154 ON THE STATE OF IRELAND. [BOOK II. 



18. Mary Cooney has two children one six, the other 

 three years of age ; her father supports her and them. 



19. Mary Carr is supported partly by carrying eggs to 

 Galway, and selling them, and partly by the assistance of 

 the neighbours. 



20. Mrs. Walsh is nine years a widow ; has five chil- 

 dren ; her eldest son is twenty-four, her second eighteen 

 years of age ; her son is a labourer, and got only 6*. to 

 earn this year. She is as much distressed as any widow 

 in the parish, the only difference between her and others 

 being, that she has sons able to work if they got work to 

 do, and others have not. She holds half an acre of land, 

 on which her husband built a small mill; and though her 

 rent is only I/, a year, yet, from the scarcity of work, she 

 was unable to pay it. 



The witnesses say that the poor widows living in the 

 country are worse off than those in the towns. In towns 

 they have many chances, but in the country none. 



No man, except one having an old lease, could lay up 

 anything for his widow or for old age. All the widows 

 above spoken of, belong to the town ; it would be endless 

 to count all the widows in the parish. 



County of Mayo ; examinations taken by J. Spencer, Esq., and W. Gray, 

 Esq. ; town of Bellina and Ardnaree, barony of Tyrawley. Twenty" 

 jive witnesses. 



Labourers' widows are generally reduced to beg. On 

 the death of their husbands they immediately give up 

 their houses, if their landlords held such. They procure 

 their own and their children's food by begging from door 

 to door, and get their lodgings for nothing among the la- 

 bourers. The change is not very great to many of them, 

 as a great part of the labourers' wives and families are ac- 



