His
opinion was, that they were on the eve of a pestilence that would reach
every class. "And," said a gentleman, interrupting, "when I asked a
presentment for coffins at the sessions, I was laughed at." Dr. Donovan
continued: The case of a man named Sullivan was a most melancholy one.
His children began to drop off without any apparent disease, after they
had entered the Workhouse. From scarcity of beds, the father and
son--the latter being sick and weakly--had to sleep together; and one
morning the son was found dead alongside of his father, while another
child died in the mother's arms next day. He (Dr. Donovan) had asked
Sullivan why he did not tell him his children were sick. His answer was,
"They had no complaint." Mr. D. M'Carthy said it would be for the
meeting to consider whether they should not pronounce their strong
condemnation upon the conduct of an official in the town, who, with
starvation staring them in the face, would not give out a pound of food
except at famine price, though he had stores crammed with it. "He'd give
you," said Mr. Downing, "for L17 a-ton what cost our paternal Government
L7 10s."
Dr. Donovan, writing to one of the provincial journals at this time,
says: "Want and misery are in every face; and the labourers returning
from the relief works look like men walking in a funeral procession, so
slow is their step and so dejected their appearance.
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