What Sort Of Housing Did Irish Peasants Live In Pre-Famine?

mikefoxo

I was rambling through Youtube this evening and came across this fellow https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nCKkHqlx9dE It got me thinking about the poorest people in Ireland away back when - the real 'beo bocht'. Would this have been the type of dwelling they would have lived in?

Manach

From what I remember seeing of re-creations on such dwellings elsewhere, the type of house was very much determined by the raw material at hand. For instance Icelandic dwelling were rich in stone but poor in wood whilst in Russia the opposite in forest regions.
Reading (IIRC) Morton's Elizabethan Life in Ireland would suggest that Gaelic peasants/churls (which had a similar lifestyle up till the famine) was a mobile one - transhumanance - following the cattle herds. So any such dwellings had to be fairly easy to transport or easily constructed from material available.

laoch na mona

Arthur Young outlined the accommodation he saw during his 1776-1779 tour as being simple one/two room windowless mud wall thatched cottages.

he's the only primary source I can think off right now, I'll add more as I think of them

laoch na mona

Arthur Young outlined the accommodation he saw during his 1776-1779 tour as being simple one/two room windowless mud wall thatched cottages.

he's the only primary source I can think off right now, I'll add more as I think of them

tabbey

Before the great famine about 25% of Irish people lived in mud cabins with thatch roof. The census commissioners devised the 4th class house to describe this structure.
Some of these cabins did not have chimneys, but many others did, probably just a slit in the thatch. Some also lacked windows. The worst I read about, I think on the Curragh, was a three sided structure, the open end sheltered by trees and bushes and ditch.

These cabins were built by the cottier, utilising whatever material was on the plot of land, usually mud, often with stones in it. The mud was rendered / waterproofed with faeces/urine,bovine or porcine, found on the farm. I have not experimented with this form of weatherproofing, but understand it to be feasible. Finally, the walls were whitewashed with lime, which was considered disinfectant. Indeed, ships were also disinfected with crushed lime.

One primary source I came across, was a notice of the Kildare Charitable institution, listing their expenditure about 1830. Two items were of interest, they limewashed the cabins, (disinfection) and they filled up the dung pits, which had been immediately outside the cabin doors. Presumably the occupants had to walk a little further to use the facilities, but their benefactors deemed this more hygienic.

Eugene Norman

laoch na mona wrote: »

Arthur Young outlined the accommodation he saw during his 1776-1779 tour as being simple one/two room windowless mud wall thatched cottages.

he's the only primary source I can think off right now, I'll add more as I think of them

De Toqueville said the same. Anyway there's plenty of sources.

Eugene Norman

The stats I am aware of (which were posted here some time ago. Will look for that link).

There were 4 classes of houses in Ireland.

Class 1. Brick. Like most city and town housing. Most remaining houses from the era still extant are class 1.
Class 2: stone. You will see ruined stone cottages around.
Class 3. Multi room mud housing, often with windows.
Class 4: single room mud housing.

The ratios of mud to non-mud was 50-50 but west of a line from malin head it was 80% class 3 & 4

Edit. As this link explains even the better housing could have more than one family (which meant the census of 1840 reduced their over habitation class).

http://histpop.org/ohpr/servlet/AssociatedView?path=Browse&active=yes&mno=2041&assoctitle=Census%20(Ireland)%20Act,%201840&assocpagelabel=

tabbey

I agree with Laoch na Mona, Arthur Young is a superb source. It takes someone from outside to describe a way of life, the local just takes it for granted, not worthy of comment.
Every Irish person should be advised to read Young, it is harrowing, but shows Irish life as it was a quarter millennium ago.
The government would spend their money more wisely reprinting it and distributing it to the people, rather than on spurious events about 1916.

kildarejohn

Eugene Norman wrote: »

The stats I am aware of (which were posted here some time ago. Will look for that link).

There were 4 classes of houses in Ireland.

Class 1. Brick. Like most city and town housing. Most remaining houses from the era still extant are class 1.
Class 2: stone. You will see ruined stone cottages around.
Class 3. Multi room mud housing, often with windows.
Class 4: single room mud housing.

The ratios of mud to non-mud was 50-50 but west of a line from malin head it was 80% class 3 & 4

Don't want to be too pedantic about it, but those definitions don't match what is in the 1901 census, which defines the classes in a complicated way involving adding scores. My great g fathers house was mud, but was class 3. Stone houses nearby were also Class 3. Mud is not such a bad material - better insulation than stone - and my ggf's house was still standing 100 years later.

recedite

tabbey wrote: »

Before the great famine about 25% of Irish people lived in mud cabins with thatch roof. The census commissioners devised the 4th class house to describe this structure.
Some of these cabins did not have chimneys, but many others did, probably just a slit in the thatch. Finally, the walls were whitewashed with lime, which was considered disinfectant. Indeed, ships were also disinfected with crushed lime.

Mud walls are actually not as bad as they sound. They are actually warmer and more soundproof than the typical 9 inch hollow block that most houses in the Dublin suburbs are built with.

