Relieving Officer was doing all in his power to attend to the poor, but at the same time hundreds were dying of starvation. Walsh had been admitted to the workhouse.

Killannin E.D.
Similar problems existed in Killannin ED on the granting of outdoor relief. A number of persons from the estate of C St George reported to the Galway union on 8th March that they were prevented by the Steward of the C St George from obtaining outdoor relief because they had not consented to pull down their houses. A man named Peter Malone did not hold any land. He appealed to Mr. O’ Connor, the Relieving Officer, but was refused relief because he had not pulled down his house. He refused, as he would not have any place to shelter if he left his cabin. He didn’t get relief and others were treated in the same way. A man named Finnerty who applied for relief was refused. he died of starvation with his three children and were buried without coffins.

The Editor of The Galway Vindicator was satisfied that if they had been allowed relief they would now be alive.

Outdoor Relief for the Able – Bodied
James Martin, a landlord of Ross House Killannin, was strongly opposed to outdoor relief because of its cost on the rates which fell heavily on the landlords. The able-bodied had to work eight or ten hours a day breaking stones, often a long distance from their homes to qualify for a ration of food. In a pamphlet on the Poor Law, written by James Martin in December 1848, he paints a vivid and terrible picture of this work and its effects. He writes: – Let us look upon a string, half – starved miserable men seated on a heap of stones on our highways, engaged in earning their days support, compelled to purchase a supply of food, barely sufficient to prevent death by absolute famine. They received a small dole of food and were exposed all day in rags to the rigours of climate. They returned at night to wretched hovels. The work is such a distance from their houses, that the day is spent in walking to and fro, and the fatigue of walking and exposure to the cold produces exhaustion so that disease and fearful mortality follows.

The collection of the Poor Rates took much of the time and energy of the Vice Guardians of the Galway Union from January 1848 was devoted to the striking and collection of the poor rates, which was the only source of finance for relief in the workhouse. The Vice Guardians reported on January 29th that the outstanding rate in the union was £12,000. They admitted at the time, that for the most part, the small farmers were unable to pay the rates and they had no goods or produce of any kind. Major Rice, the new inspector of the Galway Union, reported in February that the three Western Divisions were in a state of wretched poverty, being mostly small cottiers who had given up their holdings. The amount collected for the year ending 29th September 1848 was £1,051 and £3,205 remained uncollected – i.e. the total amount collected was about one third of that which was due.

On the 25th April 1848 the outstanding rate in the three western parishes was:
Killannin ED £967
Moycullen ED £609
Oughterard ED £722
Even the landlords sometimes failed to pay the rates as they had to pay the entire rates of money of the small holdings, and most of them were heavily in debt. The C St George, the T.H. O’Flahertie and the A.H. Martin Oughterard landlords, owed £255 – 17 – 6 to poor rates between them n the 20th March. When a person failed to pay the rates due, the Collector brought about a distress on the persons property. The Collector, often backed by police or military, used the Bailiff to take cattle, grain, etc in lieu of rates from the person who defaulted in payment. This sometimes led to violence as the people gathered and seized the property or goods from the Collector, this was called ‘a rescue of the distress’. During 1848, The Galway Vindicator described ‘Crusades’ in the barony of Moycullen and throughout the Galway union, to collect the rates often backed by magistrates, dragoons, horses, soldiers, constables and bailiffs accompanying the rate collector and his stewards. The expenses of the operation were enormous of the police and military and the sale of goods seized disappointing when the auction was held in the Galway workhouse.

Excessive Poor Rates
James Martin of Ross House wrote to the Dublin Evening Mail on 24th August of excessive poor rates due to arrears of rates which could not possibly be paid, to be imposed on the three western parishes.
Moycullen E.D. 15 shillings and 6 pence in the pound
Killannin E.D. 11 shillings and 6 pence in the pound
Kilcummin E.D. 11 shillings and 6 pence in the pound
He said that such a process among the poorer divisions (E.D.’s) in Ireland would have no other result but the ruin of high and low to the same level of poverty and misery. The rate of 15 shillings and 6 pence in the pound for the E.D. of Moycullen meant that the rate-payers, most of whom were poor, had to pay 15 shillings and 6 pence in rates for every pound of the valuation of their farm. This was impossible to collect and enforce.
On the 1st October 3 shillings in the pound for the E.D.’s of Oughterard, Killannin and Moycullen by the Vice – Guardians. This was the usual rate in the Galway union which the rate payers were capable of paying.

The Potato Blight – July/August 1848
As the potato crop of 1847 was not affected by the blight but the yield was small, the farmers began to cultivate the land again in 1848. Since the public works were ended, more labourers were available to work on the land. The Vice- Guardians of the Galway unions reported on the
20th March that they had visited in the western district of the union and found that many of the small farmers were tilling the ground, planting potatoes and preparing to sow corn and a large quantity of turnips. However, hopes of a blight free potato crop were crushed when the potato crop was dug in July/August. The Galway Vindicator wrote in August that it was no longer possible to conceal that the potato crop was destroyed. A report from Clifden in August stated that every field was as black as ice. On August 24th, James Martin of Ross House, said that the whole potato crop was gone, except for about one tenth which was planted early. Major Mc Kie, Inspector of the Galway Union, reported on 13th August that throughout the union the potato crop had become infected with the disease of 1845 and 1846. He then gave his report on each of the 12 E.D.’s of the Galway Union. He said that there was a great breadth of potatoes sown in the E.D.’s of Oughterard, Killannin and Moycullen but they were all gone with the blight. In these three E.D.’s wheat, oats and barley were of average size (breadth). He said that in the Oughterard E.D., the people depended entirely on the potatoes (In general, the turnip crop had failed from attacks of the fly). There can be little doubt, he said, but that the coming winter will be one of extreme suffering and privation for the poor and ruinous for the small farmers. The general opinion was that of all kinds of food, there was not more than would suffice for four months in Connemara.

The Society of Friends
The Society of Friends or Quakers had an excellent record during the Famine in providing relief for the poor. They had established soup kitchens and gave relief in Connemara during 1847. In 1848 the main relief they provided was to distribute green crop seeds. They distributed 18,860 lbs of turnip seed in Co. Galway in 1848 and a large amount of other green crop seeds.. On the 2nd January 1848 they sent a circular requesting information as to the result produced by their distribution of green crop and seeds in 1847. They inquired whether a similar grant made in 1848 would be of benefit.
They had sent 80 lbs of seed to Reverend Robert Browne, Rector in Oughterard. He replied that a great deal of good had been effected by the turnip seed distribution to the poor last season and that turnips now took the place of potatoes in the markets. Robert Martin of Ross House had received 380 lbs and G.F. O’ Flahertie of Lemonfield 520 lbs. They also reported the great benefits which resulted. Robert Martin said that they had been the saving of hundreds of lives and were of far greater benefit than the relief given at the soup kitchens. According to G.F. O’Flahertie, they were anxious for a like supply of green crop seeds for the season of 1848 – turnip, carrot, parsnips, cabbage, bean seeds, etc.

Resistance to the Poor Rates
The collection of the poor rates gave rise to serious resistance and attacks on Rate Collectors in the E.D.’s of Oughterard, Killannin and Moycullen in the second half of 1848. Police and military protection was required by the rate collector and his agents. The poor rate collector in these three E.D.’s f the barony of Moycullen in 1848/1849 was George Mc Donald who had been sent down by the government in 1843 to enforce the poor rates. Mr. Mc Donald gave sworn evidence before G.F. O’Flahertie, Justice of the Peace, on 16th November 1848. His evidence goes as follows:
‘I am collector of the poor rates in the E.D.’s of Oughterard, Killannin and Moycullen in the Galway Union. On Tuesday last 14th Inst. having made distress with several of my assistants in the lands of Boohana (Spiddal) in the E.D. of Killannin, the said were approached by a party upwards of twenty persons, one of whom assaulted James Carson, one of my bailiffs by giving him a violent blow with a slean. In a very short time upwards of a hundred persons assembled and evinced a great disposition to attack the bailiffs, even after the distress had been forced away. I have on several occasions within the last two months made distress for poor rates in the said divisions which had been always forcibly and violently rescued from my custody and the greatest violence manifested towards me and my assistants; it is therefore quite impossible that the collection can be proceeded within either of the above divisions without a military and police force to protect me and my assistants in the execution of my duty. I further state that the opposition to the collection of the rate in the above divisions is so great that I consider that the lives of myself and my assistants would be in imminent peril were I to proceed further in the collection of the rate by means of distress. I therefore pray that prompt and suitable protection may be afforded me, as the time is fast approaching when distresses in the above divisions will not be available’.
– George Robert Mc Donald (Sworn before me, a Justice of the Peace, for said County of Galway on 16th November 1848 – G.F. O’Flahertie)
Mr. John Dopping, Resident Magistrate (RM) of Clifden, in the absence of an RM in the barony of Moycullen often accompanied the rate collectors and the police force in 1848/49 during the Famine. Mr. Dopping wrote to T.H. Redington in Dublin Castle on 21st November on a similar incident in the same district, the said had arrived the previous night to protect Mr. Mc Donald, the Rate Collector, in enforcing the collection of the rates in the locality. He proceeded with him and a party of 20 policemen to the townland of Bohoona, Spiddal, The bailiffs under Mr. Mc Donald’s instructions, proceeded to tear the thatch off a stack of oats – before it was removed, they were attacked by the country people and two of the bailiffs were actually thrown out of the haggard.
Some of the others were attacked and a considerable crowd assembled. Mr. Dopping found much difficulty in preventing serious consequences for some others. After a portion of the rate had been seized, he ordered Mr. Mc Donald to retire as he found that with the numbers assembled and the spirit they manifested, it would have been with the force available, quite impossible to carry away a distress. Both he and Mr. Mc Donald were certain that a large force would be required to enable the collection to be proceeded with. He would send a requisition to the officers in command of the military at Galway and Oughterard, but there was no accommodation in this wretched village. He would remain here to give Mr. Mc Donald all the protection in his power until he got further instructions….but he considered it highly inexpedient and indeed imprudent to go to the town lands where active opposition was expected.
However, the collection of the poor rates was successful when a superior military force was present to enable the rate collector to enforce the payment of the rates.

On the 7th December, Mr. Dopping had secured a military force to protect the collector, Mr. Mc Donald, in the district of Spiddal, with a force of infantry and a party of Light Dragoons conveyed by the war steamer ‘Aran’. The collection of the poor rates had proceeded without interruption. There was some resistance but it was ineffectual because of the presence of the military.

