November 30th, 1846: The poor of Spiddal, Co Galway, are in an appalling condition. Father Francis Kenny PP tells the story of Thomas Mollone, who had been working for four weeks on the new road from Costello Bay to Oughterard.
Weakened by hunger and fatigue, on his way home from work last Friday he lay down and died within 80 perches of his cabin.
To earn a miserable subsistence for himsell, his wife and six children, he walked six Irish miles each morning "through a wet pathless mountain and the same journey back in the evening, after carrying dripping sand on his back during the day, with only one meal and that same a scanty one".
Those who live near the public works are little better off; they labour from morning till knight to earn 6d. With 3,000 thus employed in Galway, unsurprisingly there is some violence towards overseers. "The people are starving and consequently prepared for any mischief."
The Waterford Chronicle reports an inquest on Mary Byrne, who fell down and died of exhaustion in Enniscorthy. Pregnant and deserted by her shoe maker husband, she had been admitted to the local workhouse. After the birth of her child, however, they were turned out "for not being natives' and, consequently, having no claims on the union". The Chronicle remarks that the poor laws "have dried up the charitable drain".
The Nation has begun publishing a list of landlords who are reducing rents. The Clare Journal reports that the Marquis of Conyngham has instructed his agent, Marcus Keane, that an abatement of 25 or 15 per cent should be made according to the tenants' circumstances.
But farm work is being neglected as the people flock to relief employment. The Board of Works inspecting officer for Clare observes that, on a journey of 56 miles, he saw only one plough at work preparing the ground for wheat.
A meeting of 10,000 labourers in Castletownroche Co Cork, resolves not to buy goods of English or Scottish manufacture "until the export of Irish provisions shall be stopped".
The Liverpool Times tears that the influx of Irish paupers' will both depress wages and place an added burden on the poor rates. On particular days the roads leading from Liverpool to Manchester and other populous centres are covered with Irish families.
The paper notes that there are two classes of emigrants the emigrants of hope and those of despair. The latter category migrates to Britain. And Irishman will endure what no one else would endure rather than leave his native country; but still there is a limit to his powers of endurance, and the increasing crowds which area "now pouring into this country prove that this has been passed."