by Joe Power
Clare Journal, 25 February 1915.
Distress in Clare
The war had an obvious economic impact upon the economy of Clare. It was certainly benefitting the farmers. The wives of men who were serving in the forces were receiving separation allowances, while their widows were granted pensions. However, the poor were being affected by high prices of food and fuel. Trade and business was also adversely affected. Many people were in great distress. The labourers working for Clare County Council sought higher wages to meet their basic needs, but this demand was rejected by the council. A public meeting was held at the Town Hall, Ennis, for the relief of the poor of Ennis, in view of ‘the high price of food and fuel’.
This meeting resulted in the formation of a Committee for the Relief of Distress caused by the war. Mr James O’Regan, JP, chairman of Clare County Council, presided and there was a mixture of Catholic and Protestants on the committee: The Hon. Mrs Blood; Mrs Vere O’Brien; Mrs Hickman; Mrs Bulger; Col O’Callaghan Westropp; F.N. Studdert, DL; V. Revd Canon Hannon, PP; V. Revd Canon Bourke, PP; Councillor M.Considine; and C.W. Healy, JP; with Mr Wilson Lynch, JP, and Mr A.E. Wallace as honorary secretaries.
Various sub-committees reported from Kilkee, Clare Castle, Miltown Malbay, Doonagore and Killaloe. There were twenty-six families in Kilkee, with over 100 people in ‘acute distress due to a fall off in tourism’. From Miltown Malbay it was reported that ‘acute distress prevailed’, with at least forty men unemployed. In Quilty it was stated that ‘a considerable number of young men had joined the army or navy and that this was a major loss to the fishing crews, resulting in a poor fishing season’. The poor people of Killaloe were reported to be ‘really destitute, owing to the absence of tourists’. Reports from Lahinch and Lisdoonvarna also indicated ‘distress’. It is noticeable that there were no sub-committee reports for the following areas: Ennis, Kilrush, Ennistymon, Newmarket-on-Fergus and Sixmilebridge. This may have been due to the fact that many unemployed young men from these towns had enlisted in the army or navy.
Canon Bourke, the local parish priest, reported that ‘in Clare Castle there were twenty-nine families in distress, fourteen carters and fifteen dockers. Their incomes had fallen due to the decline in imports of coal to the port due to the war. Many of the poor were now heavily indebted to the shopkeepers’. The committee voted a sum of £50 to the local sub-committee for distribution to the poor. Col O’Callaghan stated that the coal merchants and importers could not get supplies of coal from England because the Clyde Shipping Company’s ships were committed to government contracts for the war. Canon Burke said that Mr Patrick Power, one of the coal importers, had done all he could to secure ships to import coal. He said that he had even brought coal by rail to Clare Castle. The committee resolved to write to the Board of Trade to secure shipping for Clare Castle. These representations to the Board of Trade must have been successful, as about five months later, Mr Power advertised that he had four cargoes of ‘best Whitehaven and Lancashire coal’ for sale at the port of Clare Castle, totalling 1,400 tons.25
The shopkeepers of Ennis and other towns in Clare were also experiencing an economic recession caused by the war. In response they decided to end a long-standing practice of giving ‘Christmas boxes’ to their loyal customers. A spokesman stated in November that Christmas boxes were being withdrawn, ‘these bribes are ruinous and they only encourage dishonesty to the trade.’ Another report stated that the war has upset trade and that ‘Christmas boxes’ would not be given. Traders who breached the rule would be fined £20. This policy applied to traders in Ennis, Killaloe, Kilrush and other towns. A third report stated that the master bakers and flour merchants have decided not to give ‘Christmas boxes’ this year under a penalty of £20!26
Bishop Fogarty took the opportunity while consecrating a new altar at Crusheen church in July to make some comments about the state of the economy after a year of war. Probably influenced by the opinions of his friend, Bishop O’Dwyer of Limerick, he advised people to be cautious about their expenditure, as he believed that the terrible war would be succeeded by times of great distress and poverty. ‘That was the opinion of economic experts. Money had already lost half of its value. They say it is God’s will to bring us back again to the simple life, that this war and the consequences of it are intended in the hands of God to burn up and turn to ashes all the luxury and sensuality and extravagance that has begun to overrun the whole of Europe, and that the result would be that they would all be put back again to the simple life, where men of virtue would have an opportunity of living … It would be well for them to look ahead and if money was plentiful in a year which was a good one for the farmers and everybody else, they ought to be careful and not waste it, not knowing what was before them’.27
Weather and Farming
Though there was a general perception that the farmers were doing well from the war economy, farming conditions in the county were not ideal for growth during many months of the year. The end of year review of the weather at Carrigoran by A.B. (A. Busker) in the Clare Journal of 3 January 1916, noted that the year 1915 had seen extremes of rainfall and temperatures. Exceptionally high levels of rainfall in January and February, following the very heavy rains of December, produced ‘unprecedented levels of flooding in the fields’. The weather improved in March, drying up the land rather quickly, and to the satisfaction of all agriculturalists, bringing tillage lands ‘into a very desirable state for cultivation’.
