Classes during Rural Ireland in 1850s

Population in 1841
● 8.2 million
● In Dublin, Cork and Belfast = 50,000 plus
● Belfast was industrialised

Landlords
● 20,000 landlords in Ireland
● Descended from planters who received land during the plantations
● Most were Protestant
● Some owned estates of 70,000 or 80,000 acres
● Most had only 2000-4000 acres

Absentees
● Landlords that lived in Dublin or England

Landlord’s agent/middleman
● Collected the rent twice annually
● Tenants were evicted if they couldn't’ pay the rent

Tenant farmers
● Rented land from the landlord
● From less than an acre to 50 acres

Large farmers
● Rented over 30 acres of land
● Hired labourers to help them with farm work
● Lived in two storey houses
● Well fed
● Hired servants to help with the housework
● Sons were educated
● Arranged marriages for their daughters

Small farmers
● Between 5 and 15 acres
● Lived in thatched cottages
● Barely enough food

Cottiers
● Labourers who rented up to an acre from a farmer
● Worked on the farm to pay off rent
● Lived in wattle and daub houses
● Depended on milk and potatoes

© Belle Wu and Emily Gaughan 2016

 ● Might take an acre of land in conacre (11 month lease) from the farmer
● Lazy beds were the broad ridges where potatoes were grown

Landless labourers
● Couldn’t rent land
● No work in winter or when sick
● Lived in mud cabins
● Depended on milk and potatoes

Spailpeens
● Wandering labourers who travelled in search for work
● Often hired around harvest when labour was needed

Poverty

● Caused by growing population, failed harvest and dependence on potatoes

● Those who could pay 3-5 pounds emigrated to North America
● In 1841, 130000 had emigrated
● Poorer people emigrated to England

Workhouses

● Families were split up and sent to different sections

● Bad conditions and food discouraged people to go
● Each Poor Law Union (130 districts) had a workhouse

© Belle Wu and Emily Gaughan 2016

 The Great Famine

Causes
● Rise in population
● Subdivision of land
● Dependence on potato
● Blight

Progress of the Famine

● 1845 Small area affected and very few people had died
● 1846 Entire crop destroyed
● 1847 Less severe but crops were small, starvation spread
● 1848 Greater force, ¾ crops destroyed, many died/emigrated
● 1849 and 1850 Worst effects were over

Help for victims

Sir Robert Peel
● Imported 100,000 pounds worth of maize in 1845 to feed 1 million people
● Reduced impact of famine
● However, it was hard to eat and digest
● Set up public work schemes
● Allowed poor people to earn money by working on roads

Laissez-faire
● The belief that if the government interfered in the working economy, matters would be
made worse
● Lord John Russell stopped the maize importing
● Expanded public work schemes (750,000 people by 1847)
● Pay was low, workers too weak and long distances to work

Soup kitchens
● Set up Society of Friends/Quackers
● Very successful, government passed Soup Kitchen Act in 1847
● Closed down in September 1847 by the government

Workhouses
● 200,000 by 1848 (only 40,000 in 1845)
● Built to cater for only 100,000 people
● Overcrowding led to diseases
● Government gave permission to open soup kitchens when they got full

Diseases
● Typhus

© Belle Wu and Emily Gaughan 2016

 ● Relapsing fever (known as the yellow fever)
● Spread by body lice in workhouses or in towns
● Affected the rich and poor

Emigration
● 250,000 left for the USA in 1846 (200,000 left in the next 5 years)
● Some were helped by landlords who cleared their estates
● Sometimes 1 family member was sent to find work abroad to support the family
financially
● Conditions on ships were bad “coffin ships” - many died on the way
● Overcrowding on board, spreading diseases quickly

Results of the Famine

● Fall in population
● Subdivision ended
● Decline of the Irish language
● English government blamed for the Famine
● Decline of cottiers and small farmers
● Death and emigration

© Belle Wu and Emily Gaughan 2016