'Irish Distress: Gathering seaweed on the west coast of Clare. Distress on the West Coast of Ireland', 'Illustrated London News'. "The impoverished and helpless condition of large numbers of the Irish peasantry on the moorlands, bogs and mountains of the western counties, has of late years occupied a huge share of public attention; but the remedy will probably be found in bold measures of State-assisted emigration. It is undeniable that the soil and climate of that side of Ireland looking towards the Atlantic Ocean, and resembling in this aspect the Western Highlands of Scotland, forbid all hope of maintaining a large population by agricultural industry. It is no question of rent; the people could not live decently and comfortably on such land, if they had the land rent-free; and they have been enabled to pay any rent, in past years, only by coming over to England in hay-time or harvest-time, to earn a few pounds in the wages of our field-labour. Nature, indeed has been very unkind to the poor natives of those wild and unproductive portions of the sister island; and they cannot always be sure even of getting a sufficiency of potatoes. Certain edible species of sea-weed are found on the coast, which bear, in the Celtic language of primitive Erin, the names of “dhlisk” and “Carrigun,” and which are said to be not unwholesome, or devoid of nutritious substance, when boiled and eaten as human food. The business of collecting this sort of commodity on the rocky shore of County Clare, and that of picking and drying it for sale, are delineated in out Artist’s Sketches taken a few months ago. Image and text taken from 'Illustrated London News', May 12, 1883 pp 465-6.

'Picking and drying dhilisk'. A group picking and drying dilisk off the Clare coast. Image taken from 'Irish Distress: Gathering seaweed on the west coast of Clare', (detail) 'Illustrated London News', May 12, 1883, p 465.

'Dhilisk girls'. A group of women selling dilisk off the Clare coast. Image taken from 'Irish Distress: Gathering seaweed on the west coast of Clare', (detail) 'Illustrated London News', May 12, 1883, p 465.

'Gathering seaweed'. A group of men and women gathering seaweed off the Clare coast. Image taken from 'Irish Distress: Gathering seaweed on the west coast of Clare', (detail) 'Illustrated London News', May 12, 1883, p 465.

'Gathering carrigeen'. A woman gathering carrigeen with a seaweed crook off the Clare coast. Image taken from 'Irish Distress: Gathering seaweed on the west coast of Clare', (detail) 'Illustrated London News', May 12, 1883, p 465.

'Dhlisk Seller'. A woman selling dilisk off the Clare coast. Image taken from 'Irish Distress: Gathering seaweed on the west coast of Clare', (detail) 'Illustrated London News', May 12, 1883, p 465.

'Police and Hussars charging the proclaimed meeting at Ennis', 'Illustrated London News.' "The attempts of the National League, on Sunday, April 8, to hold meetings which were prohibited in several of the districts proclaimed under the Crimes Act, were effectually defeated by the Government of Ireland. At Loughrea, in Galway; at Ennis, the county town of Clare; at Kilrush, in the same county, and at Miltown Malbay; at Kanturk, in the county of Cork, and at other places, the meetings were promptly dispersed by the police constabulary, supported by parties of military; but in some instances not without being obliged to use their batons, and even their sabres, though no dangerous wounds were inflicted. The meeting at Ennis was to have been addressed by Mr. Michael Davitt, Mr. John O’Connor, M.P., and Mr. Condon, M.P., all of whom were in the town; but the police would not allow them to enter the building prepared for the meeting. This was a large store-house with a yard in front of it, entered through a narrow archway. In the roadway before it was a large force of police, with fifty soldiers of the Derbyshire Regiment and a troop of the 3rd Hussars, under the command of Colonel Turner. The people had already assembled inside; and, Mr. Halpin being chosen their chairman, had passed a resolution declaring that they would support the National League. As they were coming out through the yard, orders were given to the police to take the names of some of them. This provoked stone-throwing and assaults on the police, which were punished with considerable severity; the constables made free use of their truncheons, till the Hussars put an end to the conflict by riding into the yard with drawn sabres, while the infantry drove the people out of the building. Seventy-four persons were taken into custody. Image and text taken from 'The state of Ireland', 'Illustrated London News', Apri 21, 1888, p 419.

