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Archiver > IA-IRISH > 2001-10 > 1003896265


From: Thomas Flynn <>
Subject: Re: [IA-IRISH] What they were saying about Ireland in the States -Nov. 1842 news article
Date: Tue, 23 Oct 2001 22:04:25 -0600
References: <006301c15c2b$6a02c4c0$98624b0c@4ladz>


Cathy,
Wow! What a powerful description of the plight of the pre-famine Irish.
Wish my great grandfather had made it out in 1842 instead of 1849, but then who
knows. I might not have been here. Many thanks again for your good work.
Tom

Cathy Joynt Labath wrote:

> Davenport Gazette
> Davenport, Scott, Iowa
> Thursday, Nov. 24, 1842
>
> DISTRESS AMONG THE FARMERS OF IRELAND
> An American Editor in the Emerald Isle writes to the Philadelphia National
> Gazette as follows:
>
> For many years past, the standard of comfort among the farmers of Ireland
> has been on the decline. When the old leases expired, the landlords at once
> raised the rents up to the improved value of the farm,and the mode of
> cultivation. The talents and industry of the farmer was thus converted into
> capital for the benefit of the land owner, and while the labor of the tenant
> was decreased his means of subsistence were reduced until potatoes and milk
> have now become his only food! He is now compelled to sell all the luxuries
> and comforts he produces, to meet the increased taxes and the rents. The
> landlord holds the purse of the tenant, to watch the last drop of sweat he
> can extract from him, without exhausting his victim. The face of the country
> looks beautiful, but poverty and the police have totally changed the
> character of the Irish people. They exhibit a tameness and air of despair
> and resignation which, to me, is malancholy to contemplate. They will tell
> you that their prospects are still gloomy. As it is a settled principle
> among the land holders, never to reduce the rent until they break up the old
> tenant, then they will let the land to a new tenant at a low rent, and the
> old one, after spending his last shilling, must abandon the home of his
> sires, betake himself to some filthy cellar in a large town and live by the
> precarious income of daily labor. Many now see the approaching denoument,
> and instead of exhausting their former accumulations they sell out their
> stock, put the money into their pockets, give up their farms, and start for
> the United States. There have been more men of property emigrating this year
> than ever was known since '98.
>
> Cathy Joynt Labath
> Celtic Cousins
> www.celticcousins.net
>
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