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FROM 1830 - 1860 > FARMING |
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Employment Rules Shortly after the Famine labourers could earn slightly more than one shilling per day, but they were often subjected to tough rules ... |
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Potato Blight This potato plant has been infected with the blight. The disease spread rapidly in the humid weather of 1845. It was a sign that the ... |
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Blighted Potato This is what a blighted potato looks like. If you pressed your thumb into the centre it would be soft and mushy. Even animals would ... |
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The Discovery of Potato Blight This illustration captures the despair of rural people on discovering the potato blight. The lack of scientific knowledge about the ... |
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Loy Loys were the light spades used by Irish farm labourers. Spalpeens often carried their own loys. |
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Spalpeen 1 Spalpeens were itinerant farm labourers. Their numbers rose sharply in the decades before the Famine, with some even travelling to ... |
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Spalpeens 2 The word spalpeens comes from the Irish word spailpini. As farms became more mechanised, these spalpeens often had to go farther afield ... |
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Gathering Kelp In coastal areas, particularly along the west coast of Ireland, farming was often combined with fishing. Many of these coastal dwellers ... |
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Eviction During the Famine the rate of evictions rose rapidly, particularly in the western counties. This contemporary sketch shows a tenant ... |
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Cottiers This 1846 illustration shows the despair of a cottier family gazing at a rotten heap of potatoes. Cottiers and landless labourers were ... |
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