The Hidden Famine: Hunger, Poverty and Sectarianism in Belfast 1840-50

Intro -- Title Page -- Copyright -- Contents -- List of Illustrations -- Acknowledgements -- Introduction -- Part I: The 'Old' Poor Law, c. 1640-1845 -- 1. An 'Un-National Town' -- The Industrial Capital of Ireland -- The Athens of the North? -- Housing and Diet -- Strategies for Survival -- A Poor Law for Ireland -- The Hungry Forties? -- Part II: A National Crisis, c. 1845-47 -- 2. A 'Man-Made Famine' -- An Unusual Blight -- Local Responses -- 'Absolute Danger of Starvation' -- 'A District Distinct from Belfast'. Suffering in Ballymacarrett -- A Divided Society -- 3. 'All the Horrors of Famine' -- Belfast in Crisis -- Protest and Riot -- 'Gnawing and Deadly Hunger' -- Desolation and Distress Unparalleled -- 'The Glorious Principle of Self-Reliance' -- Poverty on the Streets -- 4. An Droch-Shaol. Disease and Death in Black '47 -- Institutional Responses to Disease -- Fever Follows Famine -- Great and Peculiar Urgency -- Rising Mortality and Multiple Burials -- 'Skibbereen Brought to our Doors' -- 'An Increasing Scarcity of Money' -- The Amended Poor Law -- Judgment upon Our Land -- Part III: A Divided Town -- 5. Public and Private Responses -- Government Relief. The Amended Poor Law -- Private Philanthropy -- Women and Philanthropy -- 'Thorough Evangelization' -- Charity and Conversion -- The Bible and Protestant Dominion -- 6. Conflict and Rebellion -- Rising to the Challenge. The Role of the Belfast Workhouse -- Emigration and Removal -- 'Orange and Green Will Carry the Day' -- The War of the Placards and the 1848 Uprising -- The Rate-in-Aid Dispute -- 7. 'The Crisis is Passed' -- The Path to Recovery -- The Cholera Epidemic -- Orange against Green -- A Royal Visit -- 8. Aftermath. 'A Hell below a Hell' -- Appendices -- Notes -- Further Reading -- Index