The Great Famine 1845-52 and Irish Folk Tradition
Collection Search
- SpeakerThe lecture is in progress when the recording starts. The speaker notes his lecture focuses on the Great Famine as represented by the oral tradition.
- SpeakerThe speaker recites a verse about the potatoes Scots Down and Champion and their importance to Ireland. The speaker continues naming other kinds of potatoes found in Ireland in the 19th century and later.
- SpeakerThe speaker continues using Gaelic and the translation to illustrate the importance of the potato to the Irish. The speaker explains how dependent the Irish peasant class was on the potato for food as well as how easy potatoes were to grow and prepare.
- SpeakerThe speaker recalls the Great Famine began with a potato fungus in the summer of 1845. The speaker explains that using the 1841 and 1851 censuses an estimate of about one million died during the Famine. The Great Famine entered Ireland’s public consciousness because it happened during a peaceful time, there are many records, and is relatively recent.
- SpeakerThe speaker notes the documents of the Great Famine are missing the human element. The oral accounts collected by the Irish Folklore Commission from 1930 to 1950 are not accurate due to the passing of time and the informants being evasive due to a sense of shame or guilt. People would rather say someone died of disease rather than hunger to avoid social class distinction.
- SpeakerThe speaker suggests there was a collective amnesia within Ireland about the Famine. He questions why there was a difference in the way the 100th and 150th anniversaries of the Great Famine were marked. The speaker once again points out that oral accounts are frequently influenced by external factors and so can’t be taken as accurate.
- SpeakerThe speaker refers to the work of Christine Kinealy and John Mitchell as he explains the relationship between the literary and oral accounts of the Great Famine. With regard to the Famine, the speaker questions the recent use of the terms “genocide” and “holocaust” as well as the use of the euphemisms “bad times”, “the year of the small potatoes” and “the year of the turnips”.
- SpeakerThe speaker reviews the oral tradition’s explanation that the Famine was God punishing man. The speaker gives examples from the work of W E H Leaky and Bishop Walmesley AKA Pastorini to show the idea of retribution wasn’t new for the Irish. Also, the idea of providence controlling nature aligned with the British view of the Irish and so the British response to the Famine.
- SpeakerThe speaker explains two recurring elements in the oral tradition of the Great Famine were the stigmas of souperism and workhouses. Souperism was using food by the protestant evangelical groups to convert the catholic Irish. The speaker reviews how and where souperism occurred as well as why during the 19th century the time was ripe for the British government to make Ireland protestant.
- SpeakerThe speaker notes using food to convert the Irish was practised before the Great Famine. The statistics on how many Irish converted to survive the Famine are not credible, says the speaker. After 1850 the Catholic Church used famine relief to win back those who converted. The speaker explains the oral tradition isn’t an accurate account of the famine as the Catholic Church is one factor that influenced it.
- SpeakerThe speaker shifts to the topic of workhouses or poorhouses. In the oral tradition there is a strong sense of revulsion toward the workhouses as they were the ultimate shame for the Irish demanding a complete loss of independence. The speaker explains why the workhouse system would collapse during the Famine. Also, the workhouses became a place of disease once they started housing the sick.
- SpeakerSIDE A Ends
- SpeakerTape Break. The speaker uses statistics to show the increasing number of people needing relief as the Famine continued. It is clear that the workhouses could not provide the necessary relief as at the peak of the Famine over three million people were using soup kitchens.
- SpeakerThe speaker explains that the British Government importing Indian meal didn’t provide relief during the Great Famine or for previous famines. The Irish found Indian meal difficult to grow and harvest compared to potatoes. As well, the Irish did not always know how to properly cook the meal. The meal is a feature in the oral tradition of the Famine.
- SpeakerThe speaker explains that the British Government was initially relatively generous in providing relief. However, due to pressure the British Government declared the Famine over in 1847 and suspended their relief. By 1848, 800,000 people were receiving outdoor relief and a million were getting indoor relief. The workhouses could not provide enough relief and became a major part of people’s recollection of the Great Famine.
- SpeakerThe speaker explains that during the Famine there was an increasing number of Irish evicted from or who surrendered their land becoming part of the Famine’s oral tradition. Under the Gregory Clause, relief was only given to those owning less than a quarter of an acre of land. The speaker explains why eviction statistics during the Famine differ.
- SpeakerThe speaker uses an account of an 1849 eviction in County Donegal to illustrate the drama of evictions.
- SpeakerThe speaker contrasts the folk tradition’s depiction of the English villain Oliver Cromwell and the local people who became the villains of the Famine. The speaker gives examples from the Famine’s oral tradition accounts of the tensions between neighbours, between landowners and tenants, and between those who benefited and those who suffered. These accounts seldom give names of people.
- SpeakerThe speaker reiterates the lack of names of villains in the material gathered by the Folklore Commission about the Famine. Other anecdotes about the Famine are about the luck that followed a local hero. The speaker relates a story about a woman who gives away her cabbages, but yet she always has the same number of cabbages. There are similar stories about Saint Brigid.
- SpeakerThe speaker explains that the Famine left much social disruption, unmarked graves and mass graves next to workhouses. The speaker relates stories of reusing coffins and the oral tradition of people being buried alive. Farmers would avoid places known to be graves from the Famine. The speaker also explains “hungry grass”.
- SpeakerEmigration during the Famine included the rich leaving in the early years and the mad scramble in the latter years. The speaker reviews the terms associated with emigration including “going into exile” and the “American wake”. The speaker also refers to “coffin ships”, “packages” being sent back to Ireland and a story from County Kerry showing how emigration was viewed as going to the “other world”.
- SpeakerThe speaker recounts how the people left behind when others emigrated felt a sense of loss and were psychologically cut off from those who left. The Famine left a lesson of thrift for the Irish in that food was never to be thrown away. This is a similar effect for those who went through the Great Depression.
- SpeakerThe speaker highlights Christopher Moras’ “The Hungry Voice” and how such poems have passed into the oral tradition. The speaker recites a few verses of “The White Potato” which focuses on the impact on local people. The speaker believes since the oral tradition focuses on the local experiences of the Great Famine the use of the word “genocide” is more recent.
- SpeakerApplause
- SpeakerSpeaker answers the audience’s questions.
- SpeakerSIDE B ends