It Wasn't An Easy Life

     For at least the past thirty years, probably longer, I've read every history book about Ireland I could lay my hands on.  Particularly social history and one of the things that has stood out to me is, to all appearances, the officers of the Royal Irish Constabulary thoroughly enjoyed arresting Irish individuals no matter how minor the offence.  I don't mean to generalize, but their obsession has been documented.  Irishmen were tried and convicted at twice the rate of their counterparts in England.

     Spending this week primarily researching my great-great-great-grandfather Cornelius Ryan in Goldengarden, Tipperary has made me curious about his circumstances.  I know his landlord Lord Hawarden didn't give leases so Connor had very little security.  He had a wee, one acre lot and at least three of his eight children probably still living with him as shown in the 1858 Revision Book, but it seems much too small a lot to support a family.  So when I see his name in the records of the Court of Petty Sessions and read he was fined two shillings, (or two days imprisonment), for the "crime" of being drunk in 1852 it makes me wonder what that meant to him, financially speaking.

     To answer that question I turned to Google Books where I found this--Journal of the Statistical Society of London, Volume 25. These statistics were compiled in 1860, so around eight years later than Connor's arrest, but it gave me an idea what his situation probably was, since between 1834 and 1860 a laborers income rose only about two shillings.  Below is the table showing average weekly income, Tipperary is at the bottom.

   
     Next look at the table for food expenditures below, Tipperary is again at the bottom.

     A bit of a discrepancy there I'd say.  Connor's wife Alice and their children must have contributed to the household income but women earned less than men and of course there was also rent to pay and clothing to purchase.  Not to mention ridiculous fines that took a large chunk of the week's pay, assuming there was pay that particular week.  This is from the same 1860 book-- 

The Tipperary labor market is overstocked at present, laborers are very much distressed for want of employment owing to the wetness of the spring; but a more permanent effect is produced on the labor market of this county by the gradual but steady system pursued by proprietors in laying down their tillage lands for dairy or pasture purposes.

     Meaning the outlook for laborers in Tipperary wasn't good, and was getting worse.  This could well be why Connor and Alice, along with four of their children, sailed from Liverpool in July of 1860 to join their three children already living in America.  In 1870 Connor appears in the census of Palmyra, New York, a seventy year old invalid living with his wife and their widowed daughter Mary Sheehan.  Seven years later Connor would pass away while Alice lived on thirteen more, dying in 1890.  They are buried together at St. Anne's Catholic cemetery in Palmyra where I visit them often.