Omaha daily bee., 1883-08-01
IRISH wRETCHEDNESS.
of Destitution and Squalor-
Misery in Its Worst Phases.

Scenes of D~estitution and Squalor-
Misery in Its Worst Phases.
A correspondent of The Philadelphia
Press, writing from Galway, Ireland, says
Galway river drains the overflow from
Tough Corrib, seven miles north. IT.
course is through the city of Galway. Al
a point between the river and the bay
around which is a splendid sea wall, i,
the town of ~Claddaugh, within the cor
porate limits of the city of Galway. Fuit
Ilium; Claddaugh was. Here lived fol
centuries all the fishermen OF
the bay of Galway. They were a law
unto themselves. They had a king. He
with five others, making a council of six.
settled all disputes between their owl
people. In their best days, a few year.
ago, it is reckoned there were about SOC
cabins on the point. In procession they
could turn out 1000 able-bodiedm The
houses, which were all one-story thatched
stone cabins, were so numerous and close
together that there was no room for gar.
dens. There was not a vegetable raised
within five miles of Claddagh. Every
household owned from one to three
''hookers," or small fishing vessels. The
king always directed the fishing, which,
being mostly for herring, was done at
night.
What of Claddagh of to-day The fish
ermen of Galway yet live there, but it is
not Claddagh as John w. Forney knew
it, for instance. Three-fourths of the
Claddaghs emigrated. Nearly all those
who remained have died out. The fish
cries have been destroyed, and all are
poor, wretchedly poor. There are scarce
four hundred cabins left, and they are in
a tumble-down condition. Not over fifty
look at all thrifty.
Strangers, sir" said the aged king, in
showing me about the place, from Con-
nemara and elsewhere live in these houses
now. Those neater houses, thank God
are held by ~Claddaghs, thoroughbreds and
their fathers before them"
| noticed many of these stone novels
and went in and inspected them. Such
absolute poverty l never expect to see
again. Not a few of them are but eight
feet by twelve feet. In these live hus-
band and wife and at least half a dozen
children, and, whenever the man is rich
enough to afford it, the pig. There were,
of course, no floors. 1t had been raining,
and the ancient matches leaking, there
were mud puddles in many of these
cabins. | saw several sit huddled
over a small coal of peat, feeding the
,serapings 2f perridge from an iron skillet
os cklyS4nSy,,ah9 'they themselves
We're thin, scrawny, and looked half
starved. Clothes they had not; a few
rags were bundled around their persons
from their knees up. One man told me
that when the whole family went to SLEEP
in the 8x1O cabin, on straw which was
spread for the night, often the children
lay close up against the pig for the sake
of the animals warmth.
There are no industries for the women
or children. The husbands are barely
able to keep them alive, much less clothe
them. l need net describe the amount
of l~aziness, dirt, and idleness concomitant
with such circumstances. Consequent or
this comes, alas! crime, immortality. II
was unheard of in better days for a bas.
tard to be born in Claddagh. That high
state of morals does not exist to-day.
How could it? Two thousand people
live there. How do they live?, Fal
worse than cared-for animals. 1t is an
%undeniable truth that very many of them
do not have enough of straw to protect
them from lying on the mother earth.
They are not neal so well fed as animals.
Still, for the most part, they are moral,
and all are honest. They will not ever
steal food, which is not yet determined
in the field of casnistry to be a sin.
On walking through the city / dis.
covered the streets narrow, winding, and
irregular. There are several mills; four,
five, and six-story stone buildings that
are entirely deserted. Mills that have
such superior water-power that the bare
rental CT them in America would be a
fortune, stand grim, gaunt, idle, here on
west coast of Ireland. The people are
always moving about. They are restless,
uneasy. They have little or no work.
Their moving about so much is neither
industry, thrift, nor business; it is ner-
vous energy that must be expended.
Women and men may be seen in little
knots at almost every door chatting idly
listlessly, YEARLY hopelessly. They
impress me as if some fatal pestilence was
sweeping the town, and that. as death
was inevitable, they had come out of their
desolate houses to seek the consolation
OF each Others company.
In wandering through the suburbs the
scene was even worse. Rows and rows
OF wretched little upholstered, and floorless
straw-roofed rooms are the suburbs of
Galway. Children clad in rags tied about
them, giving them the appearance of
scarecrows stuffed with straw, were play
ing on the mud floors of these cheerless
dwellings, The women looked almost
starved. Their features were pinched,
their cheeks hollow, and their eyes
burned fiercely bright in their sunken
sockets. The men were clad no better,
though poor and insufficient diet had not
told quite so badly on them as it did on
the women and children,
Beds! Yes, some of them / saw, toe.
They were straw spread on the ground in
n corner of the novels. There were no
bedclothes, the old rags that they wore
in the day serving as covering at night.
That this was true of not a few here in a
city where there is a grand harbor and
splendid fishing is pitiful to contemplate.
1t is not, it can not be the fault of the
people. The many who are not quite
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