BBC - TANDY - Famine





	Before the famine, 80% of land in Ireland was owned by members of the English ruling classes. These landlords rented their land to tenants. These tenants were called land agents and they sub-divided the land into small plots and let them to farmers, cottiers and labourers. In 1841 half of all rural families lived in one-room houses on small plots of rented land. The labourers and farmers paid the rent by growing oats and barley and raising animals such as pigs.


	Click on the images to the right to find out more about living conditions in the 1840's Compare this cosy modern living room to that of the poor labourers' family. Can you spot the difference between the contents of each room? Sometimes a family of six would live in a one-room house like this, sleeping on beds of straw around the fire. In winter some families had to share the room with their animals. The labourers and farmers lived on small plots of land. They built their houses on these plots from local materials such as turf, mud, wood and stone. The Landlords lived in grand houses on large estates. These large houses had many rooms that were full of fine paintings and elegant furniture. Compare this one-room hovel to the large house that was owned by the landlords. Which house would you have preferred to live in? The family dug turf to fuel the fire. The fire was the heart of the house and was used for cooking and heating.