CHAPTER XXII. 

 FOOD OF THE IRISH PEASANT. 



THE interesting information which follows has been 

 obtained as the result of a considerable amount of 

 careful inquiry, and may, therefore, be accepted as 

 giving an accurate representation of the facts of the 

 case. Its collection has been rendered difficult owing 

 to the scarcity of labourers as a class in some parts of 

 Ireland, notably on the western side, where the work, 

 even on the large farms, is mainly undertaken by sons 

 of smaller farmers who live and board at home with 

 their parents. But a sufficient number of facts have 

 been obtained from the right quarters for the purposes 

 of the ensuing account. The following quoted para- 

 graph is important : 



" The conditions under which the Irish agricultural 

 labourer lives vary somewhat in the different provinces, 

 and it is evident from the returns that in Connaught and 

 Munster a larger proportion of the food of the family is 

 grown, or produced, by the labourers themselves than is 

 the case in Ulster or Leinster. In tabulating the returns, 

 therefore, it became necessary to separate the articles con- 

 sumed into two classes : (a) those articles which are pur- 

 chased, and (b) those articles the whole or the principal part 

 of which are produced or obtained as allowances. The value 

 of the latter has been calculated from the prices charged 

 for them by the retail shops in the village or district to 

 which the returns relate. The following table shows the 

 average quantity and value of the various kinds of food 

 consumed in a week by a farm labourer, his wife, and four 

 children in Ireland : 



136 



