The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1847-02-23 00:00:00

PROGRESS OF IRISH DESTITUTION

The Sligo Champion of the Bth instant states the har-
rowing fact that in the district of Maugbarrow alone no'
fever than forty dead bodies were kept waiting for the
coroner. The Galway Mercury also relates a number of
instances of death from starvation, and, as regards one of
thenti says—" The cruelty of the policy sanctioned by
Lord'John Russell is found in the melancholy truth, that
on ThnrSday morning last a miserable being was found in
the streets of Tuam' with her infant closely wrapped to
her bosom"; but, alas -! that infant had fallen a. victim to
the fell destroyer which now, in every direction, traverses
the landr."
The aceounts from Dingle' are to the effect that deaths
and starvation are increashal there, want carrying off
many, and dysentery, the effect of want, also -doing its
work. The, Kerry Examiner says on the subject—
" Persons are to be seen at alt times going about with
plates in their hands, collecting- money to pay for coffins.
Where is not in this world a more wretched or more desti-
tute locality than this. The starving people
.go into the
tillage fields cad re-dig them; this they do in the opal "
day, for the chance of finding an old and rotten potato;
and I can assure you they lithour hard at this work.
The Mayo Constitution detaile=the deaths of' many
from disease and hunger during-the previous week.. Of a
place called Bret ity it is said—" In this village, there is
not a family that does not appear likely to fall victims to
famine." In all, the names of twenty-four poor creatures
who have perished' from want in that locality are given,
and twelve more deaths had just been reported. The
mortality in the Cork workhouse, owing to its condition
(says the Examiner), had increased 36 over the previous
week, the deaths last week being 164.
The county Mayo, appears destined to- occupy a black
page in the history of the famine which is-desolating Ire-
land. The following-details are contained in. one publica-
tion of the Mayo Constitution :
"In the neighbourhood of Newport; on Sunday morning
last, a poor man, named Mulloy, was found on the road
side. His emaciated frame betokened that his-death was
the result of want. He was a native. of Burrishoole. On
Friday last a poor man died at Deradda, near Newport, of
actual hunger, leaving a family to follow in rapid -succes-
sion. On Saturday, a poor man was also found expiring
from exhaustion at Rooskeen, and notwithstandingrelief
k being brought, the poor man died, food having come too
late ! In the neighbourhood of Breaffy, near this town,
the following deaths have occurred from starvation and
I, disease —Michael M'Enally, of Roeman, on. the 12th
Peter Swords, of Derrinacrisham, on the 12th ; his wife
on the 12th ; James Gavan, of Ballyshawu on tbe Bth;
his wife on the 10th. All these cases proceeded from dts"

•
eatery and exhaustion. On Sunday, the 7th inst., gr.
Atkinson, coroner, held an inquest on the body of Patrick
Maughan, at Coonanarrow. The deceased has left a
family, who, are in the most indigent state. The jury's ver-
dict was—' Death by starvation.' In this village there is
not a family that do not appear likely to, fe4,victims to
famine. On the same day, on the body of JaMe.gnrislane,
at Kilcrimmin. The deceased was put on the public
works a few days previous to his death, and was hastening
on Saturday evening to the office of the pay-clerk, but
being very weak from want of food, he fell on the waY,
and was found dead next morning. Verdict—' Death by
starvation.' On Monday, the Bth, on the body of Pat
Howley, at Saltfield. The deceased was employed on the
public works, and was found lying on the road, where he
had fallen, by a person passing by ; when> removed to the
nearest habitation he died shortly after. Verdiet—' Death
by starvation.' On the same day, on the body of
Sheridan, at Cloonta. The deceased had been in a greet
state of destitution, and going from one village to another
he fell into a small rivulet which he attempted to cross;
and from his debility was unable to extricate himself!
Verdict—' Death by drowning, but attributed to starve'
tion.' This coroner states that there were 12. more
iwsnirßniecoterqgtinioeu
returned
Thomasnpegn,
maeje metrthosdas
reoryrdmicneoahopas:nu:aoss:
srtGi
Morrisroe,eot
has erbl n ea,i
ynennd Icdth icpnrhooeh
isnrsfsrsdi
unableatnoebi
Angiea
Constantine
nsei
iht district, ct, but which from indisP°:
spalfeetiervl
ttuTd,attend.tmahee itHraneiuoime Hannon,
tsci:Dss
re;
ritanc.h,:ct3 hfvsicoeu
gelaarl
elioa:
The Coroner for thethßusaropniieteusreosf
Times, in which he tChoestaewfleloucearldtoi9rtreGoasfilii
present attending his office :
"The duties of coroner in ordinary times are pa/m..113Y
the scenes presented ; but those now to be endured renal
the office, to say the least of it, no sinecure, possessed,
he be, of human feelings. In this sir, lam sure you viol
agree, when I say, that I have beheld the- mother an
child_both dead in the same bed, the latter embraced, eye";
in death, in the arms of the former,—when I say that
find a mother dead in the porch or recess of a corn-101,1
with her still living child three years old lying on her de-_7,
body, exposed to the cold and inclemency of the night I,l`e
such a place of refuge, —when I see the nursinginfant dr
on the mother's breast, from exhaustion of its sour':

