Local history: Male migrants forced to pawn their only clothes

PART TWO

By Tom Gillespie

THE utter destruction to family life during the Famine years, caused by forced migration, and particularly the hardship endured by mothers and children, was the theme of an article in the Mayo Association Galway magazine in 1988, written and researched by Maureen Langan-Egan.

This is part two of her article.

Some women migrated not only to other parts of Ireland but to other countries, particularly during the Famine.

Referring particularly to the Unions of Ballinrobe, Castlebar and Westport, it was stated: "Experience proves that larger numbers of men and women migrated to other lands to seek employment and endure such hardship and privation in order to accumulate a small hoard with which they return to their families."

Widows worked as migratory labourers in Scotland and on occasions received free passage on the boats, as may be inferred from the evidence of Pat Cooper who wrote: "My wife and children came with me (to Scotland) but they did not pretend to belong to me. They pretended to be a widow and orphans and got their passage in charity.

"In Scotland we separated every day, I to look for work and they to beg, and we met in the evening. We were better off begging in Ireland than in Scotland, but we got better food and more of it in Scotland, but we could get no lodgings."

While many of these migratory workers returned to Ireland, some attempted to remain in Scotland and received no great welcome from the authorities.

Bishop Gillis of Edinburgh spoke of the refusal of the authorities to give outdoor relief to poor parents, widows with children or wives whose husbands had gone in search of work, while insisting on their children being taken into the workhouse where they were not allowed to attend Mass and where they became victims of Proselytism.

Some did manage to get a foothold in Scotland and we read of immigrant Irish women and children working in the mines.

In Achill, there was a tradition of women migrating to Scotland and working in the fields alongside their husbands. Such migration greatly affected daily life in Achill as some cabins were only inhabited in winter.

It has been suggested that in times of great distress, the population of whole villages went begging.

The custom of having women and children from Achill working in the fields of Scotland was still widespread in 1893 and had continued into the 20th century.

Women lived harsh, difficult lives in the absence of their menfolk, especially if they had to beg during the summer of the Famine months. It has been said that the burden of supporting these women and children fell almost entirely on the small farmer, who found himself in very difficult circumstances.

For those who were lucky enough to be able to remain in their cabins, life was grim, with many people subsisting on one scant meal a day, and many doing the heavy summer work with crops and turf.

Matters were made more difficult for some of them as, in some cases, grown boys who might have helped their mothers also accompanied their fathers when they migrated.

Yet the lives of the women who could remain in their cabins were much less difficult than those of women forced to lock ups their cabins and beg. In these cases, holdings were neglected and the family generally faced a cold, miserable winter as no fuel was saved.

In such cases it was disastrous if the absent husbands could not earn as much as might pay the rent and also the extra expenses caused by the dearth of potatoes and turf.

One can imagine the difficulties faced by many families in the parish of Kilfian in 1835. Some of the male migrants were forced to pawn their clothes and return in a very short time.

The hardship was aggravated by the fact that most people did not have a change of clothing and almost inevitably eviction faced these people that winter as the hardship began to bite. Indeed, 400 families left the parish over a short period of time.

One can only guess at the strain imposed on many marriages by migration. Migration sometimes led to desertion, particularly during the Famine. In some cases deserted wives had to enter the workhouse. Yet many men faithfully remitted money to Ireland so that their wives and children could leave these institutions.

One wonders about the effects of the break-up of village life during the busiest seasons of the year.

There are a host of unanswered questions about the care of people and belongings left behind when whole families left their holdings.

It is doubtful that old people wandered from their homes to beg. Who cared for these people when the younger members of the family took to begging in distant parts of the country?

One also wonders about the care of animals and fowl. The grown fowl may perhaps have been left to forage for themselves. Can one imagine a kindly neighbour caring for young chickens, goslings, etcetera, in the absence of the family.

When one considers how important fowl and eggs were in providing income for women, it is not likely that they would have been left to fend for themselves.

It would appear that some kind relative or neighbour milked cows, and may have acted as a caretaker tending to the animals owned by the absent family.

The care of animals may, however, have posed fewer problems that might be at first supposed, as many families did not own any.

In Burrishoole, it was reckoned that almost half of the population of 917 families had no cow.

There was little public outcry in Ireland against a system of seasonal migration which inflicted hardship on so many people, but it must be remembered that migration bolstered a system which was tottering on the brink of disaster.

After 1815 in particular, when the slump in agricultural prices should have led to a reduction in the rents charged for agricultural land, the reality was that Irish landlords were able to keep the rents unnaturally high, beyond the real value of the land, for the income of annual migration.

It was against the interests of the landlords, many of whom were absentees, to try to reform the evil land system, of which they themselves were the chief beneficiaries, and it was this evil system of land tenure which led to seasonal migration.

One can only pity the victims of such a system and at the same time admire the buoyancy of spirit which enabled women to cope with the extra burdens caused by migration aggravated by the very difficult circumstances of their lives.