Gathering Kelp In coastal areas, particularly along the west coast of Ireland, farming was often combined with fishing. Many of these coastal dwellers ...
Eviction During the Famine the rate of evictions rose rapidly, particularly in the western counties. This contemporary sketch shows a tenant ...
Cottiers This 1846 illustration shows the despair of a cottier family gazing at a rotten heap of potatoes. Cottiers and landless labourers were ...
Clothes being distributed at Kilrush Some idea of the poverty and destitution of poor farmers in the west of Ireland during the Famine is conveyed by this 1849 illustration. ...
Setting Potatoes This photograph was taken in the Glens of Antrim in 1900. It shows how potatoes were sown in rigs or ‘lazy beds’, and this was a very ...
Potato Ridges This aerial photograph of Clare Island shows how every available piece of land – mountains, bogs, cliff-tops, etc. – was used to ...
Pig Fair Up to the 1840s pig fairs were a very common sight in most small Irish towns, but during the Famine pig numbers dropped by more than a ...
Pigs and Poultry The early 19th century saw a big rise in the numbers of pigs and hens in Ireland. These animals could also be fed on potatoes and even ...
Rotary Spinner - Digger This machine was invented in 1855 in Co. Antrim. It allowed potatoes to be dug mechanically as the iron lugs spun into the earth ...
Potato Field This sketch shows women digging a potato field in the middle of the 19th century. Women and children often worked at planting, weeding ...
