One such task including escorting the transport of Indian meal. Early on a wet morning of 29th January, 1847, Somerville accompanied such an escort from Clonmel, county Tipperary destined for Dungarvan, county Waterford. As preparations were made to load and assemble the carts to transport the meal, Somerville described soldiers ‘standing in the rain, and in the deep mud…soaked…through their greatcoats, the cavalry through their cloaks’.[1] The escort would include two armed constabulary and when assembled in total, the convoy of carts would number sixty-one. To this was assigned ‘one officer, two sergeants, and twenty-five men’.[2] As they climbed the hills outside Clonmel, Somerville described seeing ‘groups of squalid beings’ watching the meal go past to ‘feed people beyond the mountains hunger-stricken like themselves, but to whom they would not let it go if bullets, bayonets, and cavalry swords were not present’.[3]
Somerville’s account is but one example of the extra demands on police and military resources brought on by the Famine. Fears were expressed for what disturbances could come about because of stresses of hunger and want but also accounts of the relative passivity of the population. Crime rates were high in 1847, reported offences being 60 per cent over those of the previous year.[4] Police resources were tied up investigating reports of cattle and sheep stealing, plundering of provisions and stealing of weapons. Additional work was involved in providing protection for the seizure of animals or crops, to Board of Works pay clerks or to the collection of rates. In December 1847 the Cork Examiner reported that the rate collectors in the Dungarvan Union required an escort of 200 police in order to carry out their work.
In the eviction scene below by Daniel Macdonald, two Constabulary officers can be seen, not as participants in the action but present, should trouble arise. The scene is notable for its relatively restrained depiction. Widespread evictions, especially after 1847, included descriptions of houses be unroofed and walls tumbled. Macdonald’s work does not include these but does depict the incongruous handing over of the key to the property.
Somerville’s account is but one example of the extra demands on police and military resources brought on by the Famine. Fears were expressed for what disturbances could come about because of stresses of hunger and want but also accounts of the relative passivity of the population. Crime rates were high in 1847, reported offences being 60 per cent over those of the previous year.[4] Police resources were tied up investigating reports of cattle and sheep stealing, plundering of provisions and stealing of weapons. Additional work was involved in providing protection for the seizure of animals or crops, to Board of Works pay clerks or to the collection of rates. In December 1847 the Cork Examiner reported that the rate collectors in the Dungarvan Union required an escort of 200 police in order to carry out their work.
In the eviction scene below by Daniel Macdonald, two Constabulary officers can be seen, not as participants in the action but present, should trouble arise. The scene is notable for its relatively restrained depiction. Widespread evictions, especially after 1847, included descriptions of houses be unroofed and walls tumbled. Macdonald’s work does not include these but does depict the incongruous handing over of the key to the property.
Daniel Macdonald, The Eviction, c.1850. Collection Crawford Art Gallery, Cork.
This restraint was also noted when public works began to be wound down in early 1847. At Ballinrobe, county Mayo 'the labourers retired quietly and in utter despair' while in Kilaneck, county Cavan, the men were described as being ‘so poor’ but ‘no violence was attempted’.[5]
The military presence in Ireland increased dramatically during the 1840s, rising from 15,046 in 1843 to 29,500 in 1849.[6] The number of constables increased from 9,100 in 1845 to 12,500 in 1850 and Alexander Somerville had commented in January of 1847 of the police to be seen:
Often the sons of tenant farmers, they struggled to cope with the extra demands brought on by the Famine. While the overall numbers increased over the course of the Famine, the Constabulary also experienced high active-duty death rates between 1847 and 1849 and the reported loss of many who ‘sought refuge from such excessive work’.[8]
Somewhat as they are depicted in Daniel Macdonald’s painting, in the background and not the main focus of interest, their presence though points to the all-encompassing nature of the Great Irish Famine and how it impacted, in varying degrees, across all sections of the population.
Liam Doherty - Irish Folklife Division - National Museum of Ireland
The military presence in Ireland increased dramatically during the 1840s, rising from 15,046 in 1843 to 29,500 in 1849.[6] The number of constables increased from 9,100 in 1845 to 12,500 in 1850 and Alexander Somerville had commented in January of 1847 of the police to be seen:
in every part of the island, on every road, in every village, even on the farm land, and on the seashore, and on the little islands which lie out in the sea. These policemen wear a dark green uniform and are armed; this is what makes them remarkable, armed from the heel to the head.[7]
Often the sons of tenant farmers, they struggled to cope with the extra demands brought on by the Famine. While the overall numbers increased over the course of the Famine, the Constabulary also experienced high active-duty death rates between 1847 and 1849 and the reported loss of many who ‘sought refuge from such excessive work’.[8]
Somewhat as they are depicted in Daniel Macdonald’s painting, in the background and not the main focus of interest, their presence though points to the all-encompassing nature of the Great Irish Famine and how it impacted, in varying degrees, across all sections of the population.
Liam Doherty - Irish Folklife Division - National Museum of Ireland
[1] Somerville, Alexander, Letters from Ireland during the Famine of 1847, (1994), Dublin, Irish Academic Press, p.39.
[2] Somerville, Alexander, Letters from Ireland during the Famine of 1847, p.39.
[3] Somerville, Ibid, p.41.
[4] Lowe, W.J., ‘The Irish Constabulary in the Great Famine’, in History Ireland, Winter, 1997, Vol. 5, No.4, p.33.
[3] Somerville, Ibid, p.41.
[4] Lowe, W.J., ‘The Irish Constabulary in the Great Famine’, in History Ireland, Winter, 1997, Vol. 5, No.4, p.33.
[5] Woodham-Smith, Cecil, The Great Famine in Ireland, 1845-1849, Hamish Hamilton, 1962, p.285.
[6] Prunty, Jacinta, ‘Military barracks and mapping in the nineteenth century: sources and issues for Irish urban history’, in Surveying Ireland’s Past: Multidisciplinary Essays in Honour of Anngret Simms, (eds Clarke, Howard B., Prunty Jacinta and Hennessy Mark), Geography Publications, Dublin, 2004, p. 497.
[7] Somerville, Ibid, p.28.
[8] Lowe, ‘The Irish Constabulary in the Great Famine’, p.37