The famine
PRONI Reference: D3618/D/1
1995 was the 150th anniversary of the Great Famine during which the population of Ireland decreased by one and a half million, or almost 20%.
PRONI has in its custody a wide range of records relating to the Famine including the archives of the Boards of Guardians, family correspondence, business records and estate archives which illustrate the impact of starvation, dysentery and fever in various parts of Ulster.
On 17 January 1847, the Rt Hon. George Robert Dawson, Castledawson, Co. Londonderry, wrote to Sir Thomas F. Fremantle, Chairman of the Board of Customs, London, describing the distress in south Derry during the winter of 1846-47: 'I can think of nothing else than the wretched condition of this wretched people. We are comparatively well off in this neighbourhood. There is no want of food but it is at such a price, as to make it totally impossible for a poor man to support his family with the wages he receives. I do not exaggerate when I tell you that from the moment I open my hall in the morning until dark, I have a crowd of women and children crying out for something to save them from starving.'
