A verdict was ultimately given of death from starvation,
with the addition mentioned.
The inquest was held in the Court-house, in presence of three
magistrates, assisted by the Catholic clergy of the town, and the
officers of the Constabulary.
Other verdicts of the same tendency, although not so decided in tone as
this one, were recorded in different parts of the country. At Lismore an
inquest was held on a man, also named Sullivan, and the jury found that
his death was caused by the neglect of the Government in not sending
food into the country _in due time_. In this town fourteen horses died
of starvation in one week.
Whilst Bantry was in the condition described above, Dr. Stephens was
sent by the Board of Health to examine the Workhouse there. He found it
simply dreadful. Here is an extract from his report, which duty compels
me, however unwillingly, to quote: "Language," he says, "would fail to
give an adequate idea of the state of the fever hospital. _Such an
appalling, awful, and heart-sickening condition_ as it presented I never
witnessed, or could think possible to exist in a civilized or Christian
community. As I entered the house, the stench that proceeded from it was
most dreadful and noisome; but, oh! what scenes presented themselves to
my view as I proceeded through the wards and passages: patients lying
on straw, naked, and in their excrements, a light covering over them--in
two beds living beings beside the dead, in the same bed with them, and
dead since the night before.
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