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

PROGRESS OF IRISH DESTITUTION.

The Slip Champion of the Bth instant states the har°
rowing fact that in the district of Rang-barrow alone no
fewer 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
them, says—" The cruelty of the policy sanctioned by
Lord John Russell is found in the melancholy truth, that
on Thursday morning last a miserable being was found i°
the streets of Tuam, with her infant closely wrapped to
her bosom ; but, alas ! that infant had fallen a victim t°
the fell destroyer which now, in every direction, traverseo
the land."

The accounts from Dingle are to the effect that deaths
and starvation are increasing there, want carrying °LI'
many, and dysentery, the effect of want, also doing it'
work. The Kerry Examiner says on the subject-""
"Persons are to be seen at all times going aFeat" vint)
plates in their hands, collecting money to pay for cotans.
There is not in this world a more wretched or more desti-
tute locality than this. The starving people go into the
finale fields and re-dig them ; this they do in the-open
day, for the chance of finding an old and rotten potato
and I can assure you they labour hard at this work."
The Mayo Constitution details the deaths of msnf
from disease and hunger during the previous week: Of 6
place called Breffny 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 creature
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 previon°
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 desolarmg Ire-
land. The following details are contained in one publics'
tion of the Mayo Constitution-
"ln the neighbourhood of Newport, on Sunday mornini
last, a poor man, named Mulloy, was found on the road
side. His emaciated frame betokened that his death vlaS
the result of want. He was a native of Burrishoale. On
Friday last a poor man died at Deradda, near Newport, 0`
actual hunger; leaving a family to follow in rapid susses'
sion. On Saturday, a poor man was also found expiring,
from exhaustion at Rooskeen, and notwithstanding relic'
being brought, the poor man died, food having come ton
late ! In the neighbourhood of Breaffy, near this town;
the following deaths have occurred from starvation on
disease :—Michael M'Enally, of Roeman, on the 12th;
Peter Swords, of Derrinacrisham, on the 12th.; his wife
on the 12th ; James Gavan, of Ballyshawn, on the Sth;
his wife on the 10th. All these cases proceeded from dys-
entery and exhaustion. On Sunday, the 7th inst., Mr'
Atkinson, coroner, held an inquest on the body of Patrici‘
Maughan' at Coonanarrow. The deceased " has -left °
family, who are in the moot indigent state-. The jury's vet:
diet was—' Death by starvation.' In this village there 1'
not a family that do not appear likely to fall victims to
famine. On the same day, on the body of James Brisliol"
at Kilcrimmin. The deceased --
• -..hhe

_ was put on, the
.pui?'
works a few days previous to his death, and was:hasten/
on Saturday evening to the office of the pay-clerk,. 130
being very weak from want of -food) he fell on the wag'
and waS found dead next morning. Verdict—' Death 11
starvation.' On Monday, the- Bth, on the body of Dv
Howley, at Saltfield. The deceased was employed on the
public works, and was found lying on the road, where 1°
had fallen, by a person passing by ; when removed`to. thr,
nearest habitation he died shortly after. Verdict----' Death
by starvation.' On the same day, on the body of
Sheridan, at Cloonta. The deceased had been in, a gr'
state of destitution, and going from one .village to another
he fell into a small rivulet which he attempted to cros!r
and from his debility was unable to extricate
Verdict—' Death by drowning, but -attributed to stint%
tion.' This coroner states that there were 12
inquests reported in his district, but which from indisP'
sition he has been unable to attend. During. the 10-
week, Mr. O'Grady, coroner,. held inquests on the follow'.
big persons :—Ann Philbin, Patt Hannon, Francis G°1„•
non, Jordan Morrisroe, Anne Teatum Patrick -C,
are, f';
Thomas Costello, Constantine Muller,' John Mil-11-"G
Bridget Mulloy. In each of these ases the CVS.
returned was— Death from Aarvation.' "
The Coroner for the Baronies of Costello and Gallen'

(Co. Mayo,) has addressed
Times, in which he thus pictu
present attending his office :
" The duties of coroner in ordinary times are painful b 1
the scenes presented ; but those now to be endured rend if
the office, to say the least of it, no sinecure, possessed, .0
he be, of human feelings. In-this sir, lam SUM you Wij
agree, when I say, that I have beheld the mother 00
child both dead in the same bed, the latter embraced, este
in death, in the arms of the former,—when Lsay that _
find a mother dead in the perch or recess of a corn-X1
with her still living child three years old lying,ou her JO t
body, exposed to the cold aDd inclemency of the night i 8
such a place of refuge, —when- I see the nursing infant a!,
on' the mother's breast, from. exhaustion of its soar'
(the- mother, with ten in the family, living on water'
cresses for four days previous, as her only means of 1.7;
port), when I see two children, of six and, seven Ye
old, both dead together, and.the mother expiring and
ing the fallowing day,—when. I see a man in rude hea',4
not 50 years old, struggliwito-walk the day before, thrarte
dead for four days on the high road (I should say prilley
road), unremoved, being astranger, under the incleineliA,
of-the weather. But, sir, these death scenes, heartreln
ing as they may appear, are of no -consequence coinFia'of
to the still surviving moving skeletons of the families of
the departed, falling off front debility from-the effects
hunger, aggravated, if ,vassible, by their natural feell1:11,
of grief and heartbreak at the loss of the leparted we"'
her of their family."
The Cork Examiner publishes a series of coraniu-
nica'
tions descriptive of the destitute condition, of several
calities- in that county, includimg Mitchel's-town, Kanter,
Doneraile, and Ahabollogue. The state of the lattee;,
which is only nine miles.from Cork, is frightful.
were no. less than nine deaths from starvation on Monulo
and an average of three each day during the week. 1
one town-land, containing 800 souls, it is added, 700 •