However, the following three months, April-June, were unusually dry and sunny, with rainfall amounts being less than half the average. ‘This produced a state of dryness and everything parched up’. The weather in July was one of the wettest, gloomiest and coldest on record. It was, according to meteorologists the wettest July in thirty-four years, with rain recorded at Carrigoran for twenty-nine days of the month. The harvest months of August-October had near normal weather in terms of rainfall. There was a period of beautifully fine and hot weather during mid-September and mid-October. The rain in early November was exceptionally high, with more than an inch each day on 11 and 12 November. That was followed by a long dry, but cold spell, with frost on fourteen days.
Overall, the weather made it a difficult year for farming. However, despite the adverse conditions, the yields of hay, potatoes and cereals were ‘surprisingly above normal and better than expected’. There was an increase in tillage farming in the county and in crop yields. This increase may have been a natural response to increased prices for cereals and to Tillage Acts requiring more tillage cultivation.
A report in the Clare Journal of 20 December 1915 stated that the average yield of the potato crop in Ireland this year was 6.2 tons per statute acre, compared with an average yield of 5.9 tons in 1914, and a ten-year average of 5.2 tons. There were 16,500 acres of Clare under potatoes, compared with 15,878 in 1914, (a 3.9 per cent increase). The potato harvest was up from 84,500 tons in 1914 to 95,567 tons in 1915, (a 13.5 per cent increase).
Cereals fell short of the harvest of 1914, partly due to the weather, which was too dry in the early season and too wet during most of the later period of growth. However, the harvesting weather was ‘extremely favourable’. The acreage and production of tillage in 1914 and 1915 is shown in the following tables:
Table 1
Acreage under tillage in County Clare 1914-1915
Year
Wheat
Oats
Barley
Potatoes
Total
1914
619
10,710
857
15,878
28,064
1915
2,099
10,481
785
16,500
29,865
Table 2
Crop yields in tons 1914-1915
Year
Wheat
Oats
Barley
Potatoes
Total
1914
622
>
10,656
792
84,500
96,570
1915
2,149
10,307
700
95,567
108,723
Because of the war and increased prices, there was a great increase in the acreage and tonnage of wheat and potatoes, while the area under oats and barley declined slightly that year. The total area of arable farming in County Clare increased from 28,064 acres to 29,865 acres (+6.4 per cent). The total tonnage of cereal crops and potatoes increased from 96,570 tons to 108,723 tons, an increase of 12,162 tons (+12.5 per cent).