'Priest chained to gate', 'Illustrated London News.' "At Rossmanagher, where the Sub-Sheriff, with several bailiffs, with a force of a hundred armed constabulary, went to evict a farmer on the estate of Mr. H.V. Desterre, resistance was offered by a large gathering of people, assembled by the blowing of horns and ringing of the chapel bell. The windows of the house were barricaded, and the front door was removed, but against the opening were placed large iron gates supported by a pile of stones. Inside the gates, but commanding a view of what was taking place outside, stood the Rev. Father Little, the parish priest, in chains. There were tied round his body and connected with the gates, so that an entrance could be effected without molestation of his person. He declared that they should trample on his ... body before so inhuman an act was carried out. At length the bailiffs were set to work, but they experienced much difficulty in removing the stones and other obstructions. All the time a man kept sounding a horn, and the multitude was fast increasing. When the crowd pressed in on the bailiffs, Captain Walsh ordered the police to draw their batons and disperse the people. The majority fled, but many came in for hard knocks, and some were seriously hurt. ... Father Little, who continued chained to the gates, protested against the conduct of the police and those in charge of them. After a time the operations of the bailiffs were stopped, and a suggestion as to arranging the difficulty was made. Mr. Desterre assured those present that his desire was to have an amicable settlement if possible. A proposal as to the purchase of the farm was discussed by the enchained clergyman and the landlords ... The basis of agreement put forward on behalf of the tenant was 18 years' purchase at 45 shillings an acre. It was ultimately resolved to stop the eviction pending the consideration..." Image and text from 'The rent war in Ireland', 'Illustrated London News', Feb 19, 1887, pp 201, 202.

'Mr Forster visiting a victim of "Captain Moonlight" at Tulla'. 'Illustrated London News 1882'. "Our engraving depicts an incident which Mr. Forster in his recent speech at Tullamore alluded to in the following terms: ‘I went when I was at Tulla to the workhouse, and there I saw a poor fellow lying in bed. The doctors thought he might get over it, but I see that he is dead. He was a poor lone farmer, and had paid his rent. Fifteen or sixteen men broke into his house in the middle of the night, pulled him out of his bed, and told him that they would punish him. He himself lying in his death agony, as it were, told me the story. He said, “My wife went down on her knees and said, ‘Here are five helpless children; will you kill their father?’” They discharged a gun filled with shot into his leg, shattering it. Perhaps they did not mean to kill him. They must have known that they meant to give him weeks of agony, to maim him for life, to make it impossible for him to earn his living.’" Image and text taken from 'Illustrated London News, 1882.

'Sketch in a house at Fahey's Quay, Ennis. The Widow Connor and her dying child', 'Illustrated London News'. "In Ennis I went through the lanes and alleys, and amongst the most distressed part of the population. In one small room, not 20 feet square, I found congregated fifteen people, young and old, exhibiting nearly all the phases of want and squalor. From the smoke which filled the place, it was a Rembrandt scene, and it was with difficulty I could make out the forms of the wretched groups, or of the squalid and dying child on the floor." Image and text taken from 'Condition of Ireland: Illustrations of the new Poor-Law', 'Illustrated London News', Jan. 5, 1850, p 4.

'Cabin of Pat. Macnamara, village of Clear', 'Illustrated London News'. "From Galway I proceeded to Ennis, and in the neighbourhood inspected the village of Clear [Clare, later Clarecastle], which had been destroyed within a few weeks, and some part of it within a few days. The Sketch of Pat Macnamara’s Cabin shows the condition of the village." Image and text taken from 'Condition of Ireland: Illustrations of the new Poor-Law', 'Illustrated London News', Jan. 5, 1850, p 4.

'The Village of Killard', 'Illustrated London News'. "The village of Killard forms part of the Union of Kilrush, and possesses an area of 17,022 acres. It had a population, in 1841, of 6850 souls, and was valued to the Poor-rate at £4254. It is chiefly the property, I understand, of Mr. John MacMahon Blackall, whose healthy residence is admirably situated on the brow of a hill, protected by another ridge from the storms of the Atlantic. His roof-tree yet stands secure, but the people have disappeared. The village was mostly inhabited by fishermen, who united with their occupation on the waters the cultivation of potatoes. When the latter failed, it might have been expected that the former should have been pursued with more vigour than ever; but boats and lines were sold for present subsistence, and to the failure of the potatoes was added the abandonment of the fisheries. The rent dwindled to nothing, and then came the leveller and the exterminator. What has become of the 6850 souls, I know not; but not ten houses remain of the whole village to inform the wayfarer where, according to the population returns, they were to be found in 1841. They were here, but are gone for ever; and all that remains of their abodes are a few mouldering walls, and piles of offensive thatch turning into manure. Killard is an epitome of half Ireland. If the abodes of the people had not been so slight, that they have mingled, like Babylon, with their original clay, Ireland would for ages be renowned for its ruins; but, as it is, the houses are swept away like the people, and not a monument remains of a multitude, which, in ancient Asia or in the wilds of America, would numerically constitute a great nation." Image and text taken from 'Condition of Ireland: Illustrations of the New Poor-Law', 'Illustrated London News', Feb. 9th 1850, p 92.

