Ireland in Schools

A grimly effective rendering of an eviction: the brutal bailiff, the pleading tenant, his weeping wife and children, the unfeeling onlookers and the stony-faced soldiers standing by are all convincingly presented.

Many of the starving found themselves not only without food, but also without habitation.

In the pre-Christmas edition of 1848, The Illustrated London News published a scathing article condemning those Irish landlords who were using the current crisis to unpeople their property.

Two illustrations accompanied the text.

The first (above) depicted an ejection scene, and is one of the most exquisite engravings of the entire Famine collection.

A second illustration (opposite) shows the makeshift shelter along the ditch, into which the evicted tenant retreated.

The stance of the major figure in the picture is one of utter despair.

The apparent callousness of landlords stemmed from two major problems.

On the one hand they suffered a drastic reduction in their incomes as tenants defaulted on rent.

On the other hand they were faced with rising taxation.

Circumstances varied from district to district.

Nevertheless, some landlords were particularly ruthless, justifying their action by the slogan 'evict . . . debtors or be dispossessed'.