According to An Foras Taluntais, the extent of suitable land for tillage in County Clare is approximately 30 per cent of the county. County Clare has 777,347 acres and 30 per cent of that would amount to 234,094 acres. So, by that yardstick, the extent of tillage in 1915 fell far short of the maximum potential of tillage land in the county, as only 12.7 per cent of the suitable tillage land was being used then. This figure must be tempered by the fact that the quality of the tillage land varied so much. Much of the tillage land of the county was relatively poor as the following table shows:
Table 3
Tillage suitability classes for County Clare
Per centage of county
Class 1
Class 2
Class 3
Class 4
Total
Nil
3.1
5.1
21.9
30
In fact about 73 per cent of the land deemed suitable for tillage is of fourth class – that is of the poorest quality. If we combine the first-, second- and third-class land suitable for tillage we can estimate that 8.2 per cent of the county would make ‘moderate to very good’ tillage land. That would amount to about 19,195 acres. Judging by these figures, it would seem that all of the best and most suitable land of the county was in fact being used for tillage in 1915. Actually that figure was exceeded by more than 10,000 acres, so much of the least suitable land for tillage was also being tilled. Moreover, these figures do not take the cooler, duller, wetter climate of County Clare into account, by comparison with the drier, warmer, and sunnier climate of the east and south-east of Ireland, the tillage heartland of Ireland.28
War Charities
Given the level of distress because of the war there were many fundraising ventures for soldiers, sailors, and especially the wounded and for prisoners. Fundraising for charitable causes were traditionally carried out by middle- and upper-class ladies and in County Clare, usually Protestant women.
Collections were arranged for prisoners of war held by the Germans, organised by Miss Maunsell, Island McGrath; Miss Norah Stackpoole of Edenvale held a collection for sandbags for the front; Miss Gelston of Stamer Park raised funds for the 10th Royal Irish Regiment; Miss Geraldine Mahon of Corbally, Quin, appealed for eggs for wounded soldiers and sailors in Dublin hospitals; Miss Violet MacNamara of Ennistymon, raised funds for the Red Cross; Miss Studdert organised a concert in the Town Hall Ennis which raised £20 for the Blue Cross, a charity for wounded horses; Ethel, Lady Inchiquin of Dromoland and Ms Willis, Bindon Street, Ennis, promoted the Queen’s Appeal, a charity for unemployed women and girls in great distress as well as shop girls; Mrs MacDonnell of New Hall set up a fund for wounded soldiers; Mrs Cullinan, Bindon Street, Ennis collected fresh fruit and vegetables for sailors; Mrs F.N. Studdert held a collection at the County Agricultural Show for prisoners; several fundraising efforts were made on behalf of Belgian refugees; the County Clare Lawn Tennis Club held a jumble sale for the relief of wounded Royal Munster Fusiliers; a collection was held to raise funds for cigarettes and tobacco for Clare prisoners in Germany; Christmas treats for the children of sailors and soldiers were organised by Miss Burton, Clifden, Corofin and by Miss Lane Joynt, Carnelly; and the Clare Needlework Guild sent socks and other items to Clare prisoners; Miss Bruce and other ladies of Kilkee put on an operetta to raise funds for the prisoners. Besides these collections, there were several church gate collections for Catholic Belgium and Catholic Poland, organised by the Catholic Church.29
Prisoners of War
There were many Clare prisoners of war by the end of 1915, indeed some had been captured as early as 27 August 1914 after the first encounter with the Germans in Belgium. Some of them sent letters back home via the Red Cross and some of them described the difficult conditions that they endured. One prisoner of war, Colour-Sgt Maj. John Browne, son of Mrs Browne, the Turnpike, Ennis, who was a prisoner in Limburg, Germany, wrote a letter to his mother appealing for help. The letter was published in the Saturday Record in January under the heading ‘ENNIS PRISONERS IN GERMANY’:
Clothing Badly Wanted
Find out if there is any soldiers’ society formed in Ennis for the benefit of soldiers serving. If so, I would like you to inform whoever is head of it that there are several men here belonging to the town of Ennis, who are badly in need of some clothing. Shirts, socks etc. would be a great God-send to them.
Another communication says that there are 474 of the Munster Fusiliers imprisoned as prisoners of war, and of these only about 80 have great coats, and the majority have only cotton shirts and no socks. One good lady in Wales, Mrs Gower, has already sent out 200 parcels to them.
The Clare Journal editor suggested that a prisoners’ relief organisation should be set up in Clare.
