But these
and every local endeavor to mitigate the suffering failed, and the
destructive work of the famine continued, the number of victims
increasing, to the end of that fatal year. The horrors of 1846 were more
than equalled by those of the year that followed, and the woful picture
presented by Sir Charles Gavan Duffy, the distinguished Irish patriot,
statesman, and historian, is but too amply justified by the accepted
records of the time.
The condition of Ireland at the opening of the year 1847 is one of the
most painful chapters in the annals of mankind. An industrious and
hospitable race were in the pangs of a devouring famine. Deaths of
individuals, of husband and wife, of entire families, were becoming
common. The potato-blight had spread from the Atlantic to the Caspian;
but there was more suffering in one parish of Mayo than in all the rest
of Europe. From Connaught, where distress was greatest, came batches of
inquests with the horrible verdict "died of starvation." In some
instances the victims were buried "wrapped in a coarse coverlet," a
coffin being too costly a luxury.
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