New book explores 'poverty in pre-Famine Westmeath'

Four Courts Press have announced the publication of a ‘Poverty in pre-Famine Westmeath: The findings of the Poor Commission of 1833’ by Séan Byrne.

The scale of the Great Famine of 1846 has overshadowed the prevalence of extreme poverty in Ireland in the period 1815-45.

As economic conditions deteriorated in those years, the population increased rapidly.

From the 1820s, in the wake of famines and epidemics and an increase in agrarian violence, pressure mounted on the British government to address the problem of poverty in Ireland.

In 1833, the government established the Royal Commission for Inquiring into the Condition of the Poorer Classes in Ireland.

The commission investigated poverty in Ireland by holding public enquiry sessions, in which the poorest people participated, in 17 counties.

The reports of those public session provide a detailed account of poverty in 1830s Ireland.

This book uses the findings of the Poor Inquiry for County Westmeath to give an account of economic and social conditions in the county, in the decade before the Famine.

Seán Byrne is lecturer emeritus in economics, Technological University Dublin.

‘Poverty in pre-Famine Westmeath: The findings of the Poor Commission of 1833’ is available in paperback (82 pages, €12.95).

https://www.fourcourtspress.ie/books/2023/poverty-in-pre-famine-westmeath/