FamineRoscommonFriends.htm

Irish Famine Report from Boyle, County Roscommon (1846)

From Transactions of the Central Relief Committee of the Society of Friends during the Famine in Ireland in 1846 and 1847

Extracts from Joseph Crosfield's Report of his journey in company with William Forster, made to the London Relief Committee of the Society of Friends.

Boyle, 5th of 12th Month, 1846.

In this place, the condition of the poor previously to their obtaining admission into the work-house is one of great distress; many of them declare that they have not tasted food of any kind for forty-eight hours; and numbers of them have eaten nothing but cabbage or turnips for days and weeks. This statement is corroborated by the dreadfully reduced state in which they present themselves; the children especially being in a condition of starvation, and ravenous with hunger. Last year there were no such cases as these; the poor coming into the work-house then from the pressure of temporary difficulties, and remaining there a comparatively short time.

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