Dr. Joseph Kirwan PP Oughterard (1827 -1849) – The problem of proselytism.
Fr. Martin Coen, Galway diocesan archivist, wrote a series of articles on the famine in Galway under the title ‘Gleanings’ in the Connaught Tribune in 1975. He wrote that Dr. Kirwan, PP Oughterard, was reported to Rome for neglecting his starving people during the famine in 1847, as he prepared for the opening of Queen’s College Galway, and its first President. He said that one wondered what the ordinary people thought when it was announced that Dr. Kirwan would receive £800 per annum as its president. One of the few references to proselytism was contained in a letter to Rome on 12th July 1848. Dr. John Mc Hale, Archbishop of Tuam, and Fr. J. Glynn PP Killannin (then in the archdiocese of Tuam) claimed that an enormous number had fallen away from their traditional faith in Oughterard in the last two years, hundreds in fact.
The people’s view was that  ‘if the parish priest took money from the Government as President of the new University College, why should they not take the soup?’ The excellent work of Fr. McGrath, his curate, was of little avail when Dr. Kirwan PP was nearly always away. During the famine, he had done nothing but provide himself with a splendid carriage, much to the scandal of his people, they said. Fr. Coen said that the report was certainly an exaggeration as Dr. Kirwan did some good relief work during the famine and Dr. Mc Hale’s strong opposition to the new Queen’s colleges would partly explain his unflattering account. In fact, Dr. Kirwan had built the first Catholic Church in the parish since the Reformation and opened a dispensary in 1831. He was chairman of the local relief committee for periods in 1846 and was generous with financial contributions during the famine. He was a gifted preacher and often preached in Dublin and in English churches
to collect money for the new catholic church and for schools in the parish. He personally oversaw the building of the new Queen’s College in Galway and became its first President in 1846. His Bishop, Dr. O’Donnell, was often criticized for allowing him to absent himself so much from the parish, but he was always welcomed by the people on his return to his parish after his absence.
He died at his residence in Salthill of paralysis on 24th December 1849 at the early age of fifty two and was buried in the Oughterard chapel grounds. The Galway Vindicator of 2nd January wrote the following account of his funeral to Oughterard – ‘On Wednesday last the remains of this distinguished gentleman were conveyed to their final resting place in his parish chapel in Oughterard and seldom has such an affecting spectacle been witnessed in this country. From an early hour, they crowded on horseback and on foot meet the funeral procession on its route from Galway. When the cavalcade reached the parish of Oughterard, the numbers present reached 5,000, sorrow, deep and intense was pictured o every countenance, young and old. He was a gifted preacher, vigilant pastor and liberal benefactor of the poor. The solemn offices of religion were performed within the beautiful church which his zeal, had raised and decorated, which was his pride and consolation.

Extermination and the Poor Laws
The editor of the Galway Mercury wrote a hard – hitting editorial on 30th December which sums up the situation at the end of 1848. It’s title was: ‘The Extermination and the Poor Laws’, it showed the failure of England and its system of Poor Laws and the effects it had on the people. It is worth quoting some of its conclusions:
‘The property of Ireland must support its poverty. This is the remedy the Saxons had for Ireland.
The poorhouses are filled to overflowing, the towns are infested with crowds of naked wretches, of moving skeletons, noonday phantoms and living corpses. The rural districts are comparatively speaking deserted, all who had the means had quit this ruined, accursed land. The million deaths of their fellow countrymen warned them to fly their home of misery and misrule. Thousands of our unfortunate fellow countrymen are crowding the emigrant ships to find a watery grave. They emigrated to escape the devastating fury of the remorseless exterminator. They are pursued by equally ruthless myridiaxe of the Poor Law who under the hateful title of rate collectors, accompanied by horse, foot and artillery of our great, glorious and humane monarch Victoria, wage another war of extermination. The cabin of the peasant has been rifled, the property of the wretches seized, driven and quietened. Where were you, you great ones of the ruined country?-
yes, landlords of Ireland, despised by the Saxon, hated by the Celt, you fall unheeded by the stranger, unregarded by your own.

1849
The year 1849 was regarded as the worst year of the Famine, the misery and distress equalled only by the worst months of 1846/47. The people were now enduring a fourth year of famine. Yet, it is often regarded as the end of the famine as it marked the first in a series of good harvests as the potato blight only appeared in isolated areas. The numbers in the Galway workhouse reached between three and four thousand inmates and deaths were between 20 and 30 a week up to August 1849 when the number of deaths dropped significantly. In three months, April, May and June, 525 died in the workhouse. In early April, the dreaded cholera appeared in the workhouse
and spread to other districts of the union.

The Condition of the People
The condition of the people at the beginning of 1849 showed no improvement from that at the start of 1848. The Vice-Guardians of the Galway union stated on 23rd January that great distress existed in the union, especially in the western districts, comprising the E.D.’s of Killannin, Moycullen and Oughterard. The causes of the destitution, they said, was the repeated failure of the potato crop and the total lack of any employment of the labouring classes. The wretched state of the great number of the poor was shown by their lack of clothing. Many had scarcely a rag to cover themselves. The chief article of food at present, used by the peasant, was Indian meal, selling in the markets at £8 – 10 shillings a ton, which was very cheap.

Death from Starvation
A poor man was found dead at Lettermore on 6th January, in a field which he had been re -digging in search for a few potatoes. The medical officer of the district made a post – mortem examination and found that the unfortunate deceased had not an ounce of food in his stomach
and it was alleged that he had applied, in vain, to the Relieving Officer of the district.
Death from neglect in Oughterard.
The death took place on 31st January of a man in Oughterard Bridewell. The Brideswells were crowded with victims of destitution, some for petty larcenies, in this case for no greater crime than begging. A coroner’s verdict held in the county prison in Galway returned a verdict that James Mc Auley came to his death because of the improper treatment he had received in having to lie for three successive nights on the damp flags of Oughterard Bridewell without any covering and in a sick state. When removed from there on a severe wet day to the county gaol in Galway, he died on the following morning.
Deaths on the road going to and coming from the workhouses from relief were common occurrences every day. A member of the Town commissioners had been informed by Mr. Comerford, a local landlord on 15th February, that a family of seven had all perished lately in
Lettermullen in the E.D. of Oughterard. They had been at the workhouse, and on their return, two of them had died and the rest subsequently.

Killannin and Oughterard – March/April 1849
The Poor Law System
James Martin, a landlord of Ross House Killannin, gave evidence to a parliamentary committee on the operation of the Irish Poor Law during March/April. His evidence throws a great deal of light on the effects of the famine, especially in Killannin and Oughterard. He had written a pamphlet on the Poor Law system in December 1848 which was highly regarded. He spoke from the viewpoint of a landlord.

He was a resident and well acquainted with the Connemara district, his E.D. was Killannin but he also had property in the E.D. of Oughterard. The Poor Law, he said, worked well before the Famine and benefited a large number of destitute persons. But since the failure of the potato crop the poor rates could not be collected because of their daily increase. In the E.D’s of Killannin and Oughterard, collectors of the poor rates would be sent down from Dublin to enforce the rates with police and military protection. Cattle and all kinds of property would be seized but the attempt would fail (due to five years of rate arrears). The three divisions of Moycullen, Killannin and Oughterard had a population of about 11,000 and far too large in extent. As a result of the great distance from the workhouse in Galway, persons had died on the roadside due to fatigue and exhaustion when applying for relief.
At present they were erecting an auxiliary workhouse at Oughterard which would prevent the evil of distance. The people would prefer poverty and destitution rather than relief within the workhouse. In his own division of Killannin there were poor rate arrears of £1,000. The employment on the public works had failed but they gave relief for a period to the starving population. ‘No man can conceal the fact that the cause of our present difficulties is entirely owing to the simple fact that The Almighty has deprived us of harvests for three consecutive years and thus the land does not suffice to pay the rents and not the poor law or any law’.

Outdoor Relief
James Martin, like most landlords, was opposed to outdoor relief because of its increase in the cost of the rates. He said that it destroyed self reliance of the peasantry and was too costly. In his own E.D. of Killannin, indoor relief in the workhouse for 1848 cost £601 and outdoor relief £4,455.
He was opposed to outdoor of the able-bodied as those who applied for it were employed in breaking stones on the roads, often a long distance from their homes which led to exposure, disease and frightful mortality. he was in favour of relief within the workhouse. If aid had not been given to the poor they would all have died – no question, he said.

His position as a Landlord
The landlords could not collect the rates or rents from the tenants in the last two years as the produce of the land did not suffice to support the people due to the Famine. In his own estate he had paid half the rates of the tenants and received rents in very few cases. At present, the owner is the landlord and not the occupier of small holdings, had to pay all the rates. It is thus in the interest of the landlord to clear the land of these small tenants as he cannot pay these excessive rates He himself, had for years, consolidated small farms into larger ones, and was able to do it without eviction as he had waste lands. There had been some eviction of tenants in his E.D. of Killannin, but in most cases, the people abandoned the land of their own accord. It was the general practice to level a cabin which was abandoned as squatters or a passing beggar would take possession of it. Those who left the land either went to America or entered the workhouse with their families. The poor had suffered greatly and large numbers of them had died, which could have been prevented by a better poor law system. Before the Famine he used to pay 6d a day in wages with food and 8d a day without food to labourers on his estate.

The Martin Estate – Ballinahinch.
He was a relative (cousin) and a Trustee of the Martin estate of 200,000 acres with a population of 20,000 at the beginning of 1847. The rental of the estate was £10,000 per annum. The estate was in a condition of the most deplorable destitution and 5/8 ths of the whole was waste. The property was heavily charged with debt and would change hands in the next two years. There were huge amounts of arrears of rates accumulated. The people on the estate along the Atlantic coast had been almost entirely swept away. Only about a quarter of the families on the estate were paying tenants.

Evidence of W.H. Lucas
Mr. W. H. Lucas, a vice guardian of the Galway union, gave evidence to the same parliamentary committee in April 1849. He said the part of Connemara attached to the Galway union was very pauperized. In the E.D. of Oughterard out of a population of 10,600, 70% had received relief in
1848. There was to be an auxiliary workhouse at Oughterard, fourteen miles from Galway. Several died on the road last year travelling to the workhouse because of the great distance involved. The Oughterard workhouse would contain 1,000 inmates to be built at the low cost of £1,000.
Those who gave evidence to the parliamentary committee in 1849 from the Galway union said that the poor law or workhouse system, although in much need of reform saved many lives and if it were removed, many more would have died – James Martin of Ross; ‘they would all have died.
no question.’ However, Rev. P. Daly PP Rahoon parish and Catholic chaplain of the Galway workhouse during the Famine disagreed with the general opinion. He argued, that from his experience, the poor law was not saving lives, it was merely prolonging a lingering death which was inevitable because of the failure of the system.

The Condition of the People – Moycullen May/June
Fr. Francis Kenny who had been PP of Spiddal became parish priest of Moycullen after the death of Fr. Fahy in 1848, like him, he gave the numbers who died in his parish on a regular basis. Fr. Kenny addressed his letter to Mr. A. O’ Flaherty MP and called on him to raise the issue of the poor in the House of Commons. He wrote that for the last two weeks the mortality in the parish at the lowest was twelve per week. For the last fortnight there were six, eight or sometimes ten bodies buried every day in the chapel graveyard. He could declare on solemn oath that 19 out of every 20 of these have died or are dying from the effects of protracted starvation. For the last two months he had witnessed persons dying by the roadside, on their way home from the relief depot with a stone of meal in their hands and their mouths crammed wide apart in the last gasp of death… or persons found dead or mangled by dogs on the public highways. These scenes took place in a Christian country under the glorious constitution of England. Hundreds of destitute persons were buried without coffins, which should have been provided by the Relieving Officer.

