June 24th, 1846: Deputy Commissary general Edward Pine Coffin writes that the country people declare they have "been rescued from a state of frightful misery, or, to use their own strong but common expression, that only for the government meal, thousands would have been now dying by the roadside."
In Wicklow town, Perrin and Nolan, millers, threaten to cease importing corn if the rumoured reduction of government meal to uncompetitive prices proves true.
June 26th: Peel repeals the Corn Laws, virtually abolishing duties on imported grain. The laws had kept bread prices needlessly high by excluding cheaper foreign corn, chiefly for the benefit of the landed gentry. This reform will make little difference in the west of Ireland, where, as Trevelyan has remarked, bread is scarcely ever seen by the poor.
Patrick Harley, PP Aran Islands, reports the reappearance of blight in the new potato crop. On the mainland, 500 families go hungry in Spiddal.
Capt S.R. Pole, Banagher depot, reports that an attempted march on Banagher by 800 men in search of food and employment was dispersed by Father Walsh, PP Lusmagh.
In Co Westmeath, hard pressed labourers are falling into the clutches of usurers known locally as "mealmongers". James O'Reilly, Moygoish, says 20 families are starving, with 100 facing starvation.
In Sixmilebridge, Co Clare, Mr McMahon deplores the rejection of his application for a post on the public works and the appointment of a schoolmaster named Hamilton, who has "debauched" McMahon's daughter.
The Ballyshannon Herald reports on a procession by mainly women and children through the Donegal town, "preceded by a wretched looking creature carrying a long pole, from the top of which was suspended a loaf of bread".
They halt occasionally, and the leader explains the loaf symbolises that, although there is plenty of food in the country, it is beyond the reach of the poor because of its price and their lack of employment.
He proposes three cheers for "several persons" who are reserving their potatoes for the use of the town and three groans for those who continue exporting to Liverpool. The procession goes next to the workhouse, where the destitute are told they cannot be admitted without a recommendation. It is feared that the vessel being loaded with potatoes will be attacked. Police are constantly on deck.