Most of us are familiar with the famine that occurred in Ireland in the middle of the 19th century. And though our family did not come over to America during the years of the Great Famine , the famine affected the country to the extent that our Irish side began leaving during the years of its aftermath.
I know the Gallagher side of our family came over in 1880. They came from Donegal, a fishing community located in the NorthWestern part of Ireland known for its dangerous rugged high cliffs. The Bolands came to America between the years 1901 to 1908 (the eldest daughter Mary came over in 1901 with her husband followed by the others in 1908) from the Western part of Ireland County Mayo known for its vast fertile farmlands. I know the McCafferys had been here the longest because I was able to trace family all the way back to the late 1870's but exactly what part of Ireland they are from I do not know.
In 1845 the Irish survived by farming off of small sections of land they rented from their British Landlord. They planted the potato because it could be planted quickly in rows covered by dirt so they could have food for their families while working other jobs such as fishing in the Irish Sea or planting fields of grains, wheats and vegetables for the funds to pay their British Landlords. Most lived in one room cottages with dirt floors and a fire in the center which they used for heat and cooking. It was widely known that the poorest of English paupers were better fed and better dressed then the most prosperous of Irish laborers. When the famine hit in 1845, Ireland was one of most poverty stricken countries in the world.
And when the famine hit, the hardest struck counties were in the Western part of the country, Galway, Mayo, Sligo and Roscommon. As hunger spread across the counties, folks began to eat the rotted potatoes which caused the first major outbreak of disease, Dysentery. Those who were fortunate enough to have animals such as goats and cows, slaughtered the animals for food. Those near the coastal areas searched the beaches for small shelled snails that stuck to rocks. Some ate seaweed. Others ate the roots of weeds, flowers or seed left over that once fed their livestock.
Hunger began to take its toll as their bodies succumbed to weakness. Their weak bodies became a host for other diseases such as Xerophthalmia (eye ailment that caused blindness), Cholera, Typhus and Scurvy.
And when the Irish tenant farmers were too sick to plant new crops, they lost their small one room cottages because they could not pay the rent to their British Landlords. So they left their homes in search of anything eatable and they left their homes to find work. The ironic part of this whole thing is that as millions died in Ireland of starvation and the diseases that followed, the British Landowners in Ireland shipped tons of wheat, corn, oats, barley and rye to England. It is said that the tons of wheat alone could have fed the entire Irish population.
As millions died, the bodies needed to be buried and buried quickly to ward off the further spread of disease. Ireland became a vast grave yard of pits where bodies were buried in shallow graves with only a sheet wrapped around them. And all the while starving animals that roamed the countryside free fed on the dead corpses.
In 1847 the British government took steps to relieve some of the suffering occurring in Ireland by setting up soup kitchens. At least a starving peasant could get a quart of soup and a few slices of bread each day. But as a glimmer of hope began to shine in the daily lives of the Irish, horror stuck again as a second potato crop in 1847 failed and the coldest winter in Ireland's recorded history followed.
The country experienced its first mass exodus thousands of people in fear for their lives and the lives of their children began moving as a group to board ships that would take them to far distant lands where they may have the chance for survival. Between the years 1845 to 1851, more than one million people left Ireland. The greatest number of immigrants came to the United States.
In the 19th century, trips across the Atlantic Ocean were reserved for the spring and summer months because it was when the ocean and sky were at their calmest. But with so many of the Irish wanting to leave their homeland, ships began making the trip across the Atlantic in the other seasons of the year when the Ocean waters were high and rough and the sky not so calm. Most had no idea where they may end up but they did know for certain they were escaping death from starvation.
The cost to sail across the ocean was not cheap in those days so it was not uncommon for one member of the family to cross first, seek work, then send for the others. Seventeen dollars would buy you a space in the steerage and if you had seventy dollars you got a cabin.
Seventeen dollars got you a space in which you would live for the better part of a month among unwashed diseased infested bodies, rotting food, vomit and death. The trip became a virtual cesspool. The death rate for those crossing over the ocean was between 15 to 40 percent. Most died from cholera and typhus. Others suffered from seasickness and body lice. The year 1847 was recorded as the worst year for ship crossings as these ships inherited the name "coffin ships".
(Tomorrow Part II, Living in America)
No comments:
Post a Comment