March 22nd, 1847: West of a line from Derry to Waterford the cry of the poor is: "Ta sinn ocrach" (we are hungry).
The English Quaker William Bennett finds in his travels: "They did but rarely complain. When inquired of what was the matter, the answer was alike in all - `Tha shein ukrosh'."
He and his son set out from Dublin with supplies of seed for the west. On the way they pass hundreds of emigrants mostly on foot. "It was an affecting sight to observe numerous whole families, with all their worldly goods packed ups on a donkey cart, attempting to look cheerful as they cast a wistful glance at the rapidly (passing by coach passengers and thus abandoning a country - which should have nourished, them and their children."
Between Boyle and Ballina, "it was melancholy in the extreme to see women and girls labouring in mixed gangs on the public roads. They were employed not only in digging with the spade and with the pick, but in carrying loads of earth and turf on their backs, and wheeling barrows like men and breaking stones while the poor neglected children were crouching in groups around the bits of lighted turf in the various sheltered corners along the line. I need scarcely say that the soil was totally neglected here."
A correspondent of the Chronicle and Munster Advertiser records his impression of conditions in west Waterford: "Every house you enter (with the exception of the occasional strong farmer's) presents nothing but one black mass of the most deplorable wretchedness. Not a spark of fire on the hearths of nine out of every 10 of the wretched houses. And where you do see a spark of fire, you will behold the squalid and misery stricken creatures crouching round it, like spectres, with not a human lineament traceable upon their countenances. As to food, good or bad, they have none."
In Ring, Ballynacourty, Old Parish and Ardmore he estimates deaths from starvation at 20 to 30 a day. "Coffin making is the staple trade of the country every turn you take you see them in dozens being brought to the rural districts sometimes in cars, sometimes under men's arms, and not in frequently on women's heads. I lately met several times on the Slievegrine mountain half naked women going home and the only commodity they were able to bring from Dungarvan was coffins on their heads."
A farmer remarks that it is impossible to walk near Tallow "without being frightened by the rabid, hunger stricken faces which meet you on your way - faces which you can no longer recognise...
Large sums of money are arriving from the US. Archbishop William Crolly of Armagh informs Archbishop Michael Slattery of Cashel that he has received £3,000 from Bishop John Fitzpatrick of Boston.
In Oklahoma Choctaw Indians discuss the plight of Ireland. Having suffered intensely themselves, they collect $170.