Outdoor Relief

Fr. Kenny described the system of outdoor relief for the able-bodied and its evil effects as that of James Martin of Ross in December 1848 – ‘You will see here in every four or five miles, once strong, healthy and industrious men sentenced to set on a pile of stones, by the roadside, in cold and wet, without food, drink or raiment, breaking another pile of stones before them: the task work which entitles them to consume at the end of the day one pound of Indian meal with a saucepan of cold water from the kitchen, and if any unfortunate wretch gets sick in the fastenesses of the mountain and cannot resume his daily task, he is refused his weekly rations until the doctor certifies that he is sick or maybe dead’ George E. Burke, a local landlord, late chairman of the Moycullen Hospital Committee wrote to the secretary of the Central Board of Health in Dublin on 3rd May. He said that the mortality within the last month was more than frightful. On the previous Sunday he saw twelve burials, on Monday eight and on Wednesday, within two hours, seven rude coffins were conveyed to the graveyard on carts drawn by horses, hardly able to drag their burdens. He knew of five persons who had died last week in a village and who had been left unburied because their relatives could not procure coffins for them.
The fever hospital in the parish was built for 80 patients but now contained 118. Dr. Roughan, the medical officer of the district had applied to the Board of Health for extra accommodation but the poor law inspector, Major Mc Kee, replied that no additional accommodation was required in the district. Major Mc Kee, who is paid 24 shillings a day, only makes occasional flying visits to the district and meal store, and lacks sympathy for the suffering poor.. His neglect will lead to the death of hundreds. He had told the vice- guardians last winter that no poor woman should get relief if she came to the meal store with a cloak on her.
Two weeks later on the 17th May, George Burke wrote to the editor of The Freemans Journal. He said the people were being swept away by famine, cholera and fever. He had within the last three days to order the immediate burial without coffins of two poor persons who had died of cholera, lest the spread the pestilence to those around them.
The parish priest had told him that in 1844, the population of the parish was 4,610 and during that year there were 180 births. Now the population had dwindled down to 2,680 and during the last winter months the births were only fifteen.
On the 16th June, Fr. Kenny PP wrote of the deaths from starvation in his parish (Moycullen). He stated on oath that within the last six months not less than 350 had died in the parish. The verdict a jury had reached was that several of the deaths were the result of the infrequent attendances of the vice guardians of the Galway union in the district and a great many more as a result of the poor law system. To authenticate all the deaths in his parish would give sufficient employment to a coroner every day for the past four months. He gave details of the inquests in his parish. In one case of Mr. Mulley, the post mortem examination found that the stomach was quite empty of food and the intestines quite empty and inflated, and this could be the case with 500 other families. Fr. Kenny gave an entry in the parish records, in Latin, which reads that – between November 1848 and May 1849, in that short space of time, 400 at least died in the parish from famine, pestilence and every cause of death…

Debts in the Galway Union

The debts of the union in January 1849 was £8,362 and by the 14th May had increased to £12,000 with uncollected rates at £9,718 -7 -10. In May the rates lodged in a two week period were £70 per week while expenses amounted to £700 to £800 weekly. The Government had to advance £16,450 from 1848 – 50 to the Galway union, otherwise the workhouse would have to be closed and the paupers let loose on the world without support.

Collection of the Poor Rates
Major Mc Kee was inspector of the Galway union, he wrote in February 1849 that there was a determined resistance to payment of the rates, and more especially in the western divisions of the union – i.e. the barony of Moycullen. If the rate collector proceeds with his bailiffs to distress for rates, the property he seizes is promptly rescued and his life and that of his assistants is threatened. Due notice of his approach is given and the cattle are secured in the defaulters house and the doors locked. Mr. John Dopping, RM Clifden wrote to Mr. J Kennan RM Galway on 16th January 1849 n the collection of the poor rates in the barony of Moycullen. He requested a military force at Cashla Bay in the E.D. of Oughterard to protect the Poor Rate collector from the peasantry, and who would require protection for at least a month. He said that a police force from Galway with a military force from Oughterard would give sufficient protection to the collector.
There was also great resistance to the collection of Grand Jury fees in the barony of Moycullen, a tax for the upkeep and building of roads, bridges, piers, etc. The total amount of poor rates due in May 1849 in the three E.D’s of Oughterard, Killannin and Moycullen was £3,049 – 16 – 11.

Evictions in 1849
The Galway Mercury reported on 15th September that during the last two years in the Galway union alone ( with the assistance of the sheriff and the Gregory clause) upwards of 4,000 habitations have been levelled and upwards of 20,000 of our people have been driven from their homes to seek shelter in the poorhouse, jails and graves. At that time the Galway union was one of six, soon to become ten in Co. Galway. The ‘Gregory’ or ‘quarter- acre’ clause as already noted was used as a weapon by some landlords and their agents to clear their estates of the smallholders. The quarter acre clause was enforced strictly in the Galway union, so that anyone who received relief had to surrender his lands to the landlord. James Martin of Ross House wrote in April 1849 that the quarter acre clause was evaded or got rid of in his district by the tenants. He stated that a man said he had abandoned his holding but stayed on in the house and claimed outdoor relief. The C St George continued to evict tenants during 1849 and there were some evictions by George E Burke , Danesfield, Moycullen. The Law Life Society of London absentee landlords, who took over the bankrupt Martin estate as mortgagees in late 1848, began large scale evictions of the smaller tenants on the estate.

The Potato Crop – July/August 1849
The potato crop of 1849 was mostly healthy with only isolated instances of potato blight. The Galway Vindicator reported during July that there was not the slightest sign of the disease in the potatoes in the county and that the crops were untouched by the rot or blight. Where there were local instances as in Spiddal and Clifden in August the disease, although it appeared on the leaves and stems, it had done little damage to the tubers. James Martin of Ross reported in April that the people were not sowing it, to as great an extent as before the Famine in his own district of Killannin, as they were not staking their hopes on the potato crop but on other edibles and they would not rely on the potato again. The potato crop of 1850 and 1851 were also generally free of blight. A remedy for the potato blight was only discovered about forty years after the Famine in the mid 1880’s – spraying it with a mixture of copper sulphate (bluestone).Officially the Famine came to an end in 1849. However, famine conditions persisted parts of the west of Ireland up to 1852. The Galway Races took place in the Kiltulla course on the 2nd and 3rd August after a lapse of a number of years. The Reporter then stated that the course was crowded with the beauty, rank and fashion of the surrounding neighbourhood. In the evening there were 200 at the Race Ball in Kilroy’s Hotel.

Violet Martin, of Ross House, wrote in her diary that by 1849, the new seed potatoes began to resist the blight. But it was nearly four years more before the victory was complete. The Famine, she wrote, yielded like the ice of the northern seas, but it ran like melted snow in the veins of Ireland for many years afterwards.
The Martin Estate Sale
The estate extended almost from the town of Galway to the western point of Connemara at Clifden, and along the south sea coast, a distance of fifty miles. It contained nearly 200,000 acres.
Most of the land consisted of bog, mountain and lakes, less than one tenth of the whole arable land. In 1844 the rental of the estate was £11,000 per annum with its fisheries.

The following was the acreage of the baronies.
Ballynahinch 95,234 statute acres
Moycullen 93, 234 statute acres
Ross 5,371 statute acres
County of the Town of Galway 1,498 statute acres
Total 195,337 statute acres

When Thomas B Martin died in April 1847 his estate was bankrupt with heavy debts. Mary Martin, his only daughter and heir, inherited the estate. She was called the Princess of Connemara. She married a cousin, Arthur G Ball Martin, who took over the management of the estate with her. The Martins had borrowed large sums during the famine to relieve their tenants. The arrears of rent on the estate in 1848 was £30,000. When the martins failed to meet their repayments, the property was brought into the Encumbered Estates Court in 1848 (which made possible the sale of bankrupt estates to new owners). The Law Life Society of London took over the estate in November 1848, as mortgagees and the Martins lost complete possession of the estate and the Castle of Ballinahinch. Mary Martin sailed for America in 1850 intending to go to Canada, she suffered a miscarriage on board the ship and died in New York on 7th November 1850. Her husband, A Bell Martin, lived until 1883. The Martin family, who had almost been kings of Connemara since the early 17th century were left without a rood of ground. Mary Martin, who was an accomplished author of novels, died in poverty and among strangers. The estate was put up for sale in the London mart on 7th August 1849 by the Law Life Society: the sale lasted for five days. Mr. Wainwright the auctioneer, declared its qualities and advantages from the prospectus – it stated that the land was valuable, highly improvable, with inexhaustible rich mines and quarries of marble, limestone and minerals, extensive and valuable fisheries in innumerable lakes and rivers that traverse the property, and reclaimable waste and bog. All this promised a good return and field of investment to the capitalist and speculator. The Dublin to Galway railway would place the property within three hours of Dublin ad fifteen of London. The lots for sale in the barony of Moycullen were described by the auctioneer to consist of arable, pasture and improvable bogland.

Sale Of The Estate.

Some small lots were sold at 15 shillings an acre but almost all the lots offered for sale were bought by the solicitor of the Law Life Society and returned to the vendors, the mortgagees. Only 3,982 were sold out of 196,540 at an average of £3 – 2 – 7 and a quarter an acre. The estate was again put up for sale on 14th July 1852 in the Encumbered Estates Court. There was no buyer and it was bought by The Law Life Company for the nominal sum of £186,000. The Law life Company, absentee landlords, now took over final possession of the estate. By an order dated 9th November 1853. The manor of Clare or Claremount with the manorial rights and privileges attached to it, and the right to hold fairs and weekly markets at the town of Clare and to levy tolls and customs, granted to Richard Martin by letters patent in 1698 by King William 111, was granted to The Law Life Company. This patent of King Henry 111 to Nimble Dick Martin, had led to the founding of the town of Oughterard.
The Law Life Society, having disposed of some of the property at a profit, sold of estate of 160,000 acres in 1872 to Richard Berridge, a wealthy London brewer for £230,000, which included the Castle of Ballinahinch and the fisheries. The Berridges held on to the estate until they sold it on to the Land Commission in 1915 and it was divided out among the tenants.