A second letter from Colour-Sgt Maj. John Browne, which was sent to Lt Col Brasier Creagh, County Cork, was published in the Clare Journal in March 1915 under the heading ‘CAPTURED MUNSTERS CALL FOR CLOTHING’:
The Munsters, who at Mons and in the dreadful opening battle of the early stages of the war were overwhelmed by vast numbers of Germans, now ask of those who live at home in comfort to help them in their necessaries. Many, if not most of them are interned at Limburg [Lahn] and in that camp they have to bear the rigours of an extremely cold climate, their sufferings being accentuated by sparse feeding. They are in need of some warm clothing as is shown by the following letter:
‘Limburg (Lahn), Germany
24 -1-’15
Sir- on behalf of the NCOs and men of the RMF, who are prisoners of war here with me, I take the liberty of asking your assistance in obtaining some comforts for the men. It is five months since we were taken prisoners, and since then what warm shirts and socks the men had are worn out. The shirts have been replaced by the German authorities, but, of course, we cannot expect anything better than cotton ones. Socks are not issued and out of the 400 odd I have here, only about 40 of them have socks. The men have to work all day and at present the weather is very cold and the men feel it terribly. It would be a great God-send if the men at present under your command would put their heads together and send us a couple of hundred pairs of socks. They could be forwarded to me made up in parcels of 10lbs. I have a card from Mrs O’Shea, saying that two sacks of underclothing were on their way to me, so that she might be able to supply a warm shirt for each man. All the Irish Catholics are here. It was a great blessing to get here as we are in a good barracks, and alright, except for under-clothing. All the men are in the best of health and spirits.
J. Browne, C.S.M.
2nd Royal Munster Fusiliers
But help was already at hand in County Clare, as Miss Maunsell, of The Island, (Island McGrath), Clare Castle, and Mrs McElroy, wife of the resident magistrate, the Barracks, Clare Castle, appealed for flannel shirts, woollen underclothing or flannelette garments, socks etc., or money to purchase materials for making garments for the prisoners of war in Germany who were of the Munster Fusiliers Regiment and for those about to be sent to the front, ‘where this regiment has been earning undying fame’.
Miss Maunsell, who had been busy in prisoner relief since August 1914, took the opportunity of thanking all of her friends who had so kindly assisted her with time and money at her weekly working party at Clare Castle barracks. ‘It was’, she said, ‘a great pleasure to be able to send off regula
rly large parcels of comforts to the Munsters, Irish Guards, Leinsters and the Navy, for which very grateful letters had been received’. She and some other young women had organised collections at Clare Castle fairs of May and November, as well as a collection in the parish of Clare Castle and Ballyea, which raised £5 10s.
Mr H.R. Glynn, DL, of Kilrush received the following letter from John Stafford, a Kilrush prisoner in Limburg Germany, in March 1915:
Dear Mr. Glynn,
I take this, the first opportunity I have got, of hastening to thank you for the valuable and very useful parcel which you were so kind to send to me. I received it alright on the 5th of this month and I shared it out among the other six Kilrush men who are here, they were all delighted. I hope you will not think it too much of me taking advantage of your kind offer to send on more tobacco when I want it, but should you be sending cigarettes please send Woodbines, as they are preferable above all other brands. Having no money of course it is impossible to obtain the things we are used to in Ireland. Even if we had money, we could not get many of them here, therefore do not take it ill of me asking you to supply a small tin of cocoa, milk, sugar, butter, or jam or marmalade. A cake would be an extraordinary luxury, as also would be a supply of cheese. Should you be pleased yourself to send on another parcel you can please yourself as to the contents in addition to the things I have suggested, resting assured that whatever arrives will be appreciated and again thanking you heartily for the last parcel. I remain,
Yours sincerely, John Stafford.
In July a Prisoner Relief Committee was established in Kilrush after Mr Nagle, an urban councillor, received ‘a very pathetic letter from a Kilrush man describing the in-human treatment meted out to him and his comrades by the Huns’. Mr Murphy, the town clerk, and Mr Thomas Lillis, urban councillor, acted as hon. secretaries, with Mr Nagle as hon. treasurer. The committee urged the people of Kilrush to respond generously to the call for help and to show that the prisoners from their native town were not forgotten.