.iitor of the
the awful distress ati

starving.
There are not 100 acres of land in the county of?`-e•
prepared for seed, nor is there any appearance of a cila„";iot
' Drumod, a small district in Leitrim', containing telt
quite 6000 inhabitants, eighteen persons have died
days. On the inquest on one of them it appeared ,;:t,
of
for two months preceding he had been frequently eiSof
and-forty hours without eating zwyoing but seawe
cabbage stalks. A poor woman, says a correspondeat .
the Boyle Gazettes. has just fallen avictim from the sin4o
g
deplorable dearth, of provisions, and, it was wretched
behold an infant of a few months' old dragging at „a$
were held hotehlderOn Monday on the bucli,,e•df
its EVen Dublin has, of
ulherin
ltejrocehaasnyteadno.df Inquests
, (husband, and•wife,) who w e-
te former on Saturday, the latter on Sunday. The oiero
"Very few people,"
cal gentlemen (Doctors Leeson and Brady) said t4,1!c0,
was no disease, and ascribed the deaths to destitilet.l
said they, " die of absolute hi' foll
but wanting fire, clothes, and haying only a veil 9„. al°
quantity of food and other comforts,, life, of course, 'sr-
gradually drop away." Are
The Rev. M. T. Moriarty, writing from Dingle, ;or
in a letter dated February 13th, that that parish coa:11 to
three thousand souls, and that, from December 2;)'0,0441,
February Ist one hundred and five persons have Pr 0111'
into eternity from the one fell cause—starvatiew.
since then the work a death has progressed frightf7oo
The London papers have published a private lette'•elll
Commander Caffin, of the steam sloop Scourge,. '0'91,1
now employed on the Southern coast of Ireland. lig
officer :says that his vessel was lately ordered to disc eatc,
a cargo of meal, &c., at Schull, and that he conseetili
became intimately acquainted. with the horrible na,isefigeuv
which the inhabitants of that neihbourhood are 1,',%01,,'
Three-fourths of, the men of then illage had wasted
to.skeletons from the effects of hunger ; and their str`'
was wholly gone. When these unhappy men we' -e.
ployed in unloading the sacks of meal, the greatest'scetif;
fulness was needful, in order to prevent them *Ode',
loining small, quantities of the contents. As Com One
Caffin wished to see with his own eyes the extent t0:1,0!
the famine really prevailed, Dr. Trail, the rector of Pcf
Commanderitsotahufesardwescrdibeedgr.ebeywithall itsixo .c4offirns
drove him. through the parish ; and the result
ig
drive
es
gVOepl
sprung up, consequent upon the wretchedness ; ittfle
ing of limbs and body, and diarrhoea, upon the lol:
nourishment, are everywhere to be found. Dr!„-,,0'
parish is 21 miles in extent, containing about MO' i01`),,,
with not more than half a dozen gentlemen in theolOoo
of it. lie drove me about five or six miles ; but d
menced our visits before leaving the village, au he
house that 1 entered was there' ~
not to be found 0,, I'o4
or dying." The most heart-rending details follclocly
the horrible wretchedness painted in the letter isotelori
can only be likened to the frightful particulars I:.eo)os.tetl,
the old chroniclers, who have transmitted tons t", wa;ell
of some of the famines by which Europe was }led'
during the middle ages. After describing what ITer (iii"
saw saw in the cottages which he visited, Commal'''id Oil to
adds :—" I could tell you also of that which I COf onejoi
for the truth of, but which I did not see mYse.elc'eaae,', lc
bodies half eaten by rats—of two dogs last `" bou)„0,,
being shot by Mr. O'Callaghan, whilst tearing a
5111
pieces—of his mother-in-law stopping a poor WP"; re
asking her what she had on her back, and, belffotlie'd'''
that it was her son, telling her that she would sm tt.
but the poor emaciated woman said it was cleaa
and she was going to dig a hole in the churebY'ce. •
These are things which are of everyday °colorer'