The Collection Of The Poor Rates – October to December 1849
A strong resistance continued to the collection of the poor rates in the three ED’s in the barony of Moycullen towards the end of 1849 and into 1850. As in previous years, there was the necessity of a police and military force to protect the collectors. Violence and attacks on the collectors and their agents often took place. On the 25th August the rate fixed for the three ED’s of Killannin,
Moycullen and Oughterard was 5 shillings in the pound of the annual value of the holding. At a meeting of the Galway board of guardians on 14th November a letter was read from the rate collector of Killannin that he had been several times assaulted in attempting to collect the rates in his district and he only collected 30 shillings that week. He called for police and military assistance.£1,000 was due in rates in the Killannin ED. At a meeting of the Galway union of 21st November, the collector of Killannin said that he made a distress and a seizure of cattle at Spiddal, he was attacked by a body of tenantry, amounting to a hundred stock rescued. Similar violent resistance was met with in the Athenry and Annaghdown ED’s in the Galway union. On the 1st December, Mr. O’Flaherty, chairman of the Galway union said that upwards of 40 who had engaged in a riot in Moycullen were arrested and several were lodged in the county prison. Mr. P. O’ Brien, the collector of Killannin reported on the 1st December that a few days before he was violently assaulted by a large body of men and women. He and his bailiffs were beaten and the cattle which he had seized rescued. The people told him that they would sooner lose their lives than pay the rates. Upwards of 30 of them were arrested and conveyed to Oughterard to be investigated by Mr. O’Flaherty, Mr. John Dopping RM in Clifden and other magistrates. Twenty seven of them were committed to the county gaol for the next assizes. The Moycullen poor rate collector due to injuries received on 1st December, had to suspend the collection until he recovered. Mr. Fitzgerald RM Moycullen informed T.N. Redington on 6th of January that he found in the Spiddal district of the Killannin ED that resistance was continually in practice. The people knew in advance of the approach of the collector. They drove off or concealed their cattle and locked their doors. But Mr. Fitzgerald RM said when the people saw that no further resistance could be carried out, due to a superior body of constabulary, they came in voluntarily and paid their own rates in considerable numbers. Forty of the Moycullen rioters had been put on trial, all pleaded guilty, some of the principal ones were sentenced to 12 months imprisonment and the remainder could be called to judgement should they misconduct themselves again.

The Oughterard Workhouse

In 1849, Oughterard was among four new unions established in Co. Galway as part of a second wave of 33 extra workhouses in the country. The Oughterard Union and Workhouse was formed on October 8th, 1849.

ED’s Too Large.
James Martin of Ross House, a guardian of the Galway union had stated in March 1849 that the Oughterard, Killannin and Moycullen ED’s were far too large and that persons had died on the roadside seeking relief in the Galway workhouse because of the great distance they had to travel.

Opening Of Workhouse
The workhouse was opened for the reception of paupers on 29th June 1850 and was called Cregg Auxiliary Workhouse. It was situated about half a mile from Oughterard, the largest market town in the district where the Galway – Clifden railway station was later built. At first it was intended to be built at a low cost of £1,000 and to contain 1,000 inmates. The final cost of the building was £5,950 and fittings of £1,055. By early 1851 , it was capable of holding 1,500 inmates. Like all of the workhouses it conformed to a standard plan laid down by the architect George Wilkinson. The workhouses were bounded by high grey stone walls which gave them a forbidding prison like appearance. Indian meal was the principal diet of the workhouses after the failure of the potato crop in 1845. An advertisement in the press for the Oughterard workhouse on 25th March included a list of items: bread, milk, tea, Indian meal, barley meal, oatmeal and vegetables.

The Formation Of The Union
The Oughterard Union which was formed from the Galway union with some town lands from the Ballinrobe union, consisted of 172,742 statute acres with 14 electoral divisions and had a population of 24,855 in 1841. The union included the civil parishes of Oughterard and Killannin and extended from Clonbur in the north to Lettermore and Camus in the south. The valuation of the union was low because of the poor quality of the land of most of the union district. The valuation of the union was £18,587 in 1849 but fell to £11,465 in 1851. Thomas Colville Scott, an Englishman who visited Oughterard in February 1853, soon after the completion wrote that; ‘the workhouse is a palace in appearance and a miniature town in extent’

The Guardians Of The Union
The first meeting of the board of guardians took place on 21st November 1849 and the following guardians were elected:
ChaIrman: James Martin, Ross House.
Vice – Chairman: GF O’ Flahertie, Lemonfield
Deputy Vice – Chairman: Edmond O’ Flaherty, Oughterard
Treasurer: Bank Of Ireland, Galway
Clerk & Returning Officer: Henry Flanagan, Oughterard
Master & Matron: G. Thomas and Mrs. B Thomas
Chaplain – Roman Catholic Rev James Casteaux
Chaplain – Church of Ireland Rev Robert Browne
Medical Officer: John Davis MD
Solicitor: John Donnellan
There were 14 other guardians of the several ED’s of the union. The in house officers of the workhouse were paid an annual salary but elected guardians were unpaid. The workhouse had a school under The National Board of Education from 1850 to 1905.
There were 643 pupils on the rolls on 31st March 1852 but the numbers soon fell as other schools were opened in the parish of Oughterard and union district. The workhouse had a cemetery at Canrower for the burial of those who died in the house. When the workhouse opened in June 1850, the worst of the famine was over but great distress and poverty existed in the union district for many years to come. A fire destroyed a large part of the workhouse building, which appears to be accidental, on the 7th September 1850. While it was being rebuilt at a cost of £600, the paupers in the Oughterard union were kept in the Galway house.
In the half – year ended 25th March 1851 the average daily number in the house was 977. The weekly cost per person was £1 – 3 and a quarter shillings at that time. The number in the house was 554 on 29th March 1851. Of these 229 were male, 325 female, 237 were children under 7 years of age, 239 were able – bodied male and female and 12 aged and infirmed. In June 1852, there were 1,456 in the house due to large scale evictions in the area.

There were also large numbers on outdoor relief during the early years of the workhouse. Francis B. Head, an English traveller who visited Oughterard in 1852 paid a visit to the workhouse. He wrote: ‘From the market town I went to the workhouse, a very large new building, hardly completed, in it were 795 persons, many of whom appeared distressed and very few that could be termed able-bodied. By the Master I was informed that on the 1st of January last the number of inmates was 972 but that on 27th June he had, as a consequence of evictions, 1,475 of whom 680 had since emigrated or managed to find employment’ A reporter from the Telegraph newspaper
visited Oughterard on 21st September 1852, to examine the effects of proselytism and famine in the district. He said that as agricultural operations were entirely suspended in the district during the winter months, the able-bodied labourers were forced to seek shelter in the crowded workhouse which then contained 550 inmates, only two of which were Protestants.
On the 1st March 1854 the numbers in the house had fallen to 294. For the rest of its existence until 1922, the numbers in the house rarely reached 150 during the course of a given year and often fell below one hundred. There was an Infirmary and Dispensary attached to the workhouse with a Doctor. There were also outlying districts in the union at Clonbur and Lettermore with Doctors attached to the Oughterard union. The workhouse maintained a full staff with regular elections of guardians until 1922, although the numbers were relatively small. The O’Flaherties of Lemonfield with many other local persons, played a prominent part in the Oughterard union until 1922. JP (Jack) O’Flahertie was vice – chairman of the union from 1890 – 1906 and a guardian until it closed in 1922. Dr. Kennedy O’ Brien was medical officer of the union from 1909 to 1922, the 6th medical officer since 1849. P.H. Joyce, Oughterard was clerk of the union from 1906 until it closed
in 1922.
The Problem Of Law And Order Outbreaks During The Famine Sheep and cattle stealing, petty crimes, including the stealing of food and turnips, etc., were very common during the famine. Often this activity was due to starvation and sheer necessity for the survival of the poor, but it was against the law. Those convicted of such crimes were tried at the petty sessions and got prison sentences and were regularly transported overseas to America and Australia. At the Quarter Sessions in Galway in the spring of 1848, 25 persons were sentenced
from 7 – 15 years transportation for stealing sheep and cows. The flour and meal carts of the merchants of Galway were often attacked and robbed on the outskirts of the town as they left for other parts of the county and province. They frequently required police and military escorts for protection. As noted already, there was strong resistance and violent attacks on the poor rate collectors in the three parishes of the barony of Moycullen, when the rate collectors seized corn or cattle in lieu of the rates.
Major Burns, Inspecting Officer of the public works in Co. Galway, reported on January 23rd 1847 that robbery of arms, money, sheep and possessions were of a nightly occurrence due to the starvation of the people. Yet, there were instances of the peaceable nature of the people during the famine, but violence and minor riots sometimes took place. Fr. Joseph Glynn PP Killannin wrote to Dublin Castle on 18th November 1848 that in spite of the desperate condition of the people of his parish, a more peaceable people did not exist under the British crown.

Fr. P Fahy PP Moycullen wrote in March 1848 that despite the misery of the people, they were obedient to the laws, respectful of the right of property and they had committed no excesses to call for interference by the police.
Oughterard
John Brice Blake J.P. Castlekirk, Oughterard wrote frequently to Dublin Castle from 1845 – 1847 warning of the dangers of an outbreak of violence if food or employment was not given to the poor of his district of Maam. On 13th November he wrote to Dublin Castle that the common talk was that the people would soon be eating beef – i.e. plunder would soon commence, and that there was the danger of a general uprising. On 4th September he said that the people on both sides of Lough Corrib were talking about a resort to violence, to support themselves and their families.
Rev. Robert Browne, the Glebe, Oughterard wrote to Lord John Russell, the Prime Minister, on 12th February 1849 on the disorders and robberies in his district on a nightly basis. He said that disorderly characters had been banding together in groups of twenty for robberies and that sheep and cattle were killed nightly in large numbers and corn stolen from farmers in the district. An enquiry was made on Rev. Browne’s complaint, Sub Inspector Potter reported on the 24th February that sheep had been stolen from Mr. Browne’s property but he had not heard of any cattle or other property of the Browne’s being stolen. He did not think that Rev. Mr. Browne has sufficient cause for his fears. He said that for the last two years that cattle and sheep had been killed or stolen in the neighbourhood due to the state of starvation of the people, but recently sheep and cattle stealing had much decreased because of the number convicted and transported and the constant execution of the police in patrolling the area.
James Mc Kean, Oughterard, swore before John Dopping RM on February 1849 that there was a great deal of sheep stealing going on in the neighbourhood, and parties were going around for that purpose. Sometimes offences were committed against the proselytising activity of the Rev. A Dallas and his soupers in Oughterard during the famine. On 27th July 1852, five panes of glass were broken in the house of Thomas Reynolds, a scripture reader, by some boys and twelve panes of glass were broken in the Protestant missionary schoolhouse. Five persons were to be summoned at the next petty sessions. Mr. Francis Head, an English travel writer, was told by the head constable in Oughterard in 1852 that little or no crime was committed in the neighbourhood and that few houses in the district had either bolt, bar or shutters – but that during the month of May last, a mission of both Religions had taken place in the town. During that time, had it not
been for their constant vigilance night and day, there would probably have been serious disturbances.

