A Saucepan an Unattainable Luxury

Asenath Nicholson

Ireland's Welcome to the Stranger

1847

Chapter XIX (11) | Start of Chapter

"Can I get any food in town?" "You can; put on the kittle, Biddy, to make some tay, and take off the pot of potatoes." "Keep on the pot of potatoes, I will eat some of them: I take no tea." "Aw, and where's the like of ye?" I sent out and procured some cocoa, but nothing in the house could be found that could prepare the article. Everything was named belonging to pot, kettle, iron, copper, or tin; but the two-pailful pot for potatoes, and the tay kettle for tay, were the only vessels. "Run out, Biddy, and ask Kate for her tin cup." The cup was procured, with the injunction "not to put it over the fire." "And how am I to boil the cocoa if the cup must not go to the fire?" "And that you can't. Never mind, she hasn't the sinse."

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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