Reports of crop disease in many areas

July 27th, 1846: Police report the reappearance of potato blight in Counties Down, Monaghan, Derry, Donegal, Longford, Kildare…

July 27th, 1846: Police report the reappearance of potato blight in Counties Down, Monaghan, Derry, Donegal, Longford, Kildare and Sligo.

In King's County, two thirds of the crop is affected by advancing disease 100 unemployed labourers are in a "most pitiable condition" in Banagher.

In Castlemartyr, Co Cork, the blight has "manifested itself to an alarming extent in the early potato crop".

Help is sought for 4,000 destitute families in Clifden, Co Galway, many of whom are ill after eating 18 sacks of rotten meal.

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The secretary of the Ballyhea relief committee, Father Richard Ryan, warns the Relief Commission "for the last time" that the people are starving. Two mass meetings have been dispersed by a justice of the peace and the parish priest with promises of employment.

Also from Co Cork, Carrignavar relief committee reports the discharge of 138 labourers after the landlord Mr Roche, failed to contribute £20 as promised.

From Co Mayo, the parish priest of Clare Island and Innisturk, Peter Ward, writes that unless immediate relief is provided 200 families will fall victims of starvation. He grieves to say that the landlords, Lord Lucan and Sir Samuel O'Malley, "are disposed to let the people die without the least desire to subscribe one farthing".

"Fearful destitution" prevails in the parishes of Lisronagh and Donaghmore in Co Tipperary. The landlords are all non-resident, the Rev Robert Carey rector and chairman of the local relief committee informs the Relief Commission. "About six weeks since I addressed to each a printed circular, one third of whom at once most generously responded to the call, by taking upon themselves the relief of the destitute on their respective properties. The remaining two thirds have either taken no notice of the application or have replied to the effect that it was not in their power to assist us."

Mr Carey names the landed proprietors who have ignored two appeals for famine aid. They include Lord Clonmell.

Two priests and 29 parishioners of Cloonoghill, Killurra and Kilshalvy, Co Sligo, "most respectfully" inform the commissioners of the extreme destitution of many of the poorer classes in the district, where there are no resident landlords and no public works. "From our want of means we fear that any subscriptions we may be able to collect will appear so trifling in your eyes as scarcely to justify our demand of relief which we are however most urgently compelled to make."

Dublin Castle preaches self reliance. "State that aid can only be recommended as an auxiliary to local funds, but that if a list of subscriptions be forwarded, however small, with a certificate of lodgement, a grant in aid will be recommended."

In the meantime, the poor must go hungry.