The Famine
Probably the greatest disaster to befall the Irish people was the Great Famine of 1845-48 which was caused by a blight that failed the potato crop over a number of years. The fact that people were denied the right to ownership of their lands meant that plots of potatoes were sown on the
hillsides, the headlands, the marsh lands and the wastelands-places we now know were the most susceptible to blight. Add to this the wretched conditions in which over 8 million people lived, in miserable shacks and cabins wide open to the infections and epidemics that follow hunger,
and disaster was inevitable. Within a few years that population was to be halved, never to recover.
An example from our own Parish Records illustrates the magnitude of the disaster. In 1834 there were 5,720 Catholics and 343 Non-Catholics in the parish. In that year there were 30 marriages, 157 baptisms and 210 children confirmed. (As a matter of interest, I see that, according to the Bishop of Meath, Dr. Cantwell’s diary, there were 495 children confirmed in 1839) In the Census of Ireland for
the year 1871 there were 1175 Catholics and 63 Non-Catholics.
In Ardee, during the Famine, numbers in the workhouse increased to 1,431 in one week in early 1848. During the cholera epidemic in 1849 over half of the patients with the disease died in the cholera hospital in the workhouse (Ardee Community School Project). No doubt there were
many people from our own parish in that workhouse. Yet, despite this extreme misery and hardship, our ancestors stuck steadfastly to their faith. Of them we are proud.
Researched and Compiled by Kathleen McArdle, “Brookville”, Drumconrath. Source: Faith History of Drumconrath – Meath Hill.