Dear all, I have no opinion either way on the matter of milk/water on Good Friday, but at a C/Kavanagh Gathering in Carlow in 2008 a local speaker mentioned that Carlow was one of the lesser affected counties during the famine. One extract I have seen gives percentage of famine deaths as: Connaught 40%, Munster 30%, Ulster 21% and Leinster (which of course contains Carlow) 9%. Population decline between 1841 and 1851 does not quite mirror this: Connaught 28.8%, Munster 22.5%, Ulster 15.7% and Leinster 15.3%. (from Wikipedia). Carlow also had one of the highest percentages of literacy in the country in 1841, with only Dublin and Wicklow having higher percentages in the southern counties (Down and Antrim were the highest, both above 40% - they also had the lowest percentage of 'low class housing'. See http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~irelandlist/famine.html#Famine) This does not mean that the Carlow workhouses were not 'packed full' during the famine years, as the number and capacity of Irish workhouses was woefully inadequate for dealing with a calamity of this scale - sources suggest that even when all workhouses (in Ireland) were completed their total capacity was little more than 100,000. Some workhouses were not completed until 1850 (eg Castletownbere, Co Cork) which was way too late to have any impact on the famine needs. Prior to the famine, Irish workhouses are said to have run at about 40% of capacity . Clearly this is a complex and difficult topic, but one which is central to our research. Economics, previous famines, politics, social attitudes, and land tenure are just a few of the factors which contributed to this terrible time. Regards, Patsy - New Zealand Website: http://www.loanegenealogy.webs.com Sent: Tuesday, March 02, 2010 2:00 PM Subject: Re: [IRL-CARLOW] Fast and Abstinence !. I definitely don't want to be the start of any anti-religious tirade on any faith. That's not the purpose of this forum but I think that what we can learn from records like this is that neither religion had any monopoly on power grasping, evil intentions or saintly behaviour. It doesn't seem to me very likely that the workhouse chaplain was on the saintly side. That's all. This is a new notion to me that Carlow did not suffer greatly from the potato famine. Does anyone have any Carlow-specific information about that? >From what I understood the workhouse in Carlow was packed full for some reason. Tom

Yes, but, I would think 9 out of 100 people dying would be terrible if it happened in my neighborhood or my church group....even though 40 out of 100 would be way worse. Fran On Mar 1, 2010, at 10:39 PM, Patricia O'Shea wrote: > Dear all, I have no opinion either way on the matter of milk/water > on Good > Friday, but at a C/Kavanagh Gathering in Carlow in 2008 a local > speaker > mentioned that Carlow was one of the lesser affected counties > during the > famine. > > One extract I have seen gives percentage of famine deaths as: > Connaught 40%, Munster 30%, Ulster 21% and Leinster (which of course > contains Carlow) 9%. > > Population decline between 1841 and 1851 does not quite mirror this: > Connaught 28.8%, Munster 22.5%, Ulster 15.7% and Leinster 15.3%. (from > Wikipedia). > > Carlow also had one of the highest percentages of literacy in the > country in > 1841, with only Dublin and Wicklow having higher percentages in the > southern > counties (Down and Antrim were the highest, both above 40% - they > also had > the lowest percentage of 'low class housing'. See > http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~irelandlist/ > famine.html#Famine) > > This does not mean that the Carlow workhouses were not 'packed > full' during > the famine years, as the number and capacity of Irish workhouses was > woefully inadequate for dealing with a calamity of this scale - > sources > suggest that even when all workhouses (in Ireland) were completed > their > total capacity was little more than 100,000. Some workhouses were not > completed until 1850 (eg Castletownbere, Co Cork) which was way too > late to > have any impact on the famine needs. Prior to the famine, Irish > workhouses > are said to have run at about 40% of capacity . > > Clearly this is a complex and difficult topic, but one which is > central to > our research. Economics, previous famines, politics, social > attitudes, and > land tenure are just a few of the factors which contributed to this > terrible > time. > > Regards, Patsy - New Zealand > > Website: > http://www.loanegenealogy.webs.com > > Sent: Tuesday, March 02, 2010 2:00 PM > Subject: Re: [IRL-CARLOW] Fast and Abstinence !. > > > I definitely don't want to be the start of any anti-religious > tirade on any > faith. That's not the purpose of this forum but I think that what > we can > learn from records like this is that neither religion had any > monopoly on > power grasping, evil intentions or saintly behaviour. It doesn't > seem to me > very likely that the workhouse chaplain was on the saintly side. > That's > all. > > This is a new notion to me that Carlow did not suffer greatly from the > potato famine. Does anyone have any Carlow-specific information > about that? >> From what I understood the workhouse in Carlow was packed full for >> some > reason. > > Tom > > > ======================================= > Before you post a message to the IRL-CARLOW mailing list you must > subscribe to the List. Its FREE! > --------------------------------------- > To subscribe to the IRL-Carlow mailing list, send an email to IRL- > CARLOW-request@rootsweb.com with the word "subscribe" (without the > quotes) in the Subject box. No additional text is required. > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to IRL-CARLOW- > request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes > in the subject and the body of the message frances heidel 皮 fradel@comcast.net Consultant - Arbonne International Wellnessnskincare.myarbonne.com 610-631-2585