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History and the Famine
FAMINE
The most important event in the past 200 years was the "famine" of 1846-1850.
Our family lived in what was in the best of times the poorest part
of the country. I'm hoping to get stories from decendants of those who lived thru it.
I will try with the censuses from Au. Canada, US and England to try and get
an idea of how many left in the years of the famine and right after.
I can see from the US census that migration seemed to occur in waves.
Various locations in the US would get alot of our family in relatively
short times. I think this was families, and cousins all settling in the same
location.
I've found in the last few months there were more of the Norm*s moving during
famine times than I had orignall found info for. Part of this is because of the
lack of census info for these years, and the fact that when peole were here in the US
they (like my family) seemed to avoid being counted in te censuses.
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1841 CENSUS IRELAND - A PRECARIOUS SITUATION
On Census night 1841, the total population is given as 8,175,124. (Around the
same as that of England in 1801.) In the listing of errata, it is stated
that over 100,000 males in the rural part of Wexford are not included in the
count. In addition, large numbers of homeless people who, due to evictions,
are living on the sides of the roads, in 'scalps' or wandering from place to
place, are not counted.
As the vast majority of the people can neither read nor write, the landlord's
agents generally fill in the census forms. We can only assume that the
details are accurate. There may be deficiencies. Population has been growing
at the rate of 5% per decade, so indications point to the fact that there
may be over eight and a half million people in the country by 1845.
Since 1801, the Irish population has increased by 50%. There are signs of a
decrease in population growth before 1841, but this is having least impact
in the poorer areas such as Counties Galway, Clare, Cavan, Kerry and Mayo.
In fact, in the west, the population density is extremely high, as many as
400 people per square mile in places.
About 45% of the people are living in the lowest class of housing. There is
endemic poverty, particularly among the two-and-a-half million landless
labourers who suffer extreme want every summer. The one thing the country
could not withstand is famine.
1851 - REMARKABLE DIMINISHMENT
The population as recorded by the Census Commission in 1851 was 6,552,385.
The Commissioners stated that, had the Famine not occurred, the population
would have been 9,018,799. The commissioners calculated that, as a percentage
of the 1841 population, mortality from 1845 to 1850 was as follows: >
1845 : 6.4% >
1846 : 9.1% >
1847 : 18.5% >
1848 : 15.4% >
1849 : 17.9% >
1850 : 12.2% >
Cormac � Gr�da estimates the total deaths from famine at one million. The
Census Commissioners wrote in their concluding report:>
"In conclusion, we feel it will be gratifying to your excellency to find that
although the population has been diminished in so remarkable a manner by
famine, disease and emigration between 1841 and 1851, and has been since
decreasing, the results of the Irish census of 1851 are, on the whole,
satisfactory, demonstrating as they do the general advancement of the country
."
THE AFTERMATH - A DOUBLE EDGED RECOVERY
In the years to follow, the new 'mercantile' owners of land effect further
'clearances', carrying out more evictions and raising rents as ruthlessly as
before.
The total to die as a result of famine is about one and a half million, but
the exact figures are never recorded. The greatest number of deaths occurs
in Counties Mayo and Sligo, followed by Leitrim, Cavan, Roscommon and Galway
. Clare and Cork have the next highest excess mortality rates, and the least
number of deaths is found in Dublin, Kildare, Carlow, Wexford, Down, Louth
and Derry (then Londonderry).
The mud huts peculiar to the Irish countryside have mostly disappeared,
decreasing by 81% in Ulster, 74% in Connacht, 69% in Munster and 62% in
Leinster.
Between 1846 and 1851, nearly a million people emigrate, and the exodus
continues. Between 1848 and 1864, �13 million pounds is sent home by
emigrants to America to allow their relatives to travel out as well. From
1851 to 1901, 5 million people leave the country for good. By 1851, one-fifth
of the population of Liverpool consists of Irish famine emigrants.
Emigration accounts for a large part of the continuing population decline up
to the 1920s. In 1911, the population is 4,390,000.
