Halpins of Co. Wicklow, Portarlington and Dublin City - Part 2

[Shanachai]

Agricultural Intelligence.

Potato Disease – Public Meeting at Enniskillen.

     1a.
     
     Tuesday last, at twelve o’clock, there was a public meeting held in the Court House of Enniskillen, convened by the Earl of Erne, Lieutenant of the county, for the purpose of considering the state of the potato crop, with the object of applying the best remedies for the preservation of the present sound part of the