IRELAND OLD NEWS
Clare Journal June 12 1837
Marriage
On Thursday, the 8th inst., at St. Anne's Church, Dublin, by the Rev. John
Gregg, and immediatly afterwards at the residence of the lady's father, by
the Rev. Mr. Griffiths, John Armstrong Ievers, of Ieverstown, in this
county, Esq., to Marcella, daughter of Denis Sampson, of Stephen's Green,
Dublin, and of St. Catherines, in this county.
Death
In Tulla, Mr. John Ryan, Cloth Merchant.
Friday, at Rossmanaher, in this county, Mr. Thomas Frost, aged 84 years.
Submitted by Declan Barron
Clare Journal and Ennis Advertiser, - Published 1 June 1837
DREADFUL DISTRESS IN CLARE
to the Editor of the Limerick Star.
Carrigaholt, Mary 26, 1837
Dear Sir, - The duties I owe to suffering humanity, and my wish to free myself
from blame with all those whom the subject of this letter may concern, oblige me
to appear in the public prints, and to select a place in the columns of your
invaluable paper. In the district which extends from the town of Kilrush to the
mouth of the river Shannon, over which I am placed as Catholic Pastor, almost
all the crops failed last year. The potato crop was particularly affected. This
calamity, which did not occur since the harvest of 1821, has brought nearly the
entire of the population to the verge of ruin. Relief has been sought for in
various quarters, principally to cultivate the land all sources have been
closed, with the exception of Messrs. Westby, Burton, Jonas Studdert, and Thomas
Kean, who gave seed oats to their respective tenants, which in many instances
was converted into food. In this deplorable state of a population, without
money, employment, or credit, necessity imposed the hard alternative of
pledging, pawning, and selling every article of domestic comfort, utility, and
what under similar circumstances could be dispensed with. By these means the
land has been in general cultivated; but there are still a few melancholy
exceptions, where a pound of seed could not be put down.
From the foregoing statement, which is founded on facts, it will be clearly
perceived how high the distress is at present for want of food, in a district,
comprising from 12 to 13,000 individuals, without a market, and without a
resident gentry, who, by their intelligence and sympathy, might avert the horror
and confusion that seem ready to burst upon us.
There are some thousands this moment subsisting on the scanty pittance of food
they borrow from the day to day from the next neighbours. Many hundreds have
left their homes and went to the more plentiful parts of the country to beg, and
where they would not be known. A sullen gloom hangs over the people, and nothing
saves them from becoming victims of despair, but the confidence they have in a
paternal government to whom application has been made for relief, and the
reliance they have on the generosity of some of their landlords, who, I am
confident, will come forward now to the relief of the poor sufferers, by
employing them on the roads of the respective estates, the state of which has
largely contributed to bring on the evil complained of.
If any unpleasant consequences should flow from the present distress, I can say
to myself that I have done my duty to the people and country, by thus laying
thought the medium of the Press, the state of this district before those who are
connected with it by interest, and are its natural guardians.
I have the honor to remain, dear Sir, your faithful servant,
M. DUGGAN, P.P.
Of Moyarta and Kilballyowen.
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Submitted by David K.
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