The Sun.
London, England, 1846-12-14 00:00:00

IRELAND.

SPREAD OF DESTITUTION.-MORE DEATHS
FROM STARVATION.

DUBLIN, DEC. 12.—The reports from the country are
truly appalling. From an authentic source we learn that
between yesterday and this day, the trustees of the
Indian Relief Fund in this city have received one hun
dyed and seventy letters, chiefly from
Mayo, and several
of them from Lord Lucan's town of Castlebar. The ac-
counts of the state of destitution are utterly deplorable.
A magistrate, writing from the neighbourhood of Bally-
castle and Doonfeeny, Mayo, states that there have
been thirteen deaths from starvation within the last few
days. In those one hundred and seventy letters there
are accounts of forty-seven deaths from actual starvation.
There are evidences of utter destitution upon all sides.
The Dublin Evening Post says—
" The workhouses all through the country, with the
sole exception of Castlebar, are crowded to excess,
and, in many cases, a species of out-door relief is
humanely afforded by the guardians. The work-
house of Kilkenny, on Thursday morning, contained
1,391 inmates, upwards of a hundred more than
the allotted number. In addition, 1,800 persons are
daily obtaining a meal of stirabout and milk, which they
eat within the house, and then go away. Our corre-
spondent, a gentleman of the highest character, states
that he saw men, women, boys, and girls waiting in the
cold and rain for that meal, with scarcely a rag to cover
them. The guardians of the Kilkenny electoral division,
in order to provide this meal, are incurring an additional
expense of 131. 10s. per day ; they are thus taxing the
town division, which already pays nearly double the
rate applotted upon the rural districts of the union. The
same state of things exists in various other unions. The
Cashel workhouse, intended for 700, contains 873 in-
mates ; and in addition a pound of bread each is daily
given to an average of 520 persons, who come to the
workhouse to receive relief. Ia the letter of our Meath
correspondent, and other communications, a statement
of destitution equally afflicting is described ; and but
for the vast amount of employment afforde by the
public works, we do believe that the country, by this
time, would have been one terrible scene of starvation,
pestilence, and anarchy."
The provincial journals supply details of the most
afflicting kind.
The Cork Examiner gives the following in a report of
the meeting of the Skibbereen Relief Committee on
Tuesday :
" Doctor Donovan detailed some lamentable instances
of dea'h and sickness from hunger, and a want of pro-
tection against the inclemency of the weather, and stated
that he had no hesitation in saying that, before
the close of the spring, half the population of this por-
tion of Carbery would have been swept off the earth by
starvation!

" While the doctor was addressing the committee, an
application for a coffin, for a person who had been dead
for the previous four days, was handed into the chairman.
" Some of the gentlemen present remarked they were
not all surprised at this, for they had known numerous
instances in which dead bodies had to be kept over ground
for several days for want of coffins.
"To my own knowledge, the friends of one poor
creature who died from want, were obliged to bury him
without a coffin. It is not an uncommon thing now in
the neighbourhood of Skibbereen, Balipiehob, Skull,
Castlehaven, Castletownsend, &c., to meet ten or a dozen
funerals in the day. In fact, the mortality here is greater
than during the ravages of the cholera. The story is
the same all through the Carberies and the barony of
Bere and Bantry—starvation is everywhere.
-" About two months ago, John O'Connell, Esq., of
Bantry, purchased 2,500 barrels of bread stuffs, which he
has since retailed to the poor at cost price, but his stock
is now exhausted, and the prices of provision having
reached such an enormous height, I am at a loss to
know what will become of the poor of that locality.
" I regret to have to add that another death from
starvation occurred here this morning. I suppose there
will be a coroner's inquest on the body. At the hour I
write the corpse lies about two miles from Skibbereen,
on the Cork road. Three young children surrounded
the remains of their wretched father on the spot where
his strength yielded to famine, and bewail his loss with
y s
loarsrty made ad da
collect ha t t h
heart-piercing cries. Deceased was a stout, ably-built
man, apparently about 40 years of age."
The same journal contains the following
CROOKHAVEN, DEC. 9.—To add to the misery of
the people, some of the landlords have already canted
chapel to purchase a bier to take the dead bodies to the
eo
nR ienv
graveyard without. coffins, as being hitherto tired of
to it ;sheep,
y there is no
Corn, or anything
making collections
limit towards buying them. As to lar-
the
etheney.,can lay hands on, are carried away by the starving
Bthaerirrectzttille.cfo.cr
.r,eonnt.
Sulnadma
people."
OF ("LAKE.—, Mr. J of Miltown Malhay,
COUNTY 0
under date Dec. 6, writes to say—. Three deaths from
starvation have taken place in this village within the last
ten days; one a woman of the name of Mary Flaherty,
another a poor woman of the name of Ellen Doleby;
she died on the side of the road between Milltown and
Liskehone, during a dreadful storm of hail. It is now
for whene
no unusual sight to see three or four persons faint from
exhaustion each day, y are brought into
some house and restoratives are administered in the
form of food, they usually recover."