Freemans Journal 16th May 1847 p.2
Kinvara, Killina and Duras, Galway – Reverend F. Arthur (abridged)
Deaths by famine, 148, in addition to 98 occasioned by a melancholy subsistence on sea weed, nettles, “Bliskane,” & c. Last year the mortality was 52, so that the increase amounted to within a fraction of 400 per cent. Over 1,100 persons were cast out to perish by the order of reduction. There is the parade of relief under the act, but the committee are fastidiously select. Out of a population of 10,000 “there is not 100 who would not be ranked under the first class paupers.”
The reverend gentleman regrets the absence of a Protestant rector “to assist in the great work of charity,” a regret inspired with the most sublime Christianity. And yet the Mail not long since made merry, with that divine desire which proved how well the Rev. Mr Arthur could share the brotherhood of benevolence with one of a difference creed. We seek to introduce no unworthy bickering into the neutral ground of charity, or to interrupt the “truce of God,” with reflections derogatory to any class embarked in the sacred cause of humanity; but if stones have been cast, the Catholic clergy did not originate or perpetuate the quarrel. They calmly bore the faint ebullitions of the old intolerance – which even the fate of thousands of perishing fellow Christians could not altogether repress.
The Burren and Beyond 