'Scalpeen of Tim Downs at Dunmore', ' Illustrated London News'. "The last Sketch shows the Scalpeen of Tim Downs, at Dunmore, in the parish of Kellard [Killard], where himself and his ancestors resided on this spot for over a century, with renewal of their lease in 1845. He neither owed rent arrears or taxes up to the present moment, and yet he was pitched out on the roadside, and saw ten other houses, with his own, levelled at one fell swoop on the spot, the ruins of some of which are seen in this Sketch. None of them were mud cabins, but all capital stone-built houses." Image and text taken from 'Condition of Ireland: Illustrations of the new Poor Law', 'Illustrated London News', Dec. 22, 1849, pp 404-5.

'The Village of Tullig', 'Illustrated London News'. "Here, at Tullig, and other places, the ruthless destroyer, as if he delighted in seeing the monuments of his skill, has left the walls of the houses standing, while he has unroofed them and taken away all shelter from the people. They look like the tombs of a departed race, rather than the recent abodes of a yet living people, and I felt actually relieved at seeing one or two half-clad spectres gliding about, as an evidence that I was not in the land of the dead. You may inquire, perhaps, and I sure your readers will wish to know, why it is that the people have of late been turned out of their houses in such great numbers, and their houses just at this time pulled down, and I will give you my explanation of this fact. The public records, my own eyes, a piercing wall of woe throughout the land - all testify to the vast extent of the evictions at the present time. Sixteen thousand and odd persons unhoused in the Union of Kilrush before the month of June in the present year; seventy-one thousand one hundred and thirty holdings done away in Ireland, and nearly as many houses destroyed, in 1848; two hundred and fifty-four thousand holdings of more than one acre and less than five acres, put an end to between 1841 and 1848: six-tenths, in fact, of the lowest class of tenantry driven from their now roofless or annihilated cabins and houses, makes up the general description of that desolation of which Tullig and Moveen are examples. The ruin is great and complete." Image and text taken from 'Condition of Ireland: Illustrations of the new Poor-Law', 'Illustrated London News', Dec. 15, 1849, p 393; Dec. 22, 1849, p. 404.

'The Town of Kilrush', 'Illustrated London News'. "Kilrush is in the county of Clare, and on one bank of the Shannon. It is situated in a district that is both fertile and picturesque. It has all the conveniences of a haven, and might have all the advantages of a great trading and fishing port. It is, for Ireland, a tolerably large town, with well-built stone houses, and broad, clean streets, though it has plenty of mud cabins and dirt, like every other Irish town. It is going rapidly to decay, and most of the houses could be bought for less than the value of the stones they were built with. The Poor-house is now, and likely to be for a long period, the principal building in the town, and, with the Catholic chapel, constitutes its architectural distinctions." Image and text taken from 'Condition of Ireland: Illustrations of the new Poor-Law', 'Illustrated London News', Dec. 15, 1849, pp 393-4.

'Miss Kennedy distributing clothing at Kilrush', 'Illustrated London News'. "Another Sketch follows (of Miss Kennedy), which shows that, amidst this world of wretchedness, all is not misery and guilt. Indeed, it is a part of our nature that the sufferings of some should be the occasion for the exercise of virtue in others. Miss Kennedy (about seven years old) is the daughter of Captain Kennedy, the Poor-law Inspector of the Kilrush Union. She is represented as engaged in her daily occupation of distributing clothing to the wretched children brought around her by their more wretched parents. In the front of the group I noticed one woman crouching like a monkey, and drawing around her the only rag she had left to conceal her nudity. A big tear was rolling down her cheek, with gratitude for the gifts the innocent child was distributing. The effect was heightened by the chilliness and dreariness of a November evening, and by the wet and mire in which the naked feet of the crowd were immersed. On Captain Kennedy being appointed to the Union, his daughter was very much affected by the misery of the poor children she saw; and so completely did it occupy her thoughts that, with the consent of her parents, she gave up her time and her own little means to relieve them. She gave away her own clothes - she was allowed to bestow parts of her mother’s - and she then purchased coarse materials, and made up clothing for children of her own age; she was encouraged by her father and some philanthropic strangers, from whom she received sums of money, and whose example will no doubt be followed by those who possess property in the neighbourhood; and she devoted herself with all the energy and perseverance of a mature and staid matron to the holy office she has undertaken." Image and text taken from 'Condition of Ireland: Illustrations of the new Poor Law', 'Illustrated London News', Dec. 22, 1849, pp 404, 405.

