Former Tipperary councillor publishes book on the Great Famine

Above: The front cover of Seamus Fogarty's book, The Famine Lie 

A former Carrick-on-Suir councillor at the grand age of 89 has published a book about the Great Famine that also features some fascinating social history about the rural community where he grew up.

The Famine Lie is Seamus Fogarty’s second book and is based on historical research he has carried out and anecdotal stories about that tragic period in Irish history passed down through generations of his family.

Seamus from Poulmaleen, Faugheen is well known to many in Carrick-on-Suir from the nine years he served as an Independent councillor on the former Carrick-on-Suir Urban District Council from 1985 to 1994.

He is also the former editor and writer of the Poulmaleen Post magazine and a keen gardener and naturalist who penned a weekly wildlife column for The Nationalist called Country Life when the late Brendan Long was the paper’s Editor.
Seamus’ book pointedly blames the actions of the British authorities for the Great Famine ( 1845 to 1849).

He has named the book “The Famine Lie” and refers to that period as the “so called Famine” because he argues the mass death of so many people in Ireland through starvation occurred at that time despite the fact there was a huge amount of food produced in Ireland.

“In my view and in the view of some historians there was loads of food in Ireland but it was being exported to England. When the potato crop failed instead of stopping the exports they continued,” he said.

“For instance during the most severe part of the Famine in 1848 exports to England amounted to 190,000 cattle, 324,000 sheep and lambs, 106,000 pigs, 3,000 sacks of oatmeal, 5,000 sacks of flour and so on.”

Seamus’ book recalls the heartbreaking tragedy of how countless “downtrodden” peasants starved to death in their humble dwellings and were buried in shallow graves without coffins. And it details how many of those who emigrated to America in overcrowded “coffin” ships ended up in watery graves at the bottom of the Atlantic.

It also details the evictions that took place countrywide during the Famine and features 10 photographs of such evictions, copies of which he secured from the National Library.

Seamus used the research of Chicago based historian and namesake Chris Fogarty on the Famine in his book. He also examined first-hand accounts journalists wrote for newspapers like The Freeman’s Journal.

He owns a collection of newspapers from that period that belonged to his late father.

Stories were also handed down to him by his paternal grandmother whose mother and grandmother lived through the Great Hunger.

He devotes the second half of the book to some fascinating social history from the Cregg area close to Carrick-on-Suir where he was born and grew up. He recalls the local landlords, the Sadlier family, who lived in the mansion on the Cregg Estate and their relationship with local people.

Seamus writes about three spinster sisters, Anne, Augusta and Louisa Sadlier who lived there and the run in his grandfather Jack Harris, who was the local blacksmith, had with them.

“You can read in the book about the letter sent by the sisters to Jack Harris warning him of serious consequences unless he ceased shooting pheasants on their estate and about his John Wayne like response to the warning.”

Seamus also writes in the book of how much he misses his beloved sister Maureen, who passed away a year ago at the age of 91.

Maureen, who had special needs, lived with Seamus and he recalls fondly how she had been looking forward to him publishing his second book.

Seamus only took up writing in his 80s and published his first book, a memoir of his life called “When Night is Falling” in 2019 at the age of 84.

Seamus says you can inspect and read extracts from, The Famine Lie, in Carrick-on-Suir Library, plus samples of the original Freeman’s Journal newspapers published during the Great Famine.

Copies of The Famine Lie are on sale in The Cabin Newsagents, Main Street, Carrick-on-Suir and in SuperValu, Greystone St., Carrick-on-Suir.