Book on mass evictions to be launched in Kilrush

A BOOK concentrating on the mass evictions in the Kilrush Poor Law Union during the Famine will be launched at 8pm on Tuesday at Teach Ceoil, Kilrush, as part of the National Famine Commemoration May 3 to 12.

Written by Matthew Lynch and published by the Old Kilfarboy Society, the book will be formally launched by Famine and commemoration scholar, Professor Christine Kinealy of Drew University, New Jersey.

Matthew Lynch is a native of the Kilmurry-Ibrickane parish and is well-known as a local historian. A masters graduate of the University of Limerick, he has published several papers on local history in Counties Clare and Tipperary and has presented lectures on historical subjects at the University of Limerick, Thomond Archaeological and Historical Society, Newport (Tipperary) Historical Society, Merriman Summer School and the Old Kilfarboy Society. He was co-editor of Clare History and Society, a set of interdisciplinary essays on the history of Clare.

Matthew Lynch’s book draws on comprehensive research conducted on the Kilrush Poor Law union, which encompassed a large area of the South-West Clare in the 19th century. The union achieved national notoriety during the Great Famine in Ireland due to the very high level of poverty, hardship, hunger, destitution, Famine-related diseases and deaths among its population. A primary cause of those distressed conditions and of the union’s notoriety was the extraordinary level of mass evictions that occurred there during the Famine years.

More than 20,000 people were evicted in the Kilrush Poor Law Union during the Famine. Clare had the highest level of evictions, relative to its population, of any county in Ireland and Kilrush Poor Law union had the highest level of mass evictions in Clare.

This book presents, for the first time, a detailed analysis of the context, course, causes and consequences of these mass evictions. It describes the pre-Famine community and land-holding patterns and the onset and progress of the mass evictions. It identifies the main evictors, the numbers evicted and their locations. Context and perspectives are examined by reference to other mass evictions in other locations and during other periods.

Extensive contemporary accounts of the Kilrush clearances are reviewed, including the many iconic images from the pages of The Illustrated London News.

The book concludes by describing the social, economic and political consequences of those traumatic events, including the elimination of a vast number of small land-holdings, the associated permanent disruption of the social structure, the relative insignificance of emigration as a significant relieving factor and the dismal fate of the dispossessed.

This book shows the continued importance of detailed historical research at local level and clearly demonstrates how such studies can shed light on wider cultural and societal issues.

As part of the launch, Matthew Lynch will give a short talk about the Kilrush Poor Law union and Famine evictions.