PLAGUE FOLLOWS FAMINE.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 18 March 1925, Page 7

PLAGUE FOLLOWS FAMINE.

IN WEST IRISH COUNTIES

WORSE THAN IN 1847

Conditions in the west of Ireland, where the failure of the potato crop has hit the peasantry hardest,, are said to be worse than in the black year of 1847. when thousands died by the roadside of starvation. The present failure has not vet advanced to that extreme, but those who saw conditions in Connemara and Donegal recently declare that the fatalities of 1847 will be exceeded unless relief measures are immediately augmented. LIVE IN FIRELKSS HOVELS.

111-clad women and children, deprived of warmth and food through excessive rainfall of the the past weeks, are liv-. ing in fireless hovels with practically nothing to eat. Their men are in despair with the potato crop blighted find food unobtainable. f • Housing conditions on the western and north-western coast, normally very poor, are now appalling. Besides the ravages of heavy rains, fierce gales have whipped the roofs from many cottages in Connemara. As- one passes from town to town along the western seabord, signs of genuine famine** are very apparent. Children with sunken cheeks lie in sodden beds of hay. huddled together for warmth and crying for food. Nurses are busy throughout the stricken area • fighting first signs, of pestilence, while, an army of male volunteers is trying to get fuel to the sufferers. The Free State Government is co-operating in an attempt, to organise coal distribution.

In normal times the peat bogs furnish fuel to the west, but now the cut peat still lies in the bogs, rain soaked, unfit for fuel, while people pick up what wood they cani Jn Kerry they are burning railroad tiers, which are out up and distributed, hoarded and burned to the last cinder.

In the vicinity of Athlone, where farmers normally are self-sustaining, there are said to be frightful conditions, unparalleled within the memory of tlie oldest inhabitants. Here, where the land normally is dry, the continuous rainfall has soaked everything. At that, conditions are far better than in Connemara, where even in the best of seasons the land only yields a bare living. SHANNON OVERFLOWS.

To make matters worse, the River Shannon has flooded and devastated farms along its hanks, carrying away haymows and forcing many farmers to leave their submerged homes. Fever, also is threatening the starving, freezing peasants. Scores of volunteer nurses have arrived in Kerry, Donegal and Connemara, and others are on the way to prevent the sickness from becoming epidemic. The Free State Government and private individuals are co-operating to hurry relief to the sufferers, but undernourishment and lack of warmth already have caused many of the wretched peasants to fall ill. Fever has ravaged Ireland during previous famines.

RELIEF BEING ORGANISED. Pitiful stories are coming out of the famine districts. It is said in the west country that the poor folk consoled themselves through _the winter with, the thought that they might sit by the fire and keep warm if there was but . a single meal a day, and that of potatoes. Now, even t"fie fire has gone out* The rain that pelts the peat bogs had soaked every stick and twig of wood' throughout the land. There is no coal, - nor money to buy it if it could be had. - Full realisation of the seriousness of the situation has brought immediate relief action. Banks are subscribing money. Charitable societies are organising relief expeditions. The Government is preparing to send six thousand tons of. cOal and 'ten thousand tons of firewood. , One meal a day is to be provided by the State for 15,000 school children.