There is a cottage not far from where I live which was occupied up until a few years ago, then it became a storeroom. I took a few photos inside, you can see here. Its around 200 years old AFAIK. All the roof timbers are poles cut locally from the forest.
The "mud" is really clay. The proper clay for this is sticky stuff similar to potters clay, and it dries quite hard, despite not being "fired". This particular cottage is due to be demolished this year, somebody bought the site and is currently building a new house behind it.
The whitewash on the outside used to be redone every summer, it keeps the rain from getting at the clay.
I noticed last year that some builder or surveyor had removed a piece of the limey outer crust at one part of the wall, and since then the clay behind it has started to expand, and the wall starts to burst open.

Fratton Fred

This "mud" is wattle and daub, surely?

This is actually coming back in to vogue as a low impact environmentally friendly building material.

jonniebgood1

Fratton Fred wrote: »

This "mud" is wattle and daub, surely?

This is actually coming back in to vogue as a low impact environmentally friendly building material.

As per an earlier post the mud was mixed with stone to give it some strength in some circumstances. It also seems that certain walls in houses may be built with stone (solid) and the rest infilled with weaker walls such as mud. 'Irish countryside buildings' by Patrick & Maura Shaffrey note the location of fireplaces in traditional houses was different depending on the houses geographical location. "In north-east Ulster and along the western seaboard the fireplaces were on the gable end, with the main entrance away from the fireplace. Gable walls were built up solid. There was usually a rear door opposite the front one. In mid and east Ulster and most other parts of Ireland the fireplace was centrally placed near the entrance."...................... "Some cottages had provision for a loft, and the earlier and most basic also provided accommodation for the animals within the main building structure." (Pg58)

laoch na mona

the mud wall cabins were of a low enough quality that it was felt necessary to replace them with labourers cottages, while cob(not wattle and daub) is a good building material. Small, dark, cramped houses with either no or bad chimneys were not in anyway suitable thats why they were replaced

tabbey

jonniebgood1 wrote: »

As per an earlier post the mud was mixed with stone to give it some strength in some circumstances. It also seems that certain walls in houses may be built with stone (solid) and the rest infilled with weaker walls such as mud. 'Irish countryside buildings' by Patrick & Maura Shaffrey note the location of fireplaces in traditional houses was different depending on the houses geographical location. "In north-east Ulster and along the western seaboard the fireplaces were on the gable end, with the main entrance away from the fireplace. Gable walls were built up solid. There was usually a rear door opposite the front one. In mid and east Ulster and most other parts of Ireland the fireplace was centrally placed near the entrance."...................... "Some cottages had provision for a loft, and the earlier and most basic also provided accommodation for the animals within the main building structure." (Pg58)

Some of these Ulster houses can be seen recreated in the Ulster Folk and Transport Museum, Cultra, North Down.

The Chieftain

I don't have to speculate. My mother and an aunt once rented a thatched cottage in Kilmore Quay for a summer holiday.
- It had no running water. As a 6 year old, it was my job to fetch multiple buckets of water every day from the village pump.
- The toilet was an outdoor privy over a pit. No flush.
- No electricity.
- Earthen walls.
- Single story, two rooms on ground floor, with floored attic.

Somewhat similar to the still extant cottages in Kilmore - do an image search for "thatched cottages Kilmore Quay".

That holiday left a lasting impression on me. To this day, I have an abiding preference for 5-star luxury hotels.

The Chieftain

While it is not a primary source, the book Irish Life in the Seventeenth Century: After Cromwell by Dr. Edward MacLysaght (the first Chief Herald of Ireland) is somewhat interesting. This book was the basis for his doctorate.

tabbey

The Chieftain wrote: »

I don't have to speculate. My mother and an aunt once rented a thatched cottage in Kilmore Quay for a summer holiday.
- It had no running water. As a 6 year old, it was my job to fetch multiple buckets of water every day from the village pump.
- The toilet was an outdoor privy over a pit. No flush.
- No electricity.
- Earthen walls.
- Single story, two rooms on ground floor, with floored attic.

Somewhat similar to the still extant cottages in Kilmore - do an image search for "thatched cottages Kilmore Quay".

That holiday left a lasting impression on me. To this day, I have an abiding preference for 5-star luxury hotels.

Mud cabins originally had earthen floors, Did the holiday home have a timber or concrete floor added later?

The Chieftain

tabbey wrote: »

Mud cabins originally had earthen floors, Did the holiday home have a timber or concrete floor added later?

It was not concrete, but whether it was wood or earth on the ground floor I can't recall. I will see if anyone else remembers.
Upstairs was bare wooden floor to attic, with thatch directly above. Everything was pretty much 19th century - I understood that even though I was only 6 at the time

recedite

Sometimes they had limestone flagstones, but anyway I have been in some of these and you would have difficulty telling a mud floor from a concrete floor unless you had a kango hammer to dig it up. They become very hard and polished after a few generations of use.