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| A Striking Contrast |
But who would farm this land that William was quickly accruing? The very people from whom it was taken. The Irish Catholics who had forfeited the land were forced to rent or work the land they had so recently owned. There were many types of tenants, or renters, but one of the most memorable in my opinion is those who worked not for money, but for land to grow their food.
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| Compensation for a Hard Day's Work |
The economy and markets in a place as tumultuous as Ireland at that time created inconsistent food supplies. The inhabitants realized that the safest way to ensure that they could feed their families was to produce the food themselves, and so they did. Men would work a lord's land in exchange for use of a plot to produce food for their families. These families lived almost entirely on potatoes, but it was better than nothing at all.
There were a few exceptions to common conditions for tenants, but sadly, many were living in less than ideal conditions. One can hope that Castletown House and the Connolly family were one of those exceptions. Do you think you could live on potatoes for a year? (Given infinite ketchup, of course.)
The most interesting part of this whole story was how Mr. Connelly treated the farmers working on his land. As we've learned, many landlords didn't care less about the conditions that their workers were living in. In Mr. Connelly's case, he allowed farmers to use his land to plant their potatoes. It's so crazy to think that whole families were living solely on potatoes for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Unfortunately, this didn't work out so great in the end, as the potato famine wiped out the crop, and over a million people lost their lives.
ReplyDeleteI have had a deep love of spuds my entire life, but I doubt that I would be able to live off of them for a year. When things are difficult, as they clearly were during this time, you make due with what you have. However, I cannot imagine any amount of ketchup helping me through eating the same food everyday for a year. Though I am now curious about how many different ways there are to prepare potatoes.
ReplyDeleteYou'd be surprised how many ways there are to prepare potatoes! Just off the top of my head, I can think of several traditional methods that would have been available to the Irish at this time (depending on how much access they had to fresh milk, butter, and vegetables): boiled, mashed, fried, roasted, boxty, potato cakes, champ, colcannon just to name a few ;) I highly recommend champ, colcannon, and boxty--google it to see examples.
ReplyDeleteAs you probably noticed, potatoes are still a staple of the average Irish diet. Check out this Irish site on just potato recipes to see what I mean!