(the mother, with ten 'in the family, living on Wafer
tresses for four days previous, as her only, means of su,K,
port),—when I see two children, of six and seven ye'
old, both dead together, and the mother expiring and al'
ing the following day,—when I see a man in rude health'
not 50 years old, struggling to walk the day before, throo;
dead for four days on the high road (I should say pri/a
road), unremoved, being a stranger, under the inclemeneci,
of the weather. But, sir, these death scenes, heartren_A
ing as they may appear, are of no consequence comps
to the still surviving moving skeletons of the families of
the departed, falling off from debility from the effects
hunger, aggravated,- if possible, by their natural feelifil
of grief and heartbreak at the loss of the. departed ate'
her of their family."
The Cork Examiner publishes a . series of communic!„:
tions descriptive of the destitute condition of several Pio
calities in that county, including Mitchel's-tovan, Kantlrer,
Doneraile, and Ahabollogue. The state of the la,t
which is only nine miles from Cork, is frightful. 'llo'
were no less than nine deaths from starvation on Moil;
and an average of three each day during the week. of
one town-land, containing 800 souls, it is added, 700
starving.
Afsi°
There are not MO acres of land in the county of ,„y,
prepared for seed, nor is there any appearance of a Chet
In Drumod, a small district in Leitrim, eontainiete
quite 6000 inhabitants, eighteen persons have ioik4S. ot
days. On the inquest on one of them it appeared,At.
for two months preceding he had been, frequentlyor
and-forty hours without eating anything- but seawee,t ,
cabbage stalks. A poor woman, says a correspondeLoie
the Boyle. Gazette, has just fallen a victim from thetD
deplorable dearth of provisions, and it was vrretcliny
behold an infant of a few months' old Ilragging pot
breast of its lifeless mother. E__ovei.! Dublin ha5,,901
escaped. Inquests were held on Al_ naay on the bo 0.1-;61,
john and Ellen Mulherin, (husband and wife,) who
the former on Saturday, the latter on Sunday. The „ere
dical gentlemen (Doctors Leeson and uti
Brady) said tiop,
Was no disease, and ascribed the deaths to 'destif
" Very few people," said they, " die of absolute huog'oll
but wanting fire, clothes, and having only a veil sii:d
quantity of food and. other comforts, life, of course, vfr
gradually drop away."
,314'
The Rev. M. T. Moriarty, writing from Dingle, 05
in ,a letter dated February 13th, that that parish colltrj,
three thousand souls, and that from December 25°)..id,
February Ist one hundred and five persons have
into eternity from the one fell cause—starvationi
since then the work of death has progressed frightfallic:o
The London papers have published a private letter, DO
Commander Caffin, of the steam sloop Scourge, whieffili
now employed on the Southern coast of Ireland/ d
officer says that his vessel was lately ordered to disel'e'd!
a cargo of meal, &c., at Schull, and that he consee
became intimately acquainted with the horrible mise'd,
which the inhabitants of that neighbourhood are pluIV
Three-fourths of the men of the village had wasted
to skeletons from the effects of hunger ; and their strap'
was wholly gone. When these unhappy men were t"
ployed in unloading the sacks of meal, the greatest vild,
fulness was needful, in order to prevent them from nd
loining. small quantities of the contents. As Conllossg
ffi Can.wished to see with his own eyes the extent to 14 ,
the famine really prevailed, Dr. Traill, the rector of
drove him through the parish ; and the result 01,
drive is thus described by Commander Caffin
exists to a fearful degree with all its horrors.. Feve'di
sprung up, consequent upon the wretchedness ; and sni
ing of limbs and body, and diarrhoea, upon the vp.
nourishment, are everywhere to be found.. Dr. 0015
parish is 21 miles in extent, containing about 18,000
with not more than half a dozen gentlemen in the cod
of it. lie drove me about five or six miles ; but veep
menced our visits before leaving the village, and jej
house that I entered was there not to be found 00
or dying." The most heart-rending details folloscl'g,
the horrible wretchedness painted in the letter is.sti'd,4
can only be likened to the frightful particulars rell'h;6,
the old chroniclers, who have transmittedtnus the
of some of the famines by which Europe was iritAio
during the middle ages. After describing what he
saw in the cottages which he visited, Commande,r,,,oil
adds :—" I could tell you also of that which I conwo,9
for the truth of, but which I did not se6 myself, oe., t,
bodies half eaten by rats—of two dogs last wed Docil"
being shot by Mr. O'Callaghan, whilst tearing a 03c0
pieces—of his mother-in-law stopping a poor worn refit
asking her what she had on her back, and, beingi
that it was her son, telling her that she would sio°
but the poor emaciated woman said it was dead
and she was going to dig a hole in the churchyto",,!
These are things which are of everyday occurrence' .