July 26th, 1847: This year's potato yield is good but small. Only about one-sixth of the normal acreage was planted due to seed shortage and loss of confidence. Unfortunately, therefore, famine conditions are set to continue - pace Charles Trevelyan and those ministers determined to disengage from Irish aid.
Although the Temporary Relief Act stipulates that the soup kitchens can remain open until September 30th, the government decides to begin closing them next month. To expedite this process it decrees that all able-bodied men receiving poor relief are to be made work on the roads as a test of destitution.
Parliament had allocated £2,250,000 to the operation of the Relief Act - making the soup kitchens the most generously supported of the government's relief schemes after the public works.
Over half this money is provided as a loan to the local relief committees. Not all of it is spent, so the Irish Executive asks if the residue (£500,000) can be reallocated to medical relief. The Treasury refuses on the ground that to do so would only further the "unhealthy dependence" of the Irish on the British government.
As the size of the harvest becomes apparent, the Relief Commissioners believe the government will have to continue providing financial aid to several Poor Law unions, despite its stated intentions.
The need for assistance is highest in the unions with the least resources. Hence the abdication of responsibility in leaving Irish property to pay for Irish poverty.
Westport union being badly in debt, the paupers are in danger of starving. When the guardians abandon their weekly board meeting, the workhouse clerk begs until he obtains provisions from local merchants.
In Ballinrobe union, a rate collector is dismissed for embezzling £720.
Sporadic violence is increasing. A crowd raids a mill in Dunfanaghy, Co Donegal. The mob persists despite a bayonet charge by paramilitary police, during which two peasants are killed and others severely wounded.
The constabulary retreats, leaving the people in possession of the mill and store. After they flee with their booty, soldiers and policemen scour the countryside and arrest four of the ringleaders.
In Co Mayo, about 100 men fire shots at big houses outside Castlebar. Calling themselves "the children of Molly Maguire" - an agrarian secret society - they take a gun and bayonet.
James Watson, agent of the Arthur estate and a member of the Killaloe relief committee, is assassinated in Co Clare. A greedy farmer and shopkeeper, John Crowe, was motivated by revenge.
Fifteen of his cattle were seized in lieu of five years' rent, which he can afford to pay. He declines an offer to buy them back at a shilling a head and, instead, hires "Puck" Ryan for £5 to murder Watson.