Arrival in Galway

Asenath Nicholson

Ireland's Welcome to the Stranger

1847

Chapter XXV (8) | Start of Chapter

We reached Galway, and I felt more inclined to be home-sick than in any place I had before been. I took a different lodging from my old one, but found no improvement; and was terribly annoyed by the Galway women following me from street to street, from alley to alley, fixing their full unblinking eyes upon me. Their ugly teeth, their red petticoats, and repulsive manners made them second to none, even the Connaught corduroys, in all that was to be dreaded.

Ireland’s Welome to the Stranger is one of the best accounts of Irish social conditions, customs, quirks and habits that you could wish for. The author, Mrs Asenath Nicholson, was an American widow who travelled extensively in Ireland on the eve of the Great Famine and meticulously observed the Irish peasantry at work and play, as well as noting their living conditions and diet. The book is also available from Kindle.

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An American widow’s account of her travels in Ireland in 1844–45 on the eve of the Great Famine:

Ireland’s Welcome to the Stranger

Sailing from New York, she set out to determine the condition of the Irish poor and discover why so many were emigrating to her home country.

Mrs Nicholson’s recollections of her tour among the peasantry are still revealing and gripping today.

The author returned to Ireland in 1847–49 to help with famine relief and recorded those experiences in the rather harrowing: Annals of the Famine in Ireland.

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