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It is presumed that the Starritt family farmed land around
the Kilwary area (probably in areas south of here also) during this time, being
tenant farmers to the big English landlords. The population of Ireland at this
time was 8,000,000 and four million of these lived entirely on potatoes which
were cheap and easy to grow.
In 1845-46 the potato crops failed because of a disease
called Blight causing widespread famine and suffering throughout the country.
The British government repealed the corn laws allowing corn from other countries
to enter Ireland and started public works to find employment for the poor but so
many came forward that the scheme was abandoned. The worst off were in the towns
and higher populated parts of the country where pestilence followed the famine.
Whole parishes were depopulated and before the famine was
over one million people had died and by 1851 1,600,000 had immigrated to
America. Robert was only a baby at the time and must have been lucky to survive.
The fact that they were farmers probably meant they were able to grow other food
stuffs to live on while townspeople had nothing to live on.
The potato famine would have to be the main reason for so
many people immigrating including Robert's older brother John who came to
Australia in 1858. Although the famine was over when Robert came to Australia it
was obvious there was no future in Ireland for someone keen on the land and it
would be hard to see his parents stopping him coming to a new country with land
available for private ownership after having been through the potato famine. His
brother John was in Victoria having left Ireland in 1858, as was at least one
cousin or Uncle, William who was in the Ballarat area.
During the potato famine many of the landlords were ruined
trying to relieve the suffering of their tenants and the wholesale starvation of
the people so the British Government passed a bill allowing them to sell their
estates to outsiders. A great number of English and Scots took over these
estates and in their quest for more efficient farming and the use of broad scale
agriculture they had no use for the small tenants so wholesale evicitions began.
The repeal of the corn laws also meant that they couldn't grown corn on a
competitive basis so this did away with the need for thousands of labourers.
We know that one of the Starritt families was evicted from
the Castlewray estate in the early 1860's, this being the ancestors of Gretta
and John Starritt, (Gretta and John now living at Cashelshanaghan, Co. Donegal)
and this could have happened to Robert's family also. In April 1864 he said
goodbye to his family and headed for a new life in Australia.
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