The Doolough Tragedy, March 1849
The Doolough Valley in County Mayo is one of the most beautiful places in the west of Ireland. A long glacial corridor between steep mountains. A dark lake on the valley floor. In Irish, Doo Lough means "Black Lake."
On the night of 30 March 1849, approximately 600 starving men, women, and children walked into that valley in darkness.
They didn't have a choice, having been told to walk 12 miles whilst hungry and tired, in cold March weather so that they might continue to receive scant provisions and avoid starvation.
Two officials from the Westport Poor Law Union had arrived in the nearby village of Louisburgh that Friday to inspect residents and determine who would continue to receive food relief — the only thing keeping most of them alive. Without carrying out the inspections, the officials left for Delphi Lodge, a private hunting retreat 12 miles south, where they planned to spend the night.
The people of Louisburgh were given an ultimatum: present yourselves at Delphi Lodge by 7am the next morning, or be struck from the relief list entirely.
So they walked. In freezing temperatures, rain, and heavy wind. Many were barefoot. Many were wearing only what they slept in. Contemporaries described them as living skeletons.
Those who made it to Delphi Lodge were told, on arrival, that the officials could not be disturbed.
They were eating lunch.
When the meeting eventually took place, the people were turned away empty-handed and told to make the journey back.
Bodies were found along the road in the days that followed. A woman named Dalton, found dead with her children beside her. Two unnamed men left unburied within a mile of home. Some of the dead were found with grass still in their mouths — their lips stained green.
The official death toll was recorded as 16 to 20. Local accounts put the true number closer to 400.
The government's response, when it came, was to dismiss the local relieving officer on a paperwork technicality. The two officials who had refused to conduct the inspection kept their jobs.
A stone cross stands near the lake today, inscribed with a single line:
"How can men feel themselves honoured by the humiliation of their fellow beings?"
The valley looks the same as it did in 1849, scenic and beautiful but it must have been a bleak place in that year, the years before, and after.
Doolough Valley County Mayo, Ireland: A landscape of immense beauty and tragic history.