Poverty in Ireland, 1837

A remarkable study of pre-Famine Ireland.-- This remarkable study of the causes and effects of poverty in pre-Famine Ireland was written by one of Hungary's first novelists and it's an acutely accurate account of conditions in the country in the mid-1830s. Baron Eotvos came from the multilayered aristocracy of Hungary, but this was no hindrance to his remarkable insights into a country far from his own. That very distance gave him remarkable perspicacity regarding the social and economic problems of Ireland, through which, inspired by Daniel O'Connell, he travelled extensively. Unlikely as it may have seemed to many of the dispossessed poor whom he met, his sympathies were entirely with them. His book was first published in Hungarian in 1840 but, amazingly, it has had to wait until now for publication in English. The Phaeton Press has done an excellent job in creating this bilingual publication, with the Hungarian text on one side of the double pages and English on the other, all intermingled with an excellent series of period lithographs and a striking cover. ... --Hugh Oram, Books Ireland Magazine, July-August 2015 [the full text of this review is given at the end of this 'reviews' section]. - - - -; Highly interesting and an excellent publication both in content and format ... an important contribution to an understanding of Eotvos in the international academic community. --Dr Paul Body, [author of Joseph Eotvos and the Modernization of Hungary 1840-1870, American Philosophical Society, 1972]. - - - -; Amongst many visitors to pre-Famine Ireland was the Hungarian baron Jozsef Eotvos (a campaigner for the freedom of serfs who went on to become a major literary and political figure in his homeland); he was horrified by what he witnessed here, and castigated Ireland's British and/or Protestant rulers for exercising, as he put it, their 'unlimited and self-serving power over the people.' His account of his travels has now been published as Poverty in Ireland 1837. This is a dual-language production with the original Hungarian text facing the English translation. --History Ireland Magazine, May-June 2015. - - - -; A remarkable study of pre-Famine Ireland-- This remarkable study of the causes and effects of poverty in pre-Famine Ireland was written by one of Hungary's first novelists and it's an acutely accurate account of conditions in the country in the mid-1830s. Baron Eotvos came from the multilayered aristocracy of Hungary, but this was no hindrance to his remarkable insights into a country far from his own. That very distance gave him remarkable perspicacity regarding the social and economic problems of Ireland, through which, inspired by Daniel O'Connell, he travelled extensively. Unlikely as it may have seemed to many of the dispossessed poor whom he met, his sympathies were entirely with them. His book was first published in Hungarian in 1840 but, amazingly, it has had to wait until now for publication in English. The Phaeton Press has done an excellent job in creating this bilingual publication, with the Hungarian text on one side of the double pages and English on the other, all intermingled with an excellent series of period lithographs and a striking cover. The descriptions of the poor are heart-rending: 'everywhere people are in rags, and wearing the traces of hunger and disease on their pale faces.' Much of the blame is laid on the British administration of Ireland, and while the baron notes that, to the stranger, Britain presents an image of public well-being, he documents its malevolent incompetence in Ireland. He discovered that about a third of the Irish population of eight million was poor. He analyses the system of land ownership and its effects on the three most evident layers. At the top of the pile are the small farmers, then come the cotters and, finally, the day labourers. The worthy baron depicts the squalid home life of countless Irish families in graphic detail and says that the Irish deserve pity, not the contempt and hatred commonly expounded by the English. In one remarkable passage that seems very prescient in view of our own times, when the country is riven by gross inequality between the supremely wealthy and the rest of us, Eotvos notes that the rich and powerful can wander in Ireland with satisfaction. They can find palaces as well as extensive parkland, and brightly dressed servants, in scenes mimicking the glamour and enjoyment with which the English aristocracy surrounds itself. He quotes, with some irony, the words of Arthur Young, from his account of his 1780 tour of Ireland, that landlords of consequence told him that many of their cotters would think themselves honoured by having their wives and daughters set out for the bed of their masters, which Young rightly said was the mark of the slave. The baron's sources are impeccable; he quotes widely and wisely, to add to his own observations. He explains that neither the judicial nor the tax systems can be fair to the afflicted, since they are constructed in the interests of the well-off. He says, with great truth, that what the people need are bread and clothes, and sometimes a little dancing and wine. He points out, in pitiful detail, the wholly deplorable conditions in which many people lived. Their clothes were often so ragged that priests had to say Mass twice on Sundays, so that one part of the household could return and hand over their clothes to the others so that they in their turn could attend Mass. The single room of many houses was occupied by the hearth and the entire family in rags, together with pigs and other small animals. One bed, one chair and one cooking pot were frequently all that a family possessed. Neither did he believe that overpopulation was to blame for the widespread poverty. He says that England is more densely populated than Ireland, so that if this precept were followed through, England would be poorer than Ireland, whereas the opposite is the case. He points out that the farming county of Galway, among the poorest in Ireland, has exactly the same number of people per acre as some of the richest counties in England. The failures in Ireland were all due to the massive toxicity of the government system. After 175 years the book rings so true for the devastating accuracy of its reporting of the ills of Ireland and the reasons why the poor suffered so much. Eotvos does not explicitly forecast the Great Famine but makes clear that all the conditions for it had already been set in place by the 1830s. It's a vivid and gripping tale that totally contradicts the official story of Ireland peddled by its then British administrators. One interesting side note to the enterprise is the mention of Richard Griffith, creator of the valuation system that is so invaluable for researchers today. Griffith lived at 2 Fitzwilliam Place, Dublin, from 1835 until his death in 1878, the house now occupied by the Hungarian Embassy. Only in the very last paragraphs does the worthy baron falter. He says that 'we can expect Ireland to settle down in peace after winning its rights' and that, while the Irish would continue to rebel for a while in the advancement of their aims, that wouldn't be for much longer. A peaceful settlement of Ireland's ills was never delivered, however, and the ultimate consequence was the 1916 Rising. --Hugh Oram, Books Ireland Magazine, July-August 2015.