into the STATE OF THE POORER CLASSES IN IRELAND.
443 Appendix (A.)
the children ©f the poor stealing hay and straw from the carts on the quay, /Ibee-bomed times you s
^ ^ thieves and pickpockets.
_ ^
out oe Work.
and thus gr p
labourers out of work to obtain provisions on credit; many small shop-It 1S usuaij^ ^ imcksters give a great deal of credit.
It is often a benefit to them, Munster, keepers, g
^ charge a fair price; many, however, who give credit suffer by it; County Cork, and they S^ ^mQ^\ debts with them, and then take the benefit of the Insolvent Act; Examina^7"tdkcn b persons c^ ^.g
^ ^^ ^^ piac0> it being impossible to lay by for the time when Thomas Martin, Esqf m tact, ti o j01ju Lalor, Esq.
there is n[
.
'p„ wcre stated to be very numerous among tradesmen and labourers, the
^ .
,
•*-—-reiXmarrying from 20 to 25 years of age, and the women from 18 to 22.
There ^mh^t.
Mary's men gen ^^ a^out the city where the lower classes meet to drink and dance, and this ohanaon, are many
^ marriages, and connexions of an improper kind too frequently."
City of Cork.
Persons who attended the Examination.
Mr.
Michael Cadooan, boatman.—Edward
Daly, esq.,
barristcr-at-law, resident—Jeremiah M'Daniel, esq.,
burgess of the corporation.—Mr.
Daniel Dempsey, boatman Mr.
George ^misQ Sf-Multoze.
Dawson, boatman.—Edward
Heard, sovereign of Kinsale.—Mr.
Jeremiah Hurly, s>mn-keeper.—Rev.
Justin Holey M'Namaha, parish priest.—Henry
Thomas Kino Nason, foundling offices collector.—James
Sandys, esq.—Mr.
John Sullivan, pawnbroker.—
Mattrtce Walshe, catholic curate.
IVrUANIEL, esq.,
UUigv-oo ux „»v.
^..y.,..
—.
~~„*~~ ^^tiJ.
^ x, „w„.uu4H.x,
iu..
v^x.u/xi.ur.c
Dawson, boatman.—Edward
Heard, sovereign of Kinsale.—Mr.
Jeremiah Hurly, shop-Town of Unsafe,
-r TT Tl/r^T „„„:„1 :„„!.
T_T„ -n rr -kt
q BdiV.
KmSalc -Rev!
Maurice Walshe, catholic curate.
In the winter season many are out employment, and very few have regular employment throughout the year.
When out of work, they arc reduced to few and very scanty meals for their subsistence.
On this subject the Rev.
J.
F.
M'Namara, parish priest, says, " But few have regular employment, while there are few who have not some employment occasionally; the consequence is, that though there are not many destitute in the strict sense of the word, there is an immense number in a most wretched condition; they have food, but of a bad kind and quite insufficient in quantity ; many of them are reduced to a single meal in the day.
The labouring classes (particularly in the country) are often obliged to eat a sort of potatoes which I verily believe would be rank poison if their con¬ stitutions were not accustomed to it, I am sure that if a body of English peasants were obliged to use such food for four months, nine out of ten would not survive at the end of that period."
There is sometimes the greatest reluctance amongst the labouring classes to acknowledge the degree of distress to which they arc reduced; they pledge the commonest necessary articles of dress, and stint themselves in their meals, rather than make their misery known.
About four months ago there was an attack of cholera here.
H was found that some of those who had been attacked were without clothing, and in particular that some women who died were without chemises.
Inquiries were immediately made at the cabins of the different poor, in order to supply a chemise to any who wanted one ; not one would admit that she did, and yet in a short time afterward some of them died, and were found to be without.
Hucksters sometimes give the labourers credit, but to a very small extent; they are not charged moie than about a fair price, and the small extent of the credit prevents them from being in debt.
The labourers are not rendered reckless by the constant recurrence of destitution; they have a great deal of resignation, attributing their condition to the decrees of Providence.
The opinion of the two roman-catholic clergyman of the parish is, that there is a great tendency on the part of the working classes to contract early marriages, but that it'does not arise from recklessness.
They say, " We have frequently reasoned with them, and snowed them that they are bringing on themselves the burden of a family without any preparation.
When they persist, and arc bent on marriage, of course we cannot refuse 0 perform the ceremony; we must preserve them as much from vice as possible, at all tb f • -^/-^amara' in continuation, " Commonly a whole family, sometimes two or ree families, live in one room.
I have found eight persons, unconnected with each other, giving m a giggle room, more than once.
Three beggars sometimes join and pay 2 d.
or -2 a.
a week to have a room among them; six to a room is about the average number, f x!001"
PeoP^e wno do not beg, as well as those who do, sometimes get a comer for charity from those.that
have but one roSm.
1 s r i ^s moment tnere is a P°or old woman employed to keep the chapel clean, at bov i
E -^k-' and slle llas veiT little e*se to wve uPon-She-has given lodging to a poor welt ?
?early
bmid, and who has had no friends to assist him for the last nine or ten -fr5, and she occasionally gives him food besides."
mth7 sa?leJvltness
says, " 1 have frequently found a room inhabited where the rain came ate oh?
l ^alls and broken roof.
There are a great many without bed-clothes; they Therp *
6 ut0 lle down in the clothcs they have worn all day, and these are often wet.
BeorTfwt any regular bedding, they do not think of providing such a thing; they pieces b
Straw' wllich is rarely cnariged> x nave sometimes seen it so broken into With
repeated shiftings as to be almost powder."
food tffi°r peoPle* in general, it requires such a straggle to obtain a bare sufficiency of 0 5
tlley are delighted when they can accomplish this point, and very often do not provide
3 L 2 for