Land systems do not change and must wait for the land agitation later in the
century. Tenants still hold land at the will of the landlords, with little
or no rights.
The areas most affected are in the west where the Irish language and the old
traditions flourished before the famine. The teeming, co-operative villages
are destroyed, and with them, many of the old customs and much of the old
light-heartedness.
The number of Irish speakers decreases from four million in 1845 to two
million in 1851. Poverty and the Irish language become linked in the
imagination of many, which hastens its decline. A new conservatism in all
areas of life follows upon the dominance of larger farmers. Religious
observances become more rigid, social intercourse more commercial.
By 1861, two-fifths of Irish land is held in farms of 100 acres or more.
The livestock export trade expands and an urban professional and merchant
class emerges to service it. Subsistence potato farming continues in the west
, as does seasonal migration to the east or to England.
Those who do have farms pass them down to one son, as opposed to the
sub-division common before the famine. This may mean that the other members
of the family have no means of livelihood and cannot marry, or might be
forced to emigrate.
The blight remains endemic, but never again causes the disaster of these
years. It re-appears in 1860-2, 1879, 1890, 1894 and 1897, but conditions
have changed by then - the dependence on the potato is not as great and
there is greater Government spending.
Lord George Hill, a landlord who had attempted without success to consolidate
his estates prior to 1845 says:
"The Irish people have profited much by the Famine, the lesson was severe;
but so deep-rooted were they in old prejudices and old ways, that no teacher
could have induced them to make the changes which this visitation of Divine
Providence has brought about, both in their habits of life and in their mode
of agriculture." >
History of our Family
Our family is a branch of the Macnamaras more than likely. I have evidence
that one MacNormoyle married a Macnamara.
This tell you that they were of the same class. They wouldn't marry "the help"
The Macnamaras were the
second most powerful family in Clare then known as Thomond. They were a part of
the Dal gCais or Dalcassian tribe.
The tribe that controlled East Clare untill about 1600. Arriving in the area
in the 3rd Century AD. They had come from Spain
where they had stopped during the Celtic migrations that had been going on for centuries.
The family lands of MacNamaras were in east Clare an area about 17 by 17 miles. Around 1300 there was a
sort of civil war between parts of the tribe. The result was MacNamaras land expanded to the east
and they began to build a number of castles.
One I believe was in townland of Formoyle, which was originally the
territory of the O'Kennedys. This would be the place our originator the "Hound of Formaoile"
is associated with.
5-20-2000
I've now heard another story. That a Macnamara was given the name Cu Formoyle meaning
Hound of Formoyle after guarding (while all alone) a pass at Formoyle during some battle. This was supposedly found by a friend of a father of Mary normoyle of Glin at National Library in Dublin.
I've found a passage in an old book talking about something similar. "In victory they returned to the main army's camp; there they told their story and the hearers wondered how a single iracht(I think it means something like Captain)so mightly had prevailed over the many whom they had attacked".
But in the battle he wasn't alone, just the only man of the upper class. He had common soldiers with him. this incident was apparently by a Macnamara. Its very hard to tell who is who in this old book.
After reading all teh historyof the Dal cassian s that I could and everything on Clare I've been amazed at thow many wars they fought and how often they traveled throughtout Ireland to fight. It seems like an almost yearly event. Whos to say the First Normy wasn't named after something in another part of Ireland.BR>
Around 1650 Cromwell ordered the destruction of most of the MacNamaras castles.
It was about this time that the English took the land and expelled the previous
owners to other parts of Ireland. I've seen lists of macnamara landowners from east Clare. There were over 100. Almost everyone of them had everythig taken and they were evicted. I've read there wre some migrations fro Clare to Limeric at this time.
Its obvious from the map that most of our family lived relatively
close together even in 1855. And some internal migration would explain why some had moved
off as far as Adare. In the book "Oceans of Consolation" it talks of how the
family had moved from near Doobeg to further north. There were some Normys iving around Killard and the west coast of Clare by 1855. This area was becaoming popular with the people with money in Limerick City as a summer vacation spot. Its onlly a few miles west of where most Normys lived in Clare and I'm guessing they moved there from the Kilmihil-Kildysart area.
