Foods as well as drink
are perhaps the most important elements of life, not just in Irish society but
society in general. Without it one literally could not survive, and in Ireland
throughout the nineteenth as well as early twentieth century food played a key
role in the makeup of people’s lives. Large proportions of people’s income where
devoted to paying for food and drink. Although large amounts of income went
towards basic necessities of food, diet amongst the various social strata in
Ireland during this period tended to be extremely different. The more affluent
members of society tended to enjoy a richer more broad selection of diet, while
the poor or the working class had to make do with a narrow selection of food,
or none at all as the case could often be. However throughout this period the makeup
of diets for the different members of society did evolve and by the beginning
of the twentieth century they would have been completely different to that of
the early ninetieth century.
As economists point out
the richer you become the percentage of income to food decreases however you
also broaden your rage of foods. By the early nineteenth century Ireland could
be split in two in terms of diet. Those of the middling and upper classes
tended to enjoy varied diets which consisted of meat, grain-based foods, various
dairy produce, fish, fruit, vegetables, wines and spirits. While people of low
income tended to consume a diet chiefly of potatoes.[1] Meat, poultry and rabbits tended to account
for more than one-third of all food expenditure of the upper class. The most
common consumed by these groups were beef and mutton, although veal, lamb,
pork, offal and poultry were also eaten.[2] A
typical meal for someone of a wealthy background would include ‘’hare soup,
sheep’s head mince, and a roast lion of beef’’[3].
However it wasn’t just animals that were consumed by the wealthy the middling
and upper classes spent large part of their income on various forms of cereals.
Cakes as well as other forms of confectionaries where common and many families
kept regular cake accounts with local bakers.[4]
The rich tended also to avail of more imported goods from British colonies.
From the period 1803-1807 a combined total 327,148cwt of coffee, tea and sugar
was imported into Ireland.[5]
The rich tended to import many goods, as was noted between the periods
1808-1812 5,470 tuns of wine as well as 981,421 gallons of spirits were brought
into the country.[6]
It is clear to see from the above figures that from the early nineteenth
century the upper classes in Ireland diet were not greatly different from those
of the gentry in England.[7]
While the diet of the
gentry in Ireland was more diverse and exotic the poorer sections of Irish
society’s diet tended to be much more conservative. The poor tended to live of
a diet of potatoes.[8]
Although potatoes were the main staple of the poor’s diet, they were sometimes
supplemented with the likes of meal, fish in the form of salted herring and
also bacon.[9]
Coastal areas such as Gorey in Wexford tended to sometimes eat herrings or cod.
Shellfish was a part of the poor’s diet, however the consumption in this
decreased by the end of the nineteenth century.[10] As
mentioned the main food group of the poor were potatoes. Estimates have shown
that labouring men could tend to eat up to fourteen pounds worth of potatoes a
day.[11]
With the onset of the
famine in 1845 diets of the poor would be vastly altered with the food group
that they became most dependent on, the potato suffering from blight. During
this period the poor grew more dependent on grain and other wheat products.
Work houses as well as soup kitchens where established to combat the onset of
famine. Milk, which was a big part of the poor’s diet prior to the famine, was
replaced by a sugar based syrup called treacle in many areas.[12] In
general the diet of the poor suffered negatively during this period as many where
unable to afford any form of sustenance. Those upper classes who could afford
food during the famine, their diet tended not to change whereas the poor gentry
where forced to either accept aid or go hungry. In Cork city during this period
there was an increase in crimes such as theft, malicious injuries and others
which where punishable by imprisonment. The local grand jury noted that the
availability of an abundance of milk in the prison as opposed to the workhouses
perhaps played a part in the increase of crime.[13]
For the poor who
survived the famine and for those not forced to emigrate there was a stark
change in choices of what was available to eat and what also to be able to
afford. Disposable income to spend on eating and drinking had increased
dramatically for the poor in contrast to their ancestors a generation ago. Food
consumption much like it had been with the rich during the early parts of the
nineteenth century became much more diversified.[14] Although they might not be able to afford the
same quality of produce as the rich gentry, they were now not forced to rely so
heavily on potatoes as there staple form of food. By 1839 the average daily
consumption of Potatoes was 184ounces by 1859 it had fallen dramatically to
61ounces and by 1904 it stood at 28 ounces in rural areas and 17 ounces in
urban.[15]Consumption
of food and drink such as eggs, butter, tea and sugar accounted for 10.6ounces
of average male labours daily consumption by 1904.[16] This
is a stark contrast to earlier times in the nineteenth century when these
foodstuffs were seldom available for the labouring class, only the upper gentry
could afford them. It should be noted that although poor labourers had greater
access to these new types of food they tended to eat them sparingly. Foods such
as beef, pork, bacon and fish were eaten in small quantities and even poorer
families tasted meat once a month or possible on special occasions.[17]
However there was much more bacon consumed amongst the lower social strata of
society with fatty American bacon being cheaper and thus more easily accessible
for the poor. It tended to be the poorer cuts of meat that the labouring strata
of society dined on.
