'An tOcras Mór' The Great Hunger.

Times are hard and there’s worse to come; that’s the way it is after the banking crash and the subsequent economic crisis through the continent of Europe and well beyond.

And there is absolutely no doubt that people are facing massive problems, many almost distraught as they see little hope of a way out of their critical situations. But, little consolation as it will be to those in distress, what we are encountering now doesn’t even begin to compare to what our forefathers had to bear.

I’m referring specifically to the Great Famine which began in 1845 and, although it was less evident in county Tyrone than elsewhere, it did become quite severe here in 1846 and the complete failure of the potato crop in October of that year resulted in the formation of local famine relief committees.

http://www.tyronetimes.co.uk/what-s-on/yer-man-about-town-the-great-famine-1-3919827

Famine Relief, Co. Tyrone 1847

Published acknowledgements of Relief Assistance received from home and abroad by clergy, gentry, etc. during the Great Famine from selected issues of The Londonderry Standard 1847

Transcribed by Len Swindley

len_swindley[at]hotmail.com

http://www.cotyroneireland.com/famine/tyrone.html

Infanticide in pre-famine Tyrone

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Dangerous women or women in danger?

By the late 1830s Ireland was in the depths of an economic recession. This depression was particularly severe in Ulster where the weaving industry had almost collapsed. In some areasof Ulster this industry had provided the entire family unit with employment

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the women of the household spinning the yarn that had been prepared by their menfolk. This cottageindustry had allowed for a standard of living above the subsistence level but with its collapsemany weavers and their families were forced into destitution. As far as the reverend ThomasMiller from Derryloran, County Tyrone, was concerned the loss of this home industry had anill effect especially on young women. In highlighting the perils now faced Miller lamented

http://www.academia.edu/3577061/Infanticide_in_pre-famine_Tyrone_-_dangerous_women_or_women_in_danger_

https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=knlzOZXQY1UC&pg=PA33&lpg=PA33&dq=THE+FAMINE+IN+tyrone&source=bl&ots=lA1-IKavZl&sig=_nECRcedGevDKnlWY3vX0bNOG6s&hl=en&sa=X&ei=ruRAVZ_gOcPoaKGygLgD&ved=0CEYQ6AEwBjgK#v=onepage&q=THE%20FAMINE%20IN%20tyrone&f=false