Just a few miles south of this is Glin. Glin is another cneter of Normys. many living there were part of the English system working as Gov agents of one kind or another. I'm guessing that they didn't rise to this level but retained a bit of status thru the collapse of the old Irish syste and Englands benevolent rule.
Were they connected to the powerful families of the area? I'm guessing they were. Moving under their protedtion possibly to Limerick in mid 1600s.
The name Normoyle became anglicized to Normile everywhere in Clare and Limerick not just Glin and Clare like the records at first suggest. I think all or almost allthe Normys in ireland retained the knowledge that Normoyle was the original form. That makes me wonder if that doesn't mean all the Normys weren't in contact with themself for some tim e after they became disbused.
I'm seeing more and more evidence that
some of the family were shoemakers. One of the few trades they appear to have had when first coming over to the US. I know there were Normys shoemakers fro Glin and Kilmihil in mid 1800s and 1901--near present i Kilmihil. Could it be just two families. Could one family have moved from one town i Ireland t the other.
I am now working of family pre 1650s, and hope to find connection with MacNamaras. I read through Frosts "History of Clare" and even with 1000 of names were not there. From the records of the "faints" of 1603 I saw there were sever Normoyles pardoned at that time. Don't know from where or for what.
Books
Here is a list of books for anyone really interested in this. Many are very hard
to find. My local library has found alot of out of print books thru inter-library
loan. They have found what I want in 5 states so far and its free. I also have
bought quit a few from Ireland, which I couldn't get in America. Most of
these are either entirely about the area our family came from or has a great
deal about that area.
"Oceans of Consolation"
Edited by David Fitzpatrick
$45 but I found used for $12 on the Internet
This is a book of letters between immigrants to Australia, and the folks back home.
It is interesting in itself but the "Normile letters" really caught my eye. Editor
did research on the family history with the maps to their farm in 1855. there is about 55
pages on the Normiles(now Normoyles)There is another set of letters from
someone else from Co Clare. I've made contact with decendants in Australia and Clare.
"The History of an Irish Sept The MacNamaras"
This is the closest you'll ever find to a history of our family, and if its true that
we are a branch of the Macnamaras(which is 90% certain) then it really is a history of our family. This is a very interesting book.
"The Flowering of Ireland" Katharine Scherman
History from prehistoric. Great book, I've read it 3 times. What the much more widely know
"How the Irish saved
Civilization" should have been.
There is a really great collection: The Gill History of Ireland Series
They are all out of print but you library may have them.
"Ireland Before the Normans"
"Ireland Before the Vikings"
There are about 8 in the series. If you want to know what it was like to live in Gaelic society
before and after England shows up this this has it.
Books on Clare History
"Sable Wings over the Land"
Very interesting book on Famine times around Ennis, which is in Clare near where alot
of the family lived at that time.
County Clare A History and Topograpy Samuel Lewis
Has just bits of info on various places. I can tell you what it
has to say about specific places since there usually sorta skimpy.
"The Antiquities of County Clare" John O'Donovan and Eugene Curry
Much more interesting than the Lewis book. They traveled all over around 150
years ago
"Poverty Before the Famine County Clare 1835" Clasp Press This was
very interesting. Shows that life really sucked even in the best of times for alot of
people then(Well I mean the Irish, the English had it just fine).
The Irish in Chicago
McCaffrey, Skerrett,Funchion, and Fanning
This book is very good in showing how the Irish adapted to their new urban life in America
I don'think it matters that this book is about Chicago its the same story in every other big town.
Very good book and of course hard to find. I originated in this awful town, and I'd think
there would be similar books for other US cities
The Irish in America
This is a 4 part Documentary. I really liked most of it. Library should have or be able to get it at least
in N. America
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