One of Wexford’s only surviving famine-era homesteads unearthed
WHILE it would be true to say that we are living in historic times, sometimes it can be refreshing to look back for a little bit of perspective and that’s exactly what Michael Fortune of folklore.ie and his family have been doing.
On the remote and picturesque face of Slievegar Hill in Kiltealy, Michael, with the help of his family, has managed to uncover the remnants of some of the country’s darkest days. In the remote and peaceful countryside there lies the ruins of a little stone house, surrounded by acres of potato beds. While other hikers may have dismissed it and kept walking, Michael has since discovered that it’s the remains of what is one of Wexford’s only surviving famine era homesteads.
‘I’d seen them before but I never knew the date,’ he explained. ‘ Thanks to a friend of mine, John G Kavanagh, I’ve managed to find out who the home belonged to and that it dates from circa 1850.’
Historic editions of this very newspaper were also able to aid Michael in his quest to find out more about the settlement. ‘Using Griffith’s Valuation and newspaper articles, we were able to identity that it belonged to a Martin Whelan, a father of 10 children who was evicted around 1850 and moved to the hillside in Co. Wexford to farm,’ Michael continued. ‘A newspaper account from The Wexford People from 1882 said Martin “was evicted 31 years ago and went on the top of the mountain of Slievegar: he erected a dwelling-house and all the buildings and reclaimed 7a”.’
An incredibly harsh landscape, the hill was stony and boggy and tremendously difficult to farm. As the account from 1882 stated: ‘ he could not get a plough through the land and the crops had to be dug in’.
Michael points out that these very marks that Martin made on the landscape with his spade can still be seen to this day, 170 years later, surviving due to their remote nature. ‘In the end, the mountain proved too hard and he left it,’ Michael says. ‘Where he and the family went, no-one knows, however there are still Whelans around. This is a very special site and even more-so now that we have a name and a story to go with it.’