28 BENEVOLENT RELIEF WORK. 



Indeed, the great proportion of the cases seem naturally 

 to arise out of the entirely deranged state of society 

 which exists in this part of the country. 



The town of Castlebar has suffered much from the 

 effects of the late famine, the industry of its inhabitants 

 having been paralysed by the cessation of all demand 

 from the surrounding country. To obviate as much 

 as possible the misery resulting from this, a society 

 was organised by a number of benevolent individuals in 

 the town, of whom Messrs Curley and Gerraghty, the 

 Roman Catholic curates, took the lead. They pur- 

 chased a quantity of wool, and then employed the different 

 artisans of the town in spinning, weaving, dyeing, shap- 

 ing, and sewing it into suits of clothing. Upwards of 

 one hundred individuals, representing several hundreds 

 of the population of the place, have thus received con- 

 stant employment at their several occupations during a 

 time when the natural sources of employment have been 

 in abeyance. Excellent suits of frieze clothing (five 

 hundred of which have been purchased by Count 

 Strelitzki for distribution in some other distressed part 

 of the country) can be supplied for 1 Os. the suit. When 

 these are sold, the original subscribed fund will be repaid, 

 and the society enabled to continue their benevolent 

 scheme, should the necessity of the time still require it. 

 The efforts of these gentlemen were not confined to the 

 town of Castlebar. They foresaw the misery that must 

 fall upon the small holders of land in the surrounding 

 country, if no effort was made by them to cultivate their 

 holdings, and so provide a store for the coming winter. 

 The potato having failed, these poor people had nothing 



