January 14th, 1846 Insurrectionary activity is reported from Co Limerick. "An audacious multitude" of 1,200 1,500 men assemble on the lands of the late Sir Capel Molyneaux, of Knocksentry, near Castleconnell, to prevent the serving of eviction notices.
Some are armed, the others carry farm implements. The insurgents camp for 48 hours, fortifying themselves with bread and whiskey and firing shots to intimidate the bailiff and local constabulary.
The military is called out from Limerick city. Initially the insurgents stand their ground as a force of 200 soldiers, a troop of dragoons and 20 policemen approach. "The surrounding hills were covered with people, who began to conceal their firearms, but made a strong show of pitchforks, spades and shovels."
As the magistrate reads the Riot Act for a third time, the army and constabulary charge. The insurgents retreat some are seen wielding their implements and shouting defiance. But they disperse, "fortunately without a collision". Three prisoners are taken with stones in their hands.
"This proceeding on the part of the peasantry has struck consternation into the peaceable portion of the community", according to the Limerick Reporter.
On Sunday night, as four policemen from Annacotty patrol near Gen Sir Richard Burke's gate, they come upon 10 armed men. The insurgents, refusing to surrender, open fire and wound two constables one mortally. Police from Limerick city scour the district without result.
January 17th The Clare gentry get their act together. After a meeting in Kilkee to consider public works was disrupted by Father Comyn and his parishioners, Cornelius O'Brien MP convenes a caucus in Ennis.
It united, the Freeman's Journal observes, Catholic and Protestant, Tory and Repealer, for the purpose of alleviating the sufferings of the poor and of procuring employment for the industrious labourer. "But the meeting was especially remarkable because it was the first county assemblage in Ireland which, without affording grounds for the charge of exaggeration, has pronounced that the potato crop has been an unquestionable failure."
With the parliamentary session about to open, the meeting outlines proposals for employment on land reclamation and railway construction. "The men of Clare in this deplorable conjuncture make no appeal to the charity of England, but they put forward large demands upon her justice."
The Freeman points out that many Irish railway projects await parliamentary sanction. It suggests setting up a tribunal in Dublin to discharge the functions of Commons select committees. The building of Irish railways is too important to be "entrusted to the indolence or the ignorance of strangers".