Baylor University Medical Center Proceedings July 2017 - 382

A great-grandfather's account of the Irish potato famine
(1845-1850)
John Davis Cantwell, MD

My great-grandfather, Rodger Cantwell, and his family managed to survive
the Irish famine that began in 1845. Blending what family records we
have with Kelly's outstanding 2012 book about the era, the following is
an historical fictional account of Rodger's saga.

hen the potato famine swept through Ireland in
1846, I was 30 and my wife, Mary (McDonald), 33.
We lived in a small cabin valued at only 5 shillings,
where I was one of 30 farm laborers on the estate
of George Fawcett, Esq. in Toomyvara, Tipperary. At that time
we had ﬁve children: Bridget (age 8), Thomas (7), Michael (4),
Julia (2), and little Mary (1). Because of a generation-long collapse in our living standards, we came to rely mainly on potato
farming for our sustenance. A single acre of potatoes could yield
up to 6 tons of food, enough to feed our family for the year.
It had been raining a lot, even more than usual for Ireland.
In October 1845, almost overnight, a dense blue fog settled over
our puddled potato ﬁelds. An odor of decay permeated the air.
When the wind and rain died away, there was a terrible stillness.
The potato crop was ruined, destroyed (we learned later) by the
fungus Phytophthora infestans.
Over especially the next 2 years, life was miserable. We were
always hungry and lost weight. England gave us some Indian
corn and maize, but it was poorly ground and caused abdominal
pain and diarrhea.
In an eﬀort to earn some money, I joined a public works
labor force, sponsored by the British, building roads and digging
ditches that seemed to have little purpose. It did pay 10 pence
per day (12 pence equals 1 shilling), almost double my salary
as a potato farmer. By August 1846, many of my countrymen
had joined me in this endeavor, as the labor force increased
ﬁvefold to 560,000.
We tried planting potatoes again in 1846, but stalks and leaves
of the potatoes were blackened, accompanied by a sickening stench,
and within only 3 to 4 days the whole crop was obliterated.
Our family was very fortunate, somehow avoiding the pestilence (typhus, relapsing fever, dysentery, and scurvy) that many of
our neighbors succumbed to. We narrowly avoided having to go to
one of the area workhouses. The Irish Poor Land System resulted
in building 130 such workhouses, with a total of 100,000 beds,

382

Figure 1. An example of destroyed Irish cottages like ours. Source: Kelly, 2012 (1).

but the British goal was bizarre: they wanted to make poverty so
unendurable that we (its victims) would embrace the virtue of the
"saved," namely to be more industrious, self-reliant, and disciplined.
Hard to do, I'd say, when one is starving and out of work.
Many of the British took the attitude that the famine was
God's punishment toward a sinful people. We Catholics (80% of
our population but not in ruling authority like the Protestants)
didn't agree with this nonsense.
Despite the fact that many of us were starving, our country
kept having to export foods to England-oats, bacon, eggs,
butter, lard, pork, beef, and fresh salmon. In return, Britain did
open up soup kitchens for us, but of 2000 planned, only half
were in operation in 1847.
In 1847, I was able to do some work again in the potato
ﬁelds, as the crop was ﬁnally healthy but only one-fourth normal
size, as we had to eat the seed potatoes and grain over the past
winter to stay alive.
That year Britain passed its Extended Poor Law, shifting
the cost of feeding the starving masses and the maintenance of
poorhouses to the Irish landowner. This, in eﬀect, made eviction
of tenant farmers (like I was) an eﬃcient way for the landowner
to lower his tax (poor rate). Between 1847 and 1851, the eviction
rate rose nearly 1000%.
We held on until June 1849, when George Fawcett, Esq. hired
agent Richard Wilson to bring in a crew of men overnight and
destroy all of the little cabins his 30 tenants lived in (Figure 1).
From Piedmont Heart Institute, Atlanta, Georgia.
Corresponding author: John Davis Cantwell, MD, MACP, FACC, Piedmont Heart
Institute, 275 Collier Road, NW, Suite 500, Atlanta, GA 30309 (e-mail: john.
cantwell@piedmont.org).
Proc (Bayl Univ Med Cent) 2017;30(3):382-383

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