Proselytism and its Effects
Oughterard parish and its neighbourhood was one of the main centres of proselytism in Connemara during the famine. This movement offered food, clothing and education to those who renounced their Catholic faith and converted to Protestantism. Those who accepted these bribes were called ‘soupers’ or ‘jumpers’ which gave rise to the term – ‘to take the soup’.
Before The Famine
The proselytising movement made little progress in Oughterard and its vicinity before the famine and the number of Protestants in the population was relatively small. A protestant church had been built in Oughterard in 1810 and the Protestant Archbishop of Tuam, Power (Le Poer) Trench (1819 – 1839) had held confirmations there in 1822 and again in 1836. The Religious Census of 1834 recorded 138 members of the Established Church and 10, 359 Roman Catholics in the parish of Kilcummin. The average number attending Divine Services in the Protestant Church on Sundays and Church Holidays was 20 to 30 people. In Killannin parish there were 94 members of the
Established Church in 1834 and 9,528 Roman Catholics. There was no Protestant Church or Rectory in the parish of Killannin.

The Methodists
The Methodists, founded by John Wesley, were active in Connemara since the 18th century. They had mission stations in Clifden, Roundstone and Oughterard. In Oughterard they had the support of the Martin family of Clareville House. The Kirk, a Wesleyan chapel remained in existence until 1909. In the 1820’s there was a pay or hedge school in the townland of Derry under the patronage
of the Methodist Wesleyan Society. It’s master, James Hutcheson, was a Protestant and eighteen Catholics and twelve Protestants attended the school. Although the Methodists were anti Catholic and engaged in proselytism, they did not come to Connemara to take advantage of the distress and poverty of the people.

Rev. A. Dallas and the Irish Church Mission Society
A new and vigorous campaign or crusade to convert the Catholics of Connemara to Protestantism began during the Famine, led by the Society of Irish Church Missions of the Rev. A. Dallas. Rev. A.Dallas (1791 – 1869) was an English clergyman, Rector of Wonston in Hampshire. He had served as an officer in the British army in the campaign against Napoleon in the Peninsular War and at Waterloo. He became intensely anti – Catholic and was obsessed with the ‘evils of Romanism’. He first visited Galway and Oughterard in 1846. His aim was to rescue the Catholics of Ireland from the Church of Rome and to covert them to Biblical Protestantism. He unashamedly took advantage of the Famine and its dreadful effects to further the aims of his movement. . He found in Connemara, Protestant clergy and landlords who were sympathetic to the movement and invited them to begin work among the Roman Catholics of their population.
Castlekerke
It was here that Rev. Dallas founded his first mission on the shores of Lough Corrib in 1846, not far from Oughterard. He was supported by Mrs. Blake, a local landlord’s wife, who already had founded a Bible school there for girls in 1842. Dallas quickly spread his movement to nearby Glan and Oughterard. He opened a string of mission stations around Lough Corrib, in Glan, Oughterard, Ross, Glengowla and Spiddal on the shores of Galway Bay. The Society of Irish Church Missions to Roman Catholics was founded in March 1849 to convert the Catholics of Ireland to evangelical Protestantism. He had an annual income of about £30,000 in the first ten years of his mission.

Education
Rev. Dallas and his agents used education or mission schools as their chief methods to spread their missionary activity. Dr. John Mc Hale, Archbishop of Tuam (1834 – 1882) and Rev. James Glynn PP Killannin in a letter to Rome in July 1848 claimed than an enormous number had fallen away from their traditional faith in Oughterard in the last two years, hundreds in fact. They blamed Dr. J Kirwan PP who was nearly always absent from the parish as President of Queens College Galway (now NUIG). A letter from a resident of Oughterard was published in The Freeman’s Journal on the 11th January 1850, which stated that in their small town there was a proselytising school led by two fanatics, Rev. J O’ Callaghan and Rev. Dallas. They were seeking to entice the half-starved people from their faith with the bible in one hand and a meal bag in the other. The school contained about a hundred wretched starved children who were enticed there by promises of clothing and a breakfast every morning. There was no Catholic school in the parish of a large extent. When Dr. Joseph Kirwan PP died in December 1849 he was succeeded by curates Rev. John Geraghty and Rev. James Casteaure as administrators from 1849 to 1852. They wrote a letter to
The Galway Mercury on 18th May 1850 which showed a real apprehension and fear that proselytism would gain a permanent basis in the parish and the surrounding neighbourhood. The worst symptom, they wrote, was among the children whose tender minds has been during the last two years, daily and hourly, impressed with a hatred of the Roman Catholic faith and its practices. There was not one school in the parish except hedge schools. By 1851, Rev. Dallas and the Irish Church Mission had in the Oughterard district two ordained ministers, Rev. John O’Callaghan in Oughterard and Rev. Patrick Moinah in Glan, sixteen bible readers and teachers, who were all well paid.

Schools of the Irish Church Missions
In 1852, the Irish Church Mission Society of the Rev. A. Dallas had four schools in the parish of Kilcummin at New Village (Glan), Clareville, Glengowla and Castlekirk (Ceapaunaarbaun) with over one hundred children in attendance. The Bible was the sole textbook in all the schools. Each school provided a breakfast of Indian meal stirabout for the children each day. There were three Irish Church Mission Schools in the parish of Killannin at Ross, Spiddal and Inverin.. The schools were staffed with Irish teachers and bible readers and all were paid. Rev. John O’ Callaghan who had ministered at Castlekirk since 1848 was appointed Rector of Killannin parish in November 1851. Paul Cullen, Catholic Archbishop of Armagh (1849 – 1852), and later Archbishop of Dublin and Cardinal wrote to Rome in 1851 that Oughterard was no longer a parish of Catholics, but had literally become a parish of ‘jumpers’ and a hundred children were attending protestant schools
and that the protestant bishop of Tuam had recently confirmed hundreds of ‘perverts’ in Oughterard.

Convert Confirmations
In mid September 1851, Thomas Plunkett, protestant bishop of Tuam, had administered the rite of confirmation on 99 persons at Oughterard, male and female, who came from different locations – Glan, Ross, Spiddal, etc. Of these, 10 were original protestants and 89 ‘converts’ from Romanism.
Fr. Michael Kavanagh
Fr. Michael Kavanagh was appointed parish priest of Oughterard in January 1852 and set about overcoming the proselytism in the parish. By the time of his death in 1864, it was no longer a serious threat to the faith of the Catholics of the parish. He built schools at Glan, Leam and
Collinamuck to combat its activities. The highpoint of his work was a five week mission by the Vincentian Fathers in May/June 1852 which was a turning point in the fight against proselytism.
During the mission on 3rd June, Dr. Mc Hale, Archbishop of Tuam confirmed 2,375 persons including 830 from the workhouse, of every age. On the following day, June 4th, Dr. Mc Hale laid the foundation stone for the new chapel in Glan, the stronghold of proselytism. With a gathering of over 3,000 persons, Fr. Kavanagh said that as a result of the mission, 195 had returned to the faith of their fathers. He wrote in The Galway Vindicator in August 1853 that it was true that more than 300 but less than 400 in the parish had abandoned but not renounced their faith. The Sisters of Mercy founded a convent in Oughterard in November 1858 and a National School for girls. This provided a good Catholic education and played its part in defeating proselytism in the parish.
Census 1861
If there was any doubt as to the failure of the Irish Church Missions to gain widespread conversions in Oughterard and elsewhere in Connemara, it was finally removed by the census returns. It reached the highest number of conversions in 1851/1852 and then began to decline.
Census 1851 and 1861
The Census of 1861 sounded its death knell.
Kilcummin Parish
Census 1834
Established Church (Protestant) 138
Roman Catholic 10,359
Census 1851
E.C. 400
Roman Catholic 6,552
Census 1861
E.C. 288
Roman Catholic 8,061
Presbyterian 10
Methodists 84
Independents 9
Others 0

Part 3
The Famine – Barony of Moycullen
Prosyletism and its Effects

Census 1851 and 1861
Killanin Parish – Census 1851
EC 375
Roman Catholic 7.601
Census 1861
EC 169
Roman Catholic 7,783

Oughterard Town 1861
EC 80
Roman Catholic 775
Oughterard Workhouse 1861
EC 1
Roman Catholic 72
County Galway 1861
Roman Catholic 96.8 per unit
EC 2.9 per unit
Presbyterian 0.2 per unit
Others 0.1 per unit
Decline of Proselytism
The proselytisers did not easily acknowledge defeat. In 1869 Rev. Dallas died but his movement, Irish Church missions, did not die with him. As the 19th century wore on, the tide turned more and more against them. The Irish Church Missions had some success in its early years, but two factors mitigated against it: the contempt in which Catholics held one who changed his religion – called ‘jumpers’ or ‘perverts’, and the waning of evangelical fervour in England during the late 1850’s which deprived the missions of extensive funds.
Dr. John Mc Evilly, Bishop of Galway (1857 – 1881) informed the Vatican in December 1859 and October 1861 that throughout the diocese proselytism had been completely defeated, except only in the case of Oughterard.
Kilcummin Parish – Census 1901
Roman Catholic 7,958
EC 131
Presbyterian 1
Methodists 7

All Others 3
In 1901 there was one Irish Church Mission school in the parish of Oughterard. The movement of proselytism of the Rev. A. Dallas lasted longer and was more difficult to eradicate in Clifden and its neighbourhood than in Oughterard. In Clifden, its success was due to the Rev. Hyacinth D’Arcy, who was the Protestant Rector of Clifden from 1850 to 1874, and was a key figure of proselytism in Clifden and Connemara.

The Results of the Famine – Effects, Immediate & Long Term.
Some of the best accounts of the effects of the famine and the evictions which accompanied it in the barony of Moycullen are provided by English travel writers who visited the district in the immediate aftermath of the calamity. Dr. John Forbes who visited Oughterard in September 1852 wrote – that as he left Galway and entered the Martin estate, throughout the whole district the marks of evictions and depopulation were more extensive and more conscious than he had seen in any other part of Ireland and that the whole road from Galway to Clifden was bordered by ruins of cottages, half pulled down, with the walls and gables all standing solid and firm, but roofless,
doorless and windowless. Mr. and Mrs. S.C. Hall travelled the road from Galway to Oughterard in 1852. They wrote: tenants ejected, the mode of ejection was by unroofing the houses. The roofless huts looked like so many bleaching skeletons upon the barren moor and hillside. Rev. S.G. Osborne wrote in 1850 that from Galway to Oughterard en route to Clifden….’the route was ever disfigured by the evidence of evictions and the wretchful appearance of very many of the people’.
A reporter from The Telegraph newspaper visited Oughterard in September 1852. He wrote that previous to the failure of the potato crop in Oughterard, it was a thriving little town and was the centre of an industrious and independent rural district, but the town now reminds one of a deserted village. He said the greatest destitution prevailed among the peasantry who were generally lodged in rude huts with not the slightest protection against the inclemency of the weather. The population, he said, of the rural district of Kilcummin was 10,106 in 1841, but now from the general appearance of the district, he was sure that the population of Kilcummin scarcely numbered 5,000 souls. On September 1st 1851, G.F. O’Flahertie, Lemonfield, and Chairman of the Oughterard Poor Law Union, said that the district had been brought to the very verge of pauperism by the united action for six years past of famine, pestilence and taxation.

