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Ireland facing summer of famine and disease

Awinter of sporadic violence in Ireland’s southern and western counties has become a spring and summer of hunger and starvation, illness and epidemics.

Attacks on landlords, property owners, well-off farmers, and churches by agrarian secret societies have declined as communities have struggled to prevent deaths after last autumn’s potato crop failed, partly because of bad weather. The economy is suffering a post- war depression, with food prices up, and a lack of employment. The Prime Minister, the Earl of Liverpool, insisted in April that government interference was more likely to cause famine than provide relief. But ministers have since rushed legislation through parliament to give Marquess Wellesley, the Viceroy in Dublin, greater freedom to divert money towards relief efforts and allocated a further о £50,000 for public works projects. But John Smith, the Whig MP heading the London Tavern Committee’s relief fund, insists

Reports reaching Dublin in the last few days paint a shocking picture. In Co. Leitrim, families are having to sell spinning wheels, bed-clothes and women’s cloaks to buy food. The blood of cattle is being mixed with meal to provide sustenance. In Co. Mayo, a report has warned that typhus is spreading rapidly and people are emaciated and living off wild flowers and seaweed. In Co. Galway, an inquest returned a verdict of death by starvation on a weaver found at the side of a road. In Co. Kerry, ‘swarms of beggars’ are filling the streets of Tralee. A soupshop is being set up, but the cries of hungry children are said to hardly ever cease. In Co. Cork, farmers who were comfortable in 1821 are said to be begging for food.

not enough is being done. His latest information indicates that almost 100,000 people in the western county of Clare are relying on charity, and in Co. Cork, 132,000 people are in need of urgent aid to avoid starvation. Limerick MP Thomas Spring-Rice says there is an urgent need for more work for the poor to enable them to buy food. He is warning that while legislators are deliberating, people are perishing. >Resources and further reading

Under-fire PM opens his wallet

PAUL MELLON COLLECTION YALE CENTER FOR BRITISH ART, THE PRIME MINISTER, THE EARL OF LIVERPOOL

Three senior ministers, led by the Earl of Liverpool, moved fast to back the emergency relief fund for Ireland set up in May at the City of London Tavern, the Bishopsgate hospitality and events venue.

In what seems to have been a co-ordinated move, the prime minister was joined by the Chancellor, Nicholas Vansittart, and Robert Peel, the Home Secretary, in making identical donations of о£200 to the London Tavern Committee’s fund within hours of its launch. Tory ministers hope their very public support for private relief efforts will encourage others to contribute, but may also think this will defuse criticism of their response to the hunger and disease crisis in Ireland. They have also removed the need to pay for postage for letters containing donations. By mid-June, the London fund has raised £79,000. It has been praised for the speed with which it is getting relief supplies to distressed areas. The fund, chaired by Whig MP John Smith, is supported by bankers, merchants, bishops, and politicians of all parties. Fund-raising groups have been set up across Britain, with donations from churches, schools, regiments and door-to-door collections. King George attended a gala fete in London, said to have raised £4,000 for the fund. Sixty-five tons of potatoes from the London Committee arrived in Cork last week, with 80 tons reaching Kinsale. A relief committee in Plymouth has sent 35 tons of potatoes and 20 quarters of oats for the poor in south-west Ireland. > Old Fox's Journal