Figures in a Famine Landscape

"Figures in a Famine Landscape follows a number of individuals involved in different public capacities in a particularly afflicted district of Ireland during the Great Famine. Among them are an outspoken newspaper editor; two clergymen (one Catholic, one Protestant); two highly qualified and busy physicians; two landlords and an exterminating agent; a Board of Works official and a Poor Law inspector. Some of these figures have been subjected to academic study previously, while others are more obscure, but their thinking and actions all had a major effect on the existences of tens of thousands of the destitute poor in Ireland at a crucial point in the country's history. Taking an exhaustive approach to source material that includes private diaries, letters, official reports and correspondence, police files, parliamentary papers and a wealth of newspapers, the author builds up an in-depth, almost microscopic picture of each individual, providing a unique and very human lens through which to view the Great Famine"--