Deaths and Population Decline.
The Barony of Moycullen lost 7,455 or over a quarter of its population between 1841 and 1851.
The Oughterard Union district lost 5,980, also about a quarter of its people. The parish of Kilcummin(Oughterard) lost 30 to 35% of its people. There was a notable decline in all the townlands of the three parishes of the barony as well as the number of inhabited houses. The exception was the town of Oughterard which increased its population by 264 between 1841 and 1851 as the workhouse, which was established in the town during the famine brought in large numbers from the surrounding district. It is not possible to say how many people died in the workhouse during the early years after the famine as the official records have not survived. There was a graveyard attached to the workhouse at Canrawer, where those who died in the house were buried.. The Schools Folklore Collection 1937/1938, recorded that during the famine there were graves all the way back from the top of the town of Oughterard near the church, by the side of the
mountain, nearly as far as Glengowla, as noted.
Fr. Pat Fahy PP Moycullen and Fr. Francis Kenny who succeeded him, gave the number of deaths in Moycullen parish on a regular basis as far as they could record them. The Catholic parish register for the parish of Kilcummin recorded that 401 died in the parish in the first year of the famine in 1846.
The following tables show the numbers who died and emigrated (population loss) between the
Census of 1841 and 1851. The bulk of the loss was during the famine.
Tables:
Kilcummin Parish Oughterard
1841 10,106
1851 6,952
Oughterard Town
1841 718
1851 982
Killannin Parish
1841 11,278
1851 7,976
Moycullen Parish
1841 6,420
1851 4,921
Barony of Moycullen & Oughterard
1841 29,445
1851 21,990

Oughterard Poor Law Union

Examples of some Townlands, loss of population and inhabited houses between 1841 & 1851

Emigration
Those who gave evidence to The Poor Inquiry in 1835/36 said that there had been no emigration to England or America from the three parishes of the barony at that time before the famine nor were labourers in the habit of migrating elsewhere or going to England to seek employment. Emigration from the district (parish and barony) began with the Famine.
Deaths in the district were greater than those who emigrated during the Famine and this was the trend in Co. Galway in general. James Martin, of Ross House, reported in April 1849 that large numbers abandoned the land in the parish of Killannin during the Famine and either entered the workhouse or emigrated with their families to America. Mr. G.F. O’ Flahertie, Lemonfield, stated in September 1851 that due to the wretched state of the union, that vast numbers of the inhabitants of the district had already been induced to emigrate. The accounts of travelllers in the district after the Famine linked eviction with depopulation and emigration.
Large numbers, perhaps several hundreds, were evicted from the former Martin estate in the vicinity of Oughterard. In 1852, Sir Francis Head, an English travel writer, said that those evicted entered the workhouse and later emigrated to England. There was a practice of sending orphan girls from the workhouses to the British colonies in Canada and Australia, during and after the famine.
On the 11th May 1854, 64 female paupers from the Galway workhouse, 23 of them from the Oughterard house emigrated from Galway to Quebec on board the ship Triton. The report from The Galway Vindicator stated that nothing could be more marked than the general expression of joy on their faces who felt emancipated from the house of bondage with a new vista and existence before them. The Schools Folklore Collection from the parish of Oughterard stated that emigration to America took place from the townlands of Rusheeney, Portacarron, Magheramore, Carramanagh and Glann. The ships that sailed regularly from the Galway port to America were The
Messenger, Helena, Sarah Milledge, Victoria, Barbara, Commerce and Cushlamachree. Some of them were owned and chartered by Galway merchants.
Despite the tradition of the ‘coffin ships’, the majority of those who left Galway made it safely to the other side, especially those bound for New York. The passage fare from Galway to Quebec in 1849 was £4 – 15 shillings for an adult and £2 – 17 – 6 for those under thirteen years of age. In 1848 the passage fare from Galway to New York was £4. Many of the emigrants from the west of Ireland, including Galway, travelled to Dublin on the new railway which opened in August 1851 and from there to Liverpool where they embarked for America. The fare from Liverpool to America was much cheaper at £2 – 10 shillings.

Evictions
As noted Mr. C. St George and Patrick Blake of Spiddal evicted tenants on a huge scale in Oughterard and the south part of the barony of Moycullen during the Famine. James Martin, of Ross House, said that he did not evict any tenants during his lifetime, although evictions took place in the barony of Moycullen. The Law Life Society, absentee landlords, took possession of the bankrupt Martin estate of 192,000 acres. From 1849, they raised the rent and drove out tenants in large numbers through Mr. Robinson, their agent and his bailiffs. The Galway newspapers in the early 1850’s condemned these evictions as inhuman exterminations. There were evictions, of large numbers, perhaps hundreds, in the neighbourhood of Oughterard in 1852 who entered the workhouse and later emigrated.
Sir Digby Neave, an English travel writer in July 1852, that in relation to Connemara that absenteeism, famine, pestilence, evictions and emigration seemed to have cleared the district of all life whether human or brute. On the 6th July 1850 a letter was read at a meeting of the Galway union from its Oughterard board of guardians that notes of evictions had been served on a vast number of about 1,500 persons in one fell swoop – of 276 families on the quarter ended June 1851, The Law Life Society evicted 99 families, consisting of 474 persons and levelled 78 houses On the quarter ended December 1851, 90 families consisting of 442 persons and 69 houses were levelled.

Police Returns – Galway West Riding (Evictions)
1851 Families Persons
Evicted 1,034 5,172
Readmitted 327 1,838
1852
Evicted 759 4,058
Readmitted 174 1,177

Evictions continued but on a lesser scale up to 1880. They increased with The Land League agitation from 1879 to 1885. The Law Life Society brought about no real improvement on the estate. Henry Coulter, a journalist who visited Connemara in 1862 said that the lands of the Law
Life Society were undrained, unfenced or unimproved and that their real objective was to get as much as possible from the property and to spend as little in return as they could. The Society sold 32,000 acres for £75,000. They sold the remaining 160,000 acres to Mr. Richard Berridge in 1872 for £230,000, who was largely an absentee. The Berridges remained in possession until they sold the estate to the Land Commission in 1915, when it was divided out among the tenants. The only real improvement was the railway from Galway to Clifden which was opened in 1895 and supported by Richard Berridge.

Depopulation Trends – Post Famine
The population of the town of Oughterard, its parish and the barony of Moycullen had increased from 1821 to 1841, as in all parts of Ireland. A decline set in during the famine. The decline in population was slow in the early post-famine years. None of the three parishes of the barony regained their pre-famine population, with the exception of the town of Oughterard,. Oughterard Poor Law Union was unique among the Galway unions as it increased its population from 1871 but there was a rapid decline from the 1880’s onwards. Emigration was slow from Oughterard but started to gather pace from the 1880’s onwards.

The Folklore of the Famine

Many of the accounts in the Schools Folklore Collection 1937/1938 dealt with the famine called ‘An Droch Shaol’ . All the accounts were in the folk memory and were being recorded for the first time. The senior pupils in the national schools aged 12 – 14 took down the stories from their
parents and grandparents, of the generation after the famine. Here are some examples which dealt with the Famine in translation as most of the accounts in Oughterard and its neighbourhood were written in Irish.

Glann School – Kilcummin Parish Teacher: Eilín Bean Uí Dhuibhghiolla
An Droch Shaol
The Famine was very severe in this district. In 1846 a disease called the blight came on the potatoes and they all rotted in the ground. There was no flour or meal to be got that time. A small amount of flour came from America, ‘American Flour’, but it was bought only by the young people.
People were buried without a coffin or sheet (shroud). In 1848 the Famine was in decline and many people went to America. There were three times more people than there are now. In 1849 the potatoes grew plentiful again.

Collinamuck School – Oughterard Parish, Roscahill (January 1938)
An Ghorta (The Famine)
The potatoes failed in 1846 and 1847, the years of The Great Famine. Although the people around here had plenty wheat many of them died of hunger as they sold the wheat to pay the rent. The year 1847 was called ‘Black 47’. There was a house in Moycullen called the Sick House and the people went there when they got the fever.
They got porridge instead of potatoes and the Government gave out Indian Meal to make it. A turnip cost 2d and they would walk five miles to get one. When people died that time, and many died, they were placed on two boards and they were put in the graveyard at Tobar Cuana.
Sometimes they had a coffin. The person was taken out of the coffin when they reached the grave and was buried without any coffin. One coffin would do for twenty persons or more.
Mary Mc Donagh,
Collinamuck,
Roscahill
who collected Convent of Mercy School Oughterard – Teacher: Sister Ignatius

An Droch Shaol
The Famine was very bad around Oughterard. There were more people here that time than there are now. Three hundred people died of starvation in Oughterard during one year of the Famine alone. It was then that the workhouse was built by the English and it held a thousand inmates. The people had nothing to eat but Indian Meal and it was four shillings a stone. But the people went to the workhouse and gave up their faith, they would get it for nothing. The Jumpers got soup also.
There were soup houses in Glann. Glengowla was the Factory, they gave soup to anyone who gave up their faith.
Julia Clancy,

Oughterard
An Droch Shaol
The Famine was very bad in Oughterard in the year 1847 and it was said that two thirds of the people died. All that did not die of starvation died of yellow fever. Blight came on the potatoes when they were growing. A small quantity of seed potatoes were sent over by England. Peoplehad to live on Indian Meal, dock leaves, grass and anything they could find to keep them alive.
Mrs. Murphy of the Hotel and her family were very kind to the starving. It was at this time that the people through starvation turned protestant to get Indian Meal because the Protestants of Oughterard gave it to them for nothing and the starving people were glad to get it.
Kitty O’Brien
Oughterard

An Droch Shaol
The people of Oughterard suffered greatly in the time of the Famine. It was then the English built the workhouse and they fed the people with Indian Meal and stirabout, but they gave it only to those who were ready to turn their religion. There were graves all the way back from the top of
town, near the Church by the side of the mountain, back nearly as far as Glengowla, in which people who died that time were buried. The other people were so weak they could not bring them to a graveyard. There was a woman coming from Leam to Oughterard and she saw a woman dead
by the side of the road and a baby alive in her arms, and when she was coming from Town again the baby was dead, they are buried near Glengowla and the place where they are buried is green all the year round.
Anne Joyce,
Oughterard.

