Flynn The Little Book of Armagh

1. Auflage 2018
ISBN: 978-0-7509-8625-0
Verlag: THP Ireland
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: 6 - ePub Watermark

E-Book, Englisch, 144 Seiten

Reihe: Little Book of

Here you will find out about Armagh's history, its proud sporting heritage, its castles and great houses and its famous men and women. You will also glimpse a darker side to Armagh's past with tales of poverty, famine and tragedy. Through quaint villages and bustling towns, this book takes you on a journey through the Orchard County and its vibrant past. A reliable reference book and a quirky guide, this can be dipped into time and time again to reveal something new about the people, the heritage and the secrets of this ancient county.

Born in Belfast in 1970, BARRY FLYNN has written eleven books of Irish interest, his most recent being The Little Book of Irish Boxing and The Little Book of Armagh. He has worked as a freelance broadcaster for BBC Northern Ireland, RTE, Newstalk and BBC Radio Ulster. He is a tour guide and conducts tours of Belfast's footballing heritage - and is a host at the George Best house - which is a historic B&B. He gives talks to clubs and societies on the history of Irish football and has established close working links with every club on the island.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Flynn, Barry

Leseproben

2

PAUPERS, POVERTY AND FAMINE

THE ‘PAUPER MENACE’ IN ARMAGH

The well-known quotation from Matthew 26:11 reads, ‘The poor you will always have with you’. This adage was particularly true in the eighteenth century in Armagh when the poor – or the ‘pauper menace’, as it was known – was a cause of great debate. Many in society were unsympathetic to the poor, the destitute or the ‘idle’. It was seen a personal failure to be poverty-stricken and charity was not always forthcoming. Yet, as far back as 1757, the ‘parishioners of Armagh’ were noted for their attempts to contain and address the problem of the poor, as the following notice from the on 17 February 1757 illustrates:

THE Parishioners of Armagh have entered into a voluntary Subscription Monthly, to support the Poor of said Parish, so as they may be enabled with their own Industry to keep House. And all are to take Notice, that no Foreigner or trolling Beggars will be served in said Bounds after the 29th of this Month, but the Law put into Execution against all sturdy Beggars.

In some cases, particularly when poverty was encountered in tragic circumstances, society did what it could to assist the needy. Take the case of Terence Maguire, a poor 15-year-old boy, the son of a widowed pauper, who was working in a flax mill in Tandragee in 1812, when he became trapped in the machinery and had ‘both his arms shattered and cut off at the shoulders’. His life was saved but in that period employee liability insurance was non-existent. An advertisement for charity was placed in the on 14 February of that year, addressed to ‘A Humane and Christian People’. Maguire’s life, despite his injuries, had been saved by surgeons Patton and Barclay in Armagh Infirmary and he was soon reported to be in health, but the plea for help pointed out that the boy was ‘completely helpless’ and that his widowed mother was unable to cope.

The case of Thomas Maguire was, however, a singular example of a concerted effort to assist a pauper who had suffered a tragic accident. Sympathy was in short supply for those paupers who were considered to be of a ‘worthless character’ and a drain on resources. In 1818, ‘A Traveller’ writing in the commended the city of Armagh for its plans for the ‘total suppression of street begging’. The writer pointed out that the city fathers had decided to introduce plans that would deal with the ‘aged, infirm, blind and cripples’, which numbered 120 individuals. Key to the plan was to levy a charge on gentlemen, shopkeepers and the clergy. The money collected would be used to establish poorhouses where rooms would be provided for the destitute of the city. Paupers with large families were expected to work for their allowances. They were to be provided with lime for the internal whitewashing of their dwellings and fresh straw was to be given to them on a weekly basis to keep insects at bay. The introduction of these measures was said to have had a positive impact within a number of months. According to ‘A Traveller’, many visitors to Armagh had commented that the paupers ‘seemed to be more industrious and cleanly and more decent in their general manners’. In conclusion, the authors suggested that the scheme was ‘to the honour to Armagh and the comfort of its inhabitants’.

However, street begging persisted and measures to address the problem were soon introduced at an official level. In 1836, the English Poor Law Commissioner, George Nicholls, arrived in Ireland and compiled a report which proposed the establishment of workhouses like those in England. His bill, which was introduced in the House of Commons on 1837, was entitled ‘A Bill for the More Effectual Relief of the Destitute Poor in Ireland’ and it became law in 1838. The bill divided Ireland into 130 Unions, each based close to a market town and funded by a levy (or the ‘poor rate’, as it was known) and managed by a Board of Guardians who were answerable to the Poor Law Commissioners.