The consumption of
alcohol became much more frequent amongst the poor during the late nineteenth
century early twentieth. There was a movement away from the consumption of
homemade sprits such as poteen to a greater demand for beer. By 1901 per captia
consumption of beer stood at 26 gallons.[18]
Major changes to diet
were more prevalent amongst the lower strata of society then that in the upper
gentry. Throughout the eighteenth and nineteenth century the diets of the rich
tended to be much more varied and colourful. Having an abundance of income
meant they could afford much more diverse food and drink. Their diets where
much more a kin to those of the upper social strata in Britain who also enjoyed
the more expensive types of food and drink.
Food and drink such as meat, fish, fruit, beer, wine, grain and dairy
based products were commonly and excessively consumed amongst the middle and
upper classes during this period of the union. While wealthier people’s diet
tended not to alter during this period the poor’s in contrast changed quiet
dramatically. From a post famine diet centred around the potato with the varied
inclusion of butter milk, herring’s and other odd variants. The poor’s diet
altered after the famine as labour now commanded a higher wage. The lower
strata could now afford some of the delicacies of the rich, like sugar, beer
and meat. Although the quality of some of these products were not as good and
they would not have been consumed to the same volume as the rich, nonetheless
the poor’s diet changed dramatically from one being centred around the potato
to one now being more diverse and in line with British counterparts.
Bibliography
·
Clarkson, L.A, Crawford, M, Feast and Famine: A History of food and
Nutrition in Ireland 1500-1920, (Oxford University Press, UK, 2001)
·
Mac Laughlin, Jim, Troubled Waters: A second and cultural history of Ireland’s sea
fisheries, (Four Courts Press, Dublin, 2010)
·
O Grada, Cormac, Black 47 and Beyond: The Great Irish Famine in History, Economy and
Memory, (Princeton University Press, UK, 1999)
[1]
Clarkson, L. A., Crawford, E. Margaret, Feast
and Famine: A History of Food and Nutrition in Ireland 1500-1920, (Oxford
University Press, UK, 2001), pp.29.
[2] Ibid, pp.36
[3]
Clarkson, L. A., Crawford, E. Margaret, Feast
and Famine: A History of Food and Nutrition in Ireland 1500-1920, (Oxford
University Press, UK, 2001), pp. 38.
[4] Ibid, pp.43.
[5] Ibid, pp.54.
[6] Ibid, pp.54.
[7] Ibid, pp.57.
[8] Ibid, pp.68.
[9] Ibid, pp.69.
[10]
Mac Laughlin, Jim, Troubled Waters: A
social and cultural history of Ireland’s sea fisheries, (Four Courts Press,
Dublin, 2010), pp.220.
[11]Clarkson,
L. A., Crawford, E. Margaret, Feast and
Famine: A History of Food and Nutrition in Ireland 1500-1920, (Oxford
University Press, UK, 2001), pp.74.
[12]
O’Grada, Cormac, Black ’47 and Beyond:
The Great Irish Famine in History, Economy and Memory, (Princeton
University Press, United Kingdom, 1999), pp.71.
[13] Ibid, pp.268.
[14]
Clarkson, L. A., Crawford, E. Margaret, Feast
and Famine: A History of Food and Nutrition in Ireland 1500-1920, (Oxford
University Press, UK, 2001), pp.90.
[15] Ibid, pp.91
[16] Ibid, pp.91.
[17] Ibid, pp.105.
[18] Ibid, pp.108.
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