Poverty Reports Project

The publication and exhibition referred to as the “Lewis Project” is historically accurate in what it sets out to do. Conscious of the fact that it was published by subscription and would consequently be inclined to give the “Establishment” view of Ireland, CLASP was anxious to show balance by portraying the other side of life and hence the Poverty Report project and publication (Poverty Before the Famine, County Clare, 1835) .

Deserted and Orphaned Children

“A little boy of eight years old, whom the Assistant Commissioners met on the road carrying a bag containing a few small potatoes, said that his father and mother were dead, and that he and his two sisters, younger than himself were living with a poor man in the next parish, and that he was obliged each day to go about collecting potatoes for himself and his sisters; and if he did not get enough, the poor people of the house could hardly spare them anything, and they were sometimes without a meal in consequence”.

Bastardy
“Indeed, women who have had illegitimate children find great difficulty in getting husbands; they are shunned by their own sex, and looked down upon by all their neighbours”.

Impotent through Age
“When I gave up all I had, I kept one acre for the grass of a cow, and one for tillage, and continued to live with my youngest child. In about a fortnight, I found his wife beginning to be always disputing with him about me; he told her however that he would keep me in spite of her, and make the children behave themselves to me also”.

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