Killannin Parish – Roscahill School
Boy’s Teacher – Michéal Mac Donnchadh (1937/1938)
The Famine was very hard around here. The potatoes rotted in the ground and the people had nothing to eat. . Two old women died of hunger in Doon and they were buried on each side of the roads. There is a bush growing inside the wall and it is called ‘Tom Na Cailligh’ – the bush of the old women. There is a place beside the main road in Doon and the people call it ‘Gleann Na Marbh’ – the glen of the dead. Two men were trying to lift a stone and a travelling man came to them and he said he had not eaten a bit for four days. They did not like to let him lift the stone but he took it and threw it over a wall and he only walked about ten yards until he fell. The men ran to him but he was dead, he was buried there and that is why people call it the ‘glen of the dead’. There was a household in Carrandolla and they had nothing to eat. They left the house at night when there was snow on the ground, the marks of their feet were to be seen in the snow and they never came back, and nobody knows where they went.
John Walsh
Doon
Roscahill

Killannin School – Roscahill Teacher: Mrs. Aoife Mc Donagh
An Droch Shaol
In the year 1847, all the people of Ireland were dying with hunger. Blight came on the potatoes which rotted. The people did not know any cure and they did not have anything to eat. They had plenty of wheat and oats but they had to give it to the English to pay the rent or they would evict
them on the roadside. A man called Patrick O’Malley from Birchall, Oughterard, his wife and seven sons and two daughters were put out on the side of the road, they all died and were buried in the same grave. Many people died of hunger. A woman called Bridget Melia from Porridgetown, Oughterard died outside James Connnors house, there is a bush there and nobody is allowed to cut it down. There are many people buried in Killola, Roscahill. One day a woman was walking and when she reached the graveyard in Killola, she stood and she died of hunger and tiredness – and her name was Mary Coyne. She was buried in a grave at Killola. There is another man buried in a garden of my father, Matthiaus Moloney, Porridgetown, Oughterard called James Murphy of Porridgetown. He died of hunger and there is a big stone over him.
Eileen Moloney
Porridgetown
Matthias Moloney told me the story (69 years of age)

References
Introduction
Atlas of the Great Irish Famine – Edited by: W J Smyth, M Murphy & J Crowley

Cork University Press 2012

The Great Irish Famine
Edited by C. Póirteir – Mercier Press 1995
Article: The Other Great Irish Famine – David Dickson pgs 52 – 55
The Irish Famine by Peter Gray – Thames & Hudson London 1995 (Pg 16)

Galway – History & Society – Edited by G Moran and R Gillespie – Geography

Publications,
Templeogue Dublin 6 (1996)
The Transfer of Power – S Molloy 1642 -1702 Pg 215
Barony of Moycullen – A chronological of West or Iar Connaught by Roderic O Flaherty – edited by
James Hardiman, Dublin 1846 – pg 52
A Parliamentary Gazetteer of Ireland vol 2 Pgs 234 and 815
Census of Ireland 1821 and 1841 – HC 1822 Vol 14 and HC 1843 Vol 51
A Topographical Dictionary of Ireland by Samuel Lewis 1837 – Published London Pg 451
Tribes and other Galway Families
Published: Galway 1884 by TP O’Neill Pg 13
Social and Economic History of Ireland since 1800 by Mary E Daly
Published by The Educational Company of Ireland 1981 Page 17
Letters from the Irish Highlands of Connemara – Henry Blake 1820
Introduction K Whelan Pages 7 & 8.
Economic and Social Conditions before the Famine
Poor Inquiry Ireland 1836- Parish of KIlcummin, Barony of Moycullen – HC 1835 Vol31, Appendix D.
A visit to Ireland in the Autumn of 1834 by Henry Ingress Page 38
Minor Families v Relief in Galway – Tim P O’ Neill in Galway Historical Society, pages 447 – 456
Connaught Journal 28th June 1824
Famine – The Irish Experience- Margaret Crawford 900 AD – 1900 AD Page 22
Occupations of the People
Census of Ireland 1841
HC 1843, Vol 51, Occupations of the people
Poor Inquiry 1836, Killannin Parish, Volume 1, Page 641

Poor Inquiry Ireland 1836, Kilcummin Parish – evidence of James Martin, Rev. J Wilson and T H
O’Flahertie
Thoms Directory & Almanac Co. Galway rents.
The Local Landlords
Griffith’s Valuation of Tenements, Parish of Kilcummin, 1855, Landlords Estates.
Landlords of Ireland, Co. Galway, HC 1876 Volume 61
Thoms DIrectory 1848 – Landowners of Ireland
Life of Richard Martin – Humanity Dick , 1976, Shevaun Lynam, Pages 160 7& 161
Tribes and other Galway Families, TP O’Neill, Page 27
Landed Estates Database, NUIG- A O’Flaherty, Knockbane, MP
A Statistical and Agricultural Survey of Co. Galway by Hely Dutton, Royal Dublin Society, 1824
Relief before the Famine, Poor Law System
The Great Irish Famine, Póirtéir.
The role of The Poor Law during the Famine by C. Kinealy, pages 105 – 107.
Galway – A Medical and Social History by James P Murray, page 72
The Galway Mercury, 8th November 1845.
The coming of the Potato Blight
The Irish Famine – Peter Gray, pages 45 & 46
The Irish Famine by Ruán O’ Donnell, pages 27 & 28.
The Irish Famine – An Illustrated History by Helen Litton, Wolfhound Press, Dublin (1994), page 17.
The Galway Vindicator – 10th September 1845.
RLFC Incoming Letters
Reports on the state of the potato crop, October 1845
Oughterard Catholic Parish Records
Parish of Moycullen, October/November 1845 – Fr. Pat Fahy PP

Irish Memories (1917) – Edith Somerville & Martin Ross, page 14
The Relief Commission 1845
The Great Calamity – The Irish Famine 1845 – 1852 by Christine Kinealy, Gill & Macmillan, Dublin
(1994), page 41
The Irish Famine – An Illustrated History by H Litton, page 29
The Galway Mercury, 1st November 1845
Memorials to the Government Public Works 1846
Relief Commission Papers -RLFC
RLFC Incoming Letters, Barony of Moycullen, November 3rd 1845
JB Blake to Dublin Castle
RLFC 2Z 4982, Incoming Letters, Barony of Moycullen.
RLFC Distress Papers D2 1846, Rev. R. Browne to Dublin Castle.
Gleanings 2, The Famine in Galway – Rev. M Coen, The Connaught Tribune, March 21st 1975.
CSORP Distress Papers- Distress No 1,924, Kilcummin Parish (1846)
The Galway VIndicator, February 21st 1846.
The Galway VIndicator, March 11th and 18th 1846
Rev. P Horan, Gorumna and Lettermullen.
Relief Commission Papers RLFC 2Z, No 5032 (1846)
The Galway Vindicator – March 14th and April 20th 1846 – Rev. John O’Grady PP Spiddal.
The Provision of Food
The Irish Famine – H Littoc page 29
BPP (British Parliamentary Papers)
House of Commons 1846 Vol 39, page 102
The Great Calamity – C Kinealy, pages 48 & 49
BPP HL 1846 Vol 57 page 195

Galway Vindicator May 2nd 1846
RLFC Relief Commission Papers (1846) No 4365 and 4663. Rev. R. Browne to Dublin Castle
British Parliamentary Papers (1846) Vol 37, pages 244 and 245
The Great Hunger – Ireland 1845 -1849 by Cecil Woodham-Smith, page 110
The Irish Famine – Peter Gray, page 40 on Trevelyan
Gleanings 6 – Rev. M. Coen, Connaught Tribune, April 18th 1975.
The Famine Plot – Tim Pat Coogan, pages 101 and 102
Irish Memories – Sommerville & Ross (1917),page 16

Coming of Potato Blight 1846
CSORP -Registered Distress Papers No 5021 (1846) mention of inhabitants of Oughterard to Dublin
Castle, September 7th 1846.
CSORP- Registered Distress Papers No 5539, memorial of inhabitants of Gurtrevagh, Oughterard to
Dublin Castle, 23rd September 1846
CSORP Distress papers No 5371 – letter of James Martin, Ross House, September 23rd 1846, to
Dublin Castle on behalf of people of KIllannin.
Galway Mercury, October 5th 1846 – letter of Rev. J Glynn PP Killannin on behalf of the poor of his
parish.
CSORP Distress Papers No 4597 (1846) – J B Blake correspondence to Dublin Castle, September 4th
and October 15th on behalf of his people.
Galway Mercury, October 19th 1846, Special Presented Sessions, Oughterard, October 14th 1846 –
food relief work required.
Galway Mercury, November 7th 1846 – Deputation from Barony of Moycullen on 4th November
1846 to Lord Lieutenant, Dublin Castle in relation to public works.
Gleanings 3 Rev. M Lawlor, Connaught Tribune, March 28th 1995 – complaint by Rev R Browne on
conduct of relief works in Oughterard.
British Parliamentary Papers HC Vol 50, November 1846 – numbers employed on relief works,
Barony of Moycullen.
CSORP – Registered Distress Papers No 7268 (1846) – petition of parishioners of Oughterard to Lord
Lieutenant on 23rd October in relation to the high prices of food.

Catholic Parish Register – parish of Moycullen – Fr. P Fahy on the condition of his parish on 26th
October 1848.
Gleanings 3. The Famine in Galway – Rev. M. Coen, Connaught Tribune March 28th 1975.
Rev J Glynn PP Killannin on the condition of his parish on November 1st 1846.
RLFC 3/2/4/95 Relief Commission Papers. Rev John Cotter Rector Lettermore to Dublin Castle on
October 24th 1846 on the poor of his district, public works and the huge prices of meal.
Galway Vindicator, November 9th and 19th – Rev. P Horan PP Carraroe – public work and the
application for a food depot in his parish.
Galway Vindicator November 25th 1846 – Rev. John O’Grady PP Spiddal – those on public works
not paid in his parish for 2 weeks.

Deaths from Starvation
Galway Vindicator – June 2nd, November 14th and 28th, December 30th.
British Parliamentary Papers BPP HC 1847 Vol 51, page 349. Assistant Commissionary, General
Military, Galway Depot to Dublin castle – tour of Barony of Moycullen, December 8th 1846. BPP HC
1847 Vol 50
Captain Hutcheson, Inspecting Officer Co. Galway, December 19th 1846 – conditions in Barony of
Moycullen.
Galway Vindicator, December 30th 1846- Editorial: ‘Must the people starve’

1847
The Irish Famine – Ruan O’Donnnell Black ’47, page 66,….potato crop.
The Galway Vindicator – January 20th 1847 – D. O’Flaherty MP – conditions in Glann, Oughterard.
The Galway Viindicator – January 16th – generosity of Dr. Kirwan PP, Oughterard, towards the poor
of his parish.
The Galway Vindicator – January 23rd 1847 – deaths from starvation and fever in Glann.
Galway Mercury , March 13 1847 – visit of Quakers to Connemara and Oughterard, January 18th
1847.
The Tuam Hearld, January 9th 1847 – Coroners reports, deaths in parish of KIlcummin from
starvation, January 1847

Catholic Parish Register, parish of Moycullen, February 5th 1847 -Fr. Pat Fahy PP on the condition
of his parish.
Galway Vindicator, February 20th 1847 – Fr. Pat Fahy PP, Moycullen, on deaths in his parish.
Galway Vindicator, February 3rd 1847 -Rev. John Cotter on the Spiddal Relief Committee.
Outrage Reports Co .Galway, February 1847 – Fr. F. Kenny PP, Spiddal and Minna – letter to Dublin
Castle, February 25th 1847.
The Galway Vindicator, March 20th 1847 – Fr. Fahy PP, Moycullen, on deaths in his parish.
Galway Vindicator, March 31st, 1847
Rev. Robert Browne, Protestant Rector – Condition of the poor of Aughnanure, Oughterard.
The Galway Mercury, March 6th 1847 – They are dying like birds on the mountains – Conditions on
south coast of barony of Moycullen.
Gleanings 4 The Famine in Galway, Rev. M. Coen, Connaught Tribune, April 4th 1975 – James
Martin of Ross on the parish of Killannin.
Galway Vindicator, April 17th, 1847 – Report of Agricultural Instructors of Royal Dublin Society on
conditions in Connemara
Galway Vindicator, April 24th, 1847 – Death of T. B. Martin, Ballinahinch Castle.
Irish Memories – Sommerville & Ross, Page 18 – Funeral of T B Martin passing Ross gate.
Public Relief Works 1847 – Page 156
The Great Hunger – Cecil Woodham-Smith, page 143 – condition of the public works – winter
1846/1847.
Catholic Parish Records, Moycullen Parish – Fr. Pat Fahy on public works in the parish.
CSORP – Registered Distress Papers No 2936, Memorial of inhabitants of Roscahill to Dublin Castle,
February 20th 1847, on need for public works.
British Parliamentary Papers (BPP), Vol 52 pgs 48 & 49 – numbers employed on public works in
barony of Moycullen, January 30th 1847
Galway Vindicator, March 30th 1847 – present sessions Oughterard on public works.
Tuam Herald, March 20th – strict attendance on public works.
The Galway Vindicator, June 12th – the end of public works and its effects.
The Galway VIndicator, June 26th, Rev. Robert Browne on the suffering caused by the end of
public works at Oughterard.

