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Mortality among institutionalised children during the Great Famine in Ireland: bioarchaeological contextualisation of non-adult mortality rates in the Kilkenny Union Workhouse, 1846–1851

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 May 2016

JONNY GEBER
JONNY GEBER*
Affiliation:
Department of Archaeology, University College Cork.
*
[email protected]
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Abstract

Over half of all victims of the Great Irish Famine (1845–1852) were children. Many of these deaths took place in the union workhouses: institutions of government poor relief which for many were the last resort in a desperate struggle to survive famine-induced conditions such as starvation and infectious disease. Archaeological excavations of a mass burial ground dating to 1847–1851 at the former workhouse in Kilkenny City have provided the opportunity to undertake a detailed interdisciplinary exploration of non-adult mortality in an Irish workhouse during the height of the Famine.

La mortalité chez les enfants irlandais placés en institution pendant la Grande Famine: approche bio-archéologique de leur taux de mortalité au sein de l'atelier paroissial (workhouse) du district de Kilkenny, 1846–1851

Plus de la moitié des victimes de la Grande Famine irlandaise (1845–1852) étaient des enfants. Beaucoup de ces décès eurent lieu au sein des ateliers paroissiaux (workhouse) de district mis en place dans le cadre des Lois des Pauvres. Ces institutions d'assistance gouvernementale constituèrent bien souvent le dernier recours dans une lutte désespérée pour survivre face aux conditions de crises induites par la famine et les maladies infectieuses. Les fouilles archéologiques d'une fosse commune datant de 1847–1851, dans le cimetière attaché à l'atelier paroissial (workhouse) du district de la ville de Kilkenny, ont permis d'entreprendre une exploration interdisciplinaire détaillée de la mortalité non-adulte dans ce type d'institution, au moment même où la famine faisait les plus grands ravages en Irlande.

Sterblichkeit unter Anstaltskindern während der Großen Hungersnot in Irland: Bioarchäologische Kontextualisierung der Sterblichkeitsraten für Nicht-Erwachsene im Arbeitshaus des Armenbezirks Kilkenny, 1846–1851

Über die Hälfte aller Opfer der Großen Irischen Hungersnot (1845–1852) waren Kinder. Viele dieser Todesfälle ereigneten sich in den Armenhäusern – jenen Einrichtungen der regierungsamtlichen Armenunterstützung, die für viele in dem verzweifelten Kampf, die katastrophalen, durch die Hungersnot ausgelösten Umstände der Mangelernährung und der ansteckenden Krankheiten zu überleben, die letzte Rettung darstellten. Archäologische Ausgrabungen eines aus der Zeit 1847–1851 stammenden Massengrabes des früheren Arbeitshauses in Kilkenny bietet die Gelegenheit, die Mortalität von Nicht-Erwachsenen in einem irischen Arbeitshaus während des Höhepunktes der Hungersnot einer detaillierten interdisziplinären Auswertung zu unterziehen.

Type
Research Article
Information
Continuity and Change , Volume 31 , Issue 1: Lodgers in Rural and Urban Europe in the Past , May 2016 , pp. 101 - 126
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2016 

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References

ENDNOTES

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8 For details on how age at death was estimated, see note 37.

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51 Kennedy, Ell, Crawford and Clarkson, Mapping the Great Irish Famine, 123–4.

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72 For comparison with current recommended dietary intake for children in Ireland today, see Food Safety Authority of Ireland, Scientific recommendations for healthy eating guidelines in Ireland (Dublin, 2011).

73 Minutes Kilkenny Union, 16 September 1847, KCLLS 12/7K.

74 ‘Kilkenny Board of Guardians’, The Kilkenny Journal, 29 January 1848.

75 Minutes Kilkenny Union, 23 November 1843, KCLLS 7/3K.

76 Ibid., 17 October 1848, KCLLS 13/8K.

77 Ibid., 20 February 1850, KCLLS 17/10K.

78 Ibid., 9 March 1843, KCLLS 6/2K.

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83 Ó Gráda, ‘Mortality and the Great Famine’.

84 Kennedy, Ell, Crawford and Clarkson, Mapping the Great Irish Famine; Cousens, ‘Regional death rates’.