In 1840, Armagh Workhouse was built on a 7-acre site at Tower Hill, to the north of the city. Originally designed to cater for 1,100 inmates, it was granted approval to admit paupers in December 1841, the first of whom arrived in January 1842. The workhouse was considered a place of last resort for individuals who were destitute. Men, women and children were totally segregated, families were split up, regulations were strict and food was simple and inadequate. Although Armagh Workhouse was the largest in Ulster, it was soon unable to house all those seeking help, especially in the aftermath of the failure of the potato crop in Ireland in 1845 and the ensuing famine. It was estimated that over 400 individuals died of infection in the institution between October 1846 and March 1847. Life for those in the workhouse was cruel and those who entered the workhouse but were found not to be in dire straits were met with scorn. The reported one such case in 1849, when ‘it was discovered that a woman, who, with her family, had been relieved at the Armagh Workhouse on Saturday night [1 September] was found to be in possession of seven sovereigns’.

The county’s other workhouse in Lurgan was opened in 1841, on the grounds of what is now Lurgan Hospital. Lurgan itself doubled in size between 1821 and 1841 and the famine caused a further increase in population. Initially, the workhouse was of a makeshift nature, with many huts and tents serving as dwellings for the poor. In May 1847, it was reported that mortality rates in the workhouse were on a par with the death rate in Ballina Workhouse in famine-torn County Mayo, with over half of the 581 inmates dying between October 1846 and March 1847. By November 1847, the death toll had reached almost 1,200.

The newspaper of 13 March 1847 contained the following report:

It is stated that nearly 400 paupers have died in the Lurgan workhouse during the past eight weeks. In Armagh there is some dread that mortality will spread beyond usual limits in the workhouse there. Typhus fever has appeared, and the medical attendant is ill at present of the disease. On Wednesday, the remains of fourteen of the paupers were lying in the dead house.

On 15 January 1847, the featured the following:

So greatly is the town of Moy infested with beggars, that some of the inhabitants have been obliged to remove the knockers from their doors. These vagrants are so arrogant and imperative in their demands, that the town may be said to be in a state of siege.

Reports of starvation appeared in the on 1 January 1847:

The Coroner, Mr George Henry, held an inquest on the body of a man by the name of Tomlinson from Tartarghan, who, along with his wife and three children, had instead for months on scraps of food given to them by farmers. He and his family had nothing to eat for days before his death but kale and turnips. Tomlinson had been 45-years-of-age and had been strong and healthy before winter.

TYPHUS FEVER IN ARMAGH

After two outbreaks of the dreaded typhus fever in 1814 and 1815, the epidemic spread across Ireland again in 1817. The number of people who contracted the fever was so great that a hospital was established to treat those suffering from the epidemic at Killuny, a mile outside Armagh. Within a month, almost 600 cases had been treated and sixteen deaths had been reported. The fever did not respect class boundaries and one of the most prominent victims was the Reverend Samuel Close of Elm Park, who was rector of the parish of Tynan. Described in the as ‘a pious and truly benevolent divine he is universally mourned as a public loss to society’.

The fever was, however, short-lived in Armagh and by early 1818 the city was declared free of the malady. In the of 3 February 1818, a notice was published which read: ‘The city of Armagh is so free from typhus fever at present, that the fever committee are enabled to shut up the fever hospital. Fever still continues in a considerable degree in the country for some miles around Armagh, but is much less prevalent than formerly.’ Periodically, the fever returned to the city and in 1845 it was reported that an inquest had been carried out on a man named McNally who had been found dead in the city. It seems that the vagrant McNally had been expelled from a lodging house after the other inmates discovered he had been suffering from the fever. Police and a doctor were called to the house, but McNally was found dead in a vacant house, having died within an hour of his removal from the house.

The fever appeared again in Armagh in 1847 and the most prominent victim on that occasion was Charles Brownlow, the 1st Lord Lurgan, who had served as MP for Armagh at Westminster from 1822–1832. It is believed that Lord Lurgan contracted the fever during a visit to the Lurgan Workhouse and died within thirteen days of being diagnosed. He had gained a reputation for being deeply interested in improving his estate and had been active in trying to alleviate the suffering of the people during the famine, when he had been the chairman of the Lurgan Board of Guardians. He was aged 54 when he died in April 1847.

KEADY INVADED BY DESTITUTE LABOURERS – MAY 1847

The coming of the Great Famine impacted greatly on the vicinity of South Armagh, with bands of unemployed and starving labourers roaming the area, posing...