This Great Calamity – C. Kinealy, Page 135, The Soup Kitchen Act, June 1847.
Gleanings – The Famine in Galway, Connaught Tribune, 9th May 1975, Rev. John Cather,
Lettermore.Rev. Robert Browne, Oughterard,on contributions to Soup kItchen, January/February
1847.
British Association for the relief of Distress – Lord James Butler, pgs 82 – 87, March 17th – Relief for
parishes of Oughterard, Killannin and Moycullen.
Irish Memories – Sommerville & Ross 1917 – page 16, a soup kitchen at Ross House..
Catholic Parish Registers, parish of Moycullen, May 7th 1847, Fr. Pat Fahy on food for Moycullen.
Galway Vindicator, June 26th and 30th – Rev. Robert Browne, Oughterard – criticism of the local
relief committee and of T. H. O’Flahertie, its Chairman.
RLFC Distress Papers No 7517 – John Blake letter to Dublin Castle on July 12th 1847 on the
condition of the poor of Upper Glann, Oughterard.
British Parliamentary Papers 1847/1848 Vol 29 – numbers who accepted soup rations in barony of
Moycullen, May to September 1847.
BPP – British Parliamentary Papers 1847, Vol 17 – Temporary Fever Hospital at Oughterard,
Moycullen, Spiddal and Killannin, June 1847.
Galway – A Medical and Social History – James P Murray, page 76 – Temporary Fever Hospitals –
duration.
BPP- British Parliamentary Papers 1835, Vol 32, Dispensary at Oughterard, Dr. J. KIrwan PP.
Galway Vindicator, July 10th 1847 – no trace of blight on potato crop, but yield of crop is very
small.
The Great Calamity – C. Kinealy, page 181, Poor Law Act, June 1847 – all relief only through the
workhouse.
The Great Calamity – C. KInealy – the quarter acre clause.
The Great Famine – C O Murchafha, page 100, evictions due to quarter acre clause.
Catholic Parish Register, july 5th 1847, Fr. Pat Fahy – purchase of meal and food prices in
Moycullen..
Galway Vindicator, August 28th 1847, – no shortage of food, glut of Indian corn in Galway, fall in
prices.
CSORP – Distress papers 1849,Number 7837, Memorial of Michael Dignan, Leam, Oughterard to
Dublin Castle – on the extreme want of her family.

Outrage Papers – Galway 1843/44 – Mr. Mc Donald and resistance to the collection of the poor rates in Oughterard.
Galway Vindicator – September 29th 1847 – Editorial – ‘shall we perish or live…’
Catholic Parish Register, Moycullen, October 1847, Fr. Pat Fahy – deaths and conditions in his parish.
Gleanings 6 – Connaught Tribune, April 1975 – The Famine in Galway – Rev. R. Browne, Oughterard – conflict with T.H. O’Flahertie and the Oughterard Relief Committee.
Galway Mercury, No 16, November 1847, – A friend of the poor, Oughterard, fever and destitution and the condition of farming in the parish.
British Parliamentary Papers – HB HC 1847/1848 Vol5, D.W. Blake, Spiddal, on the awful people in the ED of Killannin, November 21st 1847.
BPP HC British Parliamentary Papers, 1847/1848, Vol 55, Captain Hillard, Inspecting Officer of
Galway Union, November 30th 1847 – conditions on the sea-coast district of Spiddal.
Galway Vindicator, December 29th 1847 – numbers of people who died in Galway workhouse.
Galway Vindicator, December 11th 1847, – Relieving Officers in the barony of Moycullen.
Irish Memories – Sommerville & Ross , pages 16/17, – accounts of Black 47 – Families from those who lived through it.
Seventy Years Young – by Elizabeth Countess of Fingall, page 25, Daisy Burke, Moycullen – account of the Famine by her Father who remembered it.
Galway Vindicator, December 18th 1847, Galway flooded with paupers from Lettermore, evicted by C St. George.
Galway Vindicator, December 29th 1847, – dissolution of Galway Board of Guardians.

1848
The Galway Vindicator, January 15th 1848 – no improvement in the condition of the people in the
barony of Moycullen.
The Galway Vindicator, February 26 1848 – Robert Martin of Ross House – deaths in the ED of
Killannin – in need of coffins.
Galway Mercury – March 4 1848 – Fr. Pat Fahy PP Moycullen – deaths in the parish and neglect of
English government.

Galway Mercury, March 18, – Fr. Francis Kenny PP, Spiddal on destitution, disease and deaths in his
parish.
Galway Mercury, April 22, 1848 – starvation and deaths in Oughterard and the beginning of
proselytism.
Catholic Parish Registers – parish of Moycullen – Fr. Pat Fahy PP on deaths in his parish, May 1848.
Galway Vindicator, May 20th 1848 – death of Fr. P Fahy and his great contribution to the parish.
Galway Mercury, June 22nd 1848, description of burial of person without a coffin in Oughterard
graveyard.
Galway Mercury, July 1st 1848 – poor state of patients in temporary fever hospital, Oughterard.
British Parliamentary Papers, 1847, Vol 17, Relief Commissioner Reports – admissions and deaths
in the fever hospitals, Moycullen, Killannin and Oughterard.
Galway Vindicator, January 19th 1848 – evictions of Patrick Blake of Spiddal and C. St. George,
Oughterard , in parishes of Oughterard and Killannin.
British Parliamentary Papers BPP, HC 1847/1848 – public sworn inquiry by Major Mc Kee, Inspector
of Galway Union and the evictions of Mr. Blake and C.St. George.
BPP HC British Parliamentary Papers, Vol 56, page 155, March 1848 – Mr. C. St. George defends his
position as a landlord in the House of Commons.
The Administration of the Poor Law.
Galway Vindicator, January 8 1848 – The Vice-Guardians of the Galway Union.
British Parliamentary Papers 1847/1848, Vol 5, Pg 142 – deaths from Oughterard and Killannin in
Galway workhouse and Relieving Officers in the barony of Moycullen.
Galway Mercury, March 4 1848, – problems of Outdoor Relief in Oughterard and deaths in the
parish.
Galway Vindicator, March 8th 1848 – outdoor relief and deaths in Killannin E.D.
Galway Vindicator, December 30th 1848, – James Martin of Ross House on the awful effects of
outdoor relief on the able-bodied and stone breaking on the roads.
Galway Vindicator, April 26th 1848 – arrears of poor rates in parishes of Barony of Moycullen.
Galway Vindicator, July 26th 1848 – the potato blight, crops destroyed in Co. Galway.
British Parliamentary Papers 1849, Vol 16, January 22nd 1848 – green crop seeds distributed by
Society Of Friends in parishes of Oughterard and Killannin in 1849, and their effects.

Outrage Papers, Co. Galway, November 16th 1848 – sworn evidence of Mr. G. Mc Donald, Poor Rate Collector, before G.F. O’Flahertie on attacks and resistance to Poor Rate collection in the Barony of Moycullen.
Gleanings 10 – The Famine in Galway,Connaught Tribune march 1975 – letter of Dr. John Mc Hale and Rev. J. Glynn, Killannin, on the spread of proselytism in Oughterard and criticisms of Rev. J Kirwan PP.
The Galway Vindicator, January 2nd 1850, Funeral of Rev J Kirwan PP from Galway to Oughterard.
Galway Mercury, December 30th 1848 – hard hitting editorial by Editor on the effects of the Poor
Law and English policy during 1848 under the title – Extermination and the Poor Law.
1849
The Great Hunger – Cecil Woodham-Smith, page 397 – The Famine during 1849.
A Town Tormented By The Sea – Galway, John Cunningham, page 136 – deaths in Galway
workhouse April – June 1849
BPP – British Parliamentary Papers 1849, vol 48, page 26 – Vice- Guardians on the distress in the
Barony of Moycullen at start of 1849.
BPP – 1849, vol 48, page 27 – lack of clothing among the poor, January 1849.
Galway Vindicator, January 31 1849, death from neglect in the bridewell, Oughterard – Coroner’s
Verdict.
Galway Vindicator, February 17th 1849, death of a family of seven from Lettermullen after coming
from workhouse.
British Parliamentary Papers (BPP) HC Vol 16, April 1849,- James Martin of Ross House – evidence
on the operation of the Poor Law in the parishes of Oughterard and Killannin.
Galway Vindicator, May 5th 1849 – George E. Burke, Moycullen – deaths, disease and awful
conditions at his parish fever-hospital.
Catholic Parish Registers, Moycullen, Fr. Francis PP – deaths in his parish and results of inquests,
June 16th 1849.
BPP HC 1849, Vol 48, page 25 – Major Mc Kee, Inspector of the Galway Union, on the resistance to
the collection of poor rates in the Barony of Moycullen, February 1849.
Galway Mercury, 15th September 1849 – evictions and levelling of houses in Galway Union for the
past two years.
Galway Vindicator, July 11th 1849, no blight on potato crop in July 1849.

Galway Vindicator, November 3rd 1849 – sale of Martin estate, August 7th 1849.
Genealogy of Martins of Ballinahinch, A.P.S Martin, Winnipeg 1890, – sale of bankrupt Martin
estate and purchase by Law Life Society.
Galway Mercury, November 17th 1849 – attacks and assaults on Poor Rate collectors, November
1849, – Killannin and Moycullen.
Outrage Reports, Co. Galway, November 1849, – violent opposition to collection of Poor Rates in
the Barony of Moycullen (page 341).

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