Glenmore and the Great Famine

Danny Dowling interviewed older Glenmore residents in the 1950’s concerning the stories passed down to them by their parents and grandparents regarding the Great Famine that occurred over a hundred years earlier from 1845 to 1849. Although the parish of Glenmore had the benefit of being along a river, which was fished, there were still deaths in the parish from starvation and disease. In 1957, Nicholas Forristal, of the Mill, Graiguenakill, Glenmore, explained during his interview that potatoes were the main source of food for most families. Turnips during the Famine period were rarely grown and during that period there was a field of them in Stokestown, Wexford belonging to Deane Drake. So great was the scarcity of anything to eat that people at night from the Glenmore area rowed across the river in order to get a few turnips in order to have something to eat. Eventually guards were employed to protect crops growing in the area.

Nettles were a source of wild food that was widely consumed during the Famine in the Glenmore area. Nettles were boiled and mixed through porridge in order to make the porridge plentiful. A soft thistle knows as sharaván as well as green clover were also eaten as food during the Famine. A family in Ballyverneen called Malone sowed potatoes during this period and shortly after sowing them they had to dig them up and eat them in order to have something to eat. This Malone family were nicknamed Spur, and Jim “Spur” Malone was the last of this family. Even when work could be found it did not relieve the plight of many people because the cost of the food was still beyond the meagre wages. For example, the late Bridget Henneberry’s grandfather, old Martin Henneberry, was working in the Ballyverneen Brick Marches during the Famine and on one occasion he had to work for nine whole days with nothing to eat but green cabbage. James Culleton, Sr., of Kilbride, Glenmore reported that a Stirabout Distribution Centre was established at Gaffney’s Mill in Glenmore Village.

The only known Famine work relief scheme in Glenmore was the building of the Haggard Line. This was a road to Mullinavat that was never completed owing to the fact that the funds ran out. It started at the Bridges in Ballybrahee and went on through Tom Mullin’s land. A lot of it is now levelled off. Another section came out at Sean Jim’s Cottage on the fringe of Bishopsmountain.  Nicolas Forristal told Danny that it was either Paddy “the Weaver” Walsh of Glenmore Village, or Paddy’s father worked on the building of the Haggard Line. He was paid 10d. per day wages with “no grub.” A man with a horse and cart got 2/4 per day. A stone of yellow meal then cost 2/6.

Fever, too, was rampant during the Famine. In a field situated in the townland of Ballyverneen, an isolation fever hospital was built to segregate those stricken locally with disease. It accommodated only a few patients. The field was known as Bawnneyzh, until the Ross-Waterford railway line was being built fifty years later. It then became known as the “the magazine field,” on account of it being where the powder and blasting supplies were stored.

The hunger and disease took its toll as one potato crop after another was blighted. According to Nicholas Forristal, a lot of old men and women in the Parish of Glenmore died in the ditches during the Famine. James Culleton, Sr. noted that three girls died of the hunger in Ballyveria and two people by the name of Power died in Jamestown. Andy O’Geena of Kilbride, had trouble over rent with his landlord. He had to walk to Kilkenny and back again. Although it is stated that turnips were not widely raised it was also stated that he took a turnip from a field while walking back to Glenmore from Kilkenny. He sat down and ate it at Connor’s gate in Ballyfacey. That same night he died. As Danny remarked none die as completely as the poor. There are very few headstones in local graveyards reflecting the people who died during the Famine.  

As the Famine dragged on emigration became a common feature. Watty Power, of Jamestown, informed Danny that his grand-uncle Jack Power lived down the Ling Lane in the little house. Jack Power was married to Mary Barron, of Carrigcloney, Glenmore. Their two sons died during the Famine of hunger. After their deaths he and his wife emigrated to America. His brother Walter, (Danny’s interviewee’s grandfather) then got the farm which included the present holding plus the three fields now belonging to Greene’s. One morning 100 men left Jamestown for the Waterford Quay. The Landlord had evicted them and paid their passage. Danny stated that if they sailed from Waterford they probably had their passage paid to Liverpool. Danny also stated that he doubted that it was 100 men who left, but rather 100 men, women and children. In 1974 Danny interviewed Jonie Bolton, of Ramsbottom, Lancashire concerning the Brooksbottom Cotton Mill which was expanding during the Famine. The mill owner sent horses and carts to meet the emigrant ships in Liverpool in order to recruit labour for his mill. He built houses for his workers around the mill.

Due to the fact that the parish of Glenmore lies midway between New Ross and Waterford the provisions for the poor via workhouses were split between Ross and Waterford. In 1977 Danny interviewd James Bookle, of Grenan, Thomastown who was 83 years of age along with James’s daughter Evelyn Bookle. Evelyn’s noted that her grandmother Anne Hanrahan Mullins, died in 1956 aged 91 1/2 years. She was born in in 1864 in the Townland of Coolroebeg. Anne Hanrahan Mullins told Evelyn that Anne’s mother, Mary Dalton, was born in 1835 in Coolroebeg. Only two girls survived in that Dalton family. Their father Richard Dalton would take them with him in his horse and cart when he took meal to donate for distribution to the poor in Thomastown during the Famine. The meal depot was situated on the corner of the Mall and Mill street. The front door was on the Mall, but it is now closed up. James Bookle related that in 1907 he was told by an elderly man named Jim Mulrooney that Jim’s parents and five of his brothers and sisters died of fever during the Famine in a corn store on the Quay in Thomastown. The workhouse was not able to accommodate the influx of sick and dying so additional space was provided in corn stores on the Quay. The patients there were bedded on straw that was strewn on the floors.

The Famine had a lasting impact on survivors. For at least one generation special prayers and traditions were practised by the Famine survivors. See, the Christmas blog entry where the “Driving Out the Hunger” is published.

The featured drawing is “The Emigrant’s Farewell,” by Henry Doyle in Cusack’s (1868) Illustrated History of Ireland (Library of Congress).

 Update—for our international readers last Thursday all the schools and universities in Ireland closed to try to stop the spread of the Coronavirus. A couple of readers have asked if we would post additional articles during this time of isolation for the elderly. Luckily Danny gave me five more notebooks to transcribe last Saturday, so we shall try to post short, hopefully interesting information regarding Glenmore and its environs. If you have information or a story, memory, photo etc. you would like to share please email glenmore.history@gmail.com.

Dr. Kathleen Moore Walsh