The Great
Famine in Donegal
The so-called 'Great Famine' of 1845-1850 affected Donegal as it did
the rest of Ireland, but did not cause the catastrophic levels of mortality as it did in,
for instance West Cork, Mayo and other districts. The failure of the potato crop was in
fact nothing new; Donegal people had seen it in 1816-1819, in 1821-1822, and in 1830-1831.
To make matters worse the herring shoals had deserted the coast from 1822 to 1831,
devastating the fishing industry in Killybegs. This time, however, the blight was worse
than any of the previous crop failures; in the Autumn of 1845 around 50% of the crop was
lost.
In the decades preceding the Famine much of Donegal suffered from
overpopulation and lack of industrial development. For example a local teacher named
Patrick McKye wrote in 1837
" the parishioners of this parish of West Tullaghobegley
(i.e. Gweedore) in the Barony of Kilmnacrenan, and County of Donegal, are the most needy
and naked of condition of any people that ever came within the precincts of my knowledge,
although I have travelled a part of nine counties of Ireland, also a part of England and
Scotland, together with a part of British America. I have likewise perambulated 2,253
miles through seven of the United States, and never witnessed the tenth part of such
hunger, hardships and nakedness. "
The County was served by the Poor Law Unions of Dunfanaghy,
Letterkenny and Milford in the North and North-west of the County, Glenties in the West
and Donegal Town and Ballyshannon in the South. Inishowen was served by the Inishowen
[Carndonagh] and Derry Unions, while the latter also served the East of the county along
with the Strabane Union. The workhouse buildings in Ballyshannon are amongst the best
preserved of such institutions in Ireland.
Rev. Charles Stewart of Dunfanaghy, a local small-scale landlord,
described the area covered by the Dunfanaghy Poor Law Union as "the poorest Union in
the country". A number of visitors before and during the Famine, for instance the
Quaker relief worker James Tuke, remarked on how little use was made of the fishing
resources off the Donegal coast. Tuke described the inadequacy of the boats and tackle
used by local fishermen when the sea was "teeming with fish of the finest
description". While the countryside was certainly in a distressed state, the towns,
especially towns such as Ballyshannon, Dunfanaghy and Ramelton had at least an appearance
of some prosperity.
In the most recent census before the Famine, that of 1841, the
population of Donegal reached 296,448, its highest ever level, before or since. In the
first years or so the destruction of the potato crop, which was the main subsistence food
of the vast majority of the people, seems to have had little effect. The Dunfanaghy
Workhouse, built to house three hundred people, had only five inmates by the Autumn of
1845. The Milford Workhouse, which had a capacity of 400, saw a greater level of
destitution, but was still far from being full. The minutes of the Poor Law Guardians show
little evidence in that first year of concern with the effects of the blight, and we know
from other sources that on average in the County only some 30% - 35% of the potato crop
was affected. In the parish of Gweedore the crop does not seem to have suffered to any
degree, and in nearby Dunfanaghy parish 1845 saw a good grain harvest, with 1,500 tons of
oats being exported through Dunfanaghy harbour.
Hunger, destitution and death really began to bite in 1846 and 1847,
however. The Milford, Fanad, and Rosguill areas, all part of Milford Union, suffered
terribly. To the west in the Dunfanaghy Union area the story was not quite so grim.
Whereas the population of the county as a whole dropped by some 41,000 between 1841 and
1851, a drop of almost 14%, the fall in the Dunfanaghy Union was 7%, and in some coastal
districts between Gortahork and Bloody Foreland, the population actually grew, which is
most likely explained by people coming to the coast to fish. The presence in North Donegal
of mainly smaller scale landlords who were nearer their tenants, people like the Rev.
Stewart mentioned earlier, may have helped to soften the effects of the Famine. Whatever
the reality, folk memories of the period have been reflected through the unrest that
followed the Famine: the Land War of the late nineteenth century.
Travellers to South and South West Donegal, for instance James Tuke,
and local clergy and public officials have left us with accounts of the different
conditions prevailing in different parishes.
Long before the Famine struck, the far South West of Donegal was noted
for its poverty and underdevelopment. The Rev. John Ewing, a Church of Ireland Rector
whose area included Gleann Cholm Cille, wrote in the 1820s in response to a query from the
North West of Ireland Farming Society:
"The food of the inhabitants chiefly potatoes and fish, not
much oatmeal. Milk and butter pretty plenty, fuel invariably turf or peat".
From Inishkeel parish, the area around the town of Glenties, John
Barrett wrote, also in response to the North West of Ireland Farming Society:
"it is evident that the situation of the inhabitants as to
domestic comforts is very bad.
"The general conditions of farmhouses is (sic) bad, that of
cottages wretched; the want of cleanliness is the more obvious defect".
By way of contrast, Lieutenant Lancey of the Ordnance Survey could
write ten years later of Donegal parish:
"Although the inhabitants in general cannot boast much
wealth, yet their domestic comforts are many.
"The general food of the farming class of inhabitants is
potatoes, bread, butter, milk, eggs and fish. Sometimes they have fleshmeat, which is
considered a luxury. I have many times witnessed the domestic comforts of the poor
farmer’s table, consisting of potatoes, bread, butter and good milk, the bountiful
donation of an all gracious God".
The town and port of Ballyshannon, and the surrounding parish, also
enjoyed a modicum of prosperity, at least in comparison to other parts of the county. In
the decade before the Famine large amounts of oats, wheat and potatoes were exported from
the town; in 1835, for instance, grain exports alone amounted to £11,000. During this
period the rental of the local landlord, Edward Connolly, rose from £8,000 to £14,000
per year. The shock which the potato blight brought was perhaps much more intense in those
areas which were used to relative prosperity.
The blight reached Donegal soon after it first appeared in Ireland.
The Rector of Killaghtee, halfway between Donegal Town and Killybegs wrote in his diary on
the 20th of October 1845
"in an extensive garden in which I have the finest looking
potatoes, in good ground, the disease is most lamentably prevalent . . ."
As noted earlier the Great Famine of 1845-1850, terrible as it was,
seems to have caused less devastation in coastal areas of Donegal than in some other parts
of Ireland. The presence of abundant fishing, and the strong fishing traditions in
Killybegs, Teelin, and other small ports, coupled with the fact that the authorities used
Killybegs as their main depot in the North West for the distribution of meal meant that
the situation was less catastrophic than it might otherwise have been.
It is a curious fact, much commented on in recent writing about the
Famine, that there has been, on the part of some at least, a form of collective denial of
its effect in their locality. In Gleann Cholm Cille the oral tradition holds that only one
local person died during the Famine - a man who fell from rocks when out gathering
seabirds’ eggs! In fact the parish lost 17% of its population, through hunger,
disease and emigration. Many of those who lived through the terrible times seemed to have
pushed it to the back of their minds. William Allingham hardly mentioned the Famine in his
diary and letters, although he was employed as a Customs officer on the coast, and his
family were heavily involved in relief work in his native Ballyshannon.
The quotations above can be found, along with other interesting
contemporary accounts in Ordnance Survey memoirs of Ireland, volumes 38 and 39, edited by
Angélique Day and Patrick McWilliams, and published by the Institute of Irish Studies at
Queen's University, Belfast. Volume 38 deals with North Donegal, and 39 with South
Donegal.
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