'Bridget O'Donnel and children', 'Illustrated London News'. "The Sketch of a Woman and Children represents Bridget O’Donnel. Her story is briefly this:- 'I lived,' she said, 'on the lands of Gurranenatuoha [Garraunnatooha, Kilmacduane Parish]. My husband held four acres and a half of land, and three acres of bog land; our yearly rent was £7 4s.; we were put out last November; he owed some rent. We got thirty stone of oats from Mr. Marcus Keane, for seed. My husband gave some writing for it: he was paid for it. He paid ten shillings for reaping the corn. As soon as it was stacked, one 'Blake' on the farm, who was put to watch it, took it away in to his own haggard and kept it there for a fortnight by Dan Sheedey’s orders. They then thrashed it in Frank Lallis’s barn. I was at this time lying in fever. Dan Sheedey and five or six men came to tumble my house; they wanted me to give possession. I said that I would not; I had fever, and was within two months of my down-lying (confinement); they commenced knocking down the house, and had half of it knocked down when two neighbours, women, Nell Spellesley and Kate How, carried me out. I had the priest and doctor to attend me shortly after. Father Meehan anointed me. I was carried into a cabin, and lay there for eight days, when I had the creature (the child) born dead. I lay for three weeks after that. The whole of my family got the fever, and one boy thirteen years old died with want and with hunger while we were lying sick. Dan Sheedey and Blake took the corn into Kilrush, and sold it. I don’t know what they got for it. I had not a bit for my children to eat when they took if from me.'” Image and text taken from 'Condition of Ireland: Illustrations of the new Poor Law', 'Illustrated London News', Dec. 22, 1849, pp 404, 406.

'Village of Moveen', 'Illustrated London News'. "The Sketch of Moveen, to which I now call your attention, is that of another ruined village in the Union of Kilrush. It is a specimen of the dilapidation I behold all around. There is nothing but devastation, while the soil is of the finest description, capable of yielding as much as any land in the empire." Image and text taken from 'Condition of Ireland: Illustrations of the new Poor Law', 'Illustrated London News', Dec. 22, 1849, p 405.

'Searching for potatoes in a stubble field', 'Illustrated London News'. "Searching for potatoes is one of the occupations of those who cannot obtain out-door relief. It is gleaning in a potato-field - and how few are left after the potatoes are dug, must be known to every one who has ever seen the field cleared. What the people were digging and hunting for, like dogs after truffles, I could not imagine, till I went into the field, and then I found them patiently turning over the whole ground, in the hopes of finding the few potatoes the owner might have overlooked. Gleaning in a potato-field seems something like shearing hogs, but it is the only means by which the gleaners could hope to get a meal." Image and text taken from 'Condition of Ireland: Illustrations of the new Poor Law', 'Illustrated London News', Dec. 22, 1849, pp 405, 406.

'Scalp of Brian Connor near Kilrush Union Workhouse', 'Illustrated London News'. "There is also something called a Scalp, or hole dug in the earth, some two or three feet deep. In such a place was the abode of Brian Connor. He has three in family, and had lived in this hole several months before it was discovered. It was roofed over with sticks and pieces of turf, laid in the shape of an inverted saucer. It resembles, though not quite so large, one of the ant-hills of the African forests. Many of the people whose houses have been levelled take up their abodes in such places; and even in them there is a distinction of wretchedness. A Scalpeen is a hole, too, but the roof above it is rather loftier and grander in its dimensions. It is often erected within the walls, when any are left standing, of the unroofed houses, and all that is above the surface is built out of the old materials. It possesses, too, some pieces of furniture, and the Scalpeen is altogether superior to the Scalp. In such, or still more wretched abodes, burrowing as they can, the remnant of the population is hastening to an end, and after a few years will be as scarce nearly as the exterminated Indians, except the specimens that are carefully preserved in the workhouse. Those whom starvation spares, disease cuts off." Image and text taken from 'Condition of Ireland: Illustrations of the new Poor-Law', 'Illustrated London News', Dec. 22, 1849, p 405.