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Letters from Irish bishops to the Irish College of Rome, 1879

‘The last winter was the most severe I could ever remember. The cold has been accompanied by drought until the middle of May, and though the rain has finally come, the cold is persisting. The result is that the planting of the new crops is a month behind. I never remember to have seen such depression in trade and such universal poverty among the farming and grazing classes in this Diocese.’

Thomas Nulty, Bishop of Meath, May 29, 1879

‘The present year is one of unprecedented depression all over Ireland – town and country. Since the Famine time, there has not been such desponding along all classes as at present.’

John Power, Bishop of Waterford , July 3 1879

‘The weather has been and is still very cold in Ireland. The harvest will be late on account of the cold and continual rain. I trust in God we shall soon have a change for the better.’

Francis Kelly, Bishop of Derry, July 10, 1879

‘Our weather is very unfavourable, almost constant rain. If we have another bad harvest, our hopes will be blighted – and our people obliged to leave the country.’

Daniel McCarthy, Bishop of Kerry, July 14, 1879

‘Since the Famine years the prospects of this country were never so hopeless. There is an appeal for reduction of rent from one end of the land to the other: to be followed, I suppose, by the cry of distress and hunger when winter comes round. May God help our poor people.’

Rev Denis Hallinan, Newcastlewest in the diocese of Limerick, September 18, 1879

‘I fear we are in for a famine in Ireland next year. God’s will be done.’

Patrick Dorrian, Bishop of Down and Connor, September 24, 1879