Sable Wings Over the Land

Book excerpt: This case study of a town and its rural hinterland during the Great Famine highlights the cumulative and shattering impact of disastrous government relief policies on a population rendered prostrate by repeated failures of the potato harvest. It outlines the shambles of public works, the loathed soup kitchens, and most horrifically the appalling disease and mortality that occurred both inside and outside the Ennis Union workhouse and its auxiliaries after 1847. This book also illuminates the huge upsurge in crime, desperate individual attempts to survive by stealing, and collective attempts to prevent the outward movement of food supplies. The brutal outrages of secret societies, and harsh judicial reaction also feature, in addition to the unsympathetic and often indifferent attitude displayed by officialdom at all levels towards those whose misery they were appointed to relieve. New insights are also offered on the corruption of the boards of guardians, the bizarre election campaigns of 1847, the Special Commission of 1848 and the hangings which followed it, and the merciless campaign of evictions carried out by landlords in the district. Exhaustively researched and compellingly written, this book is sets the standard for future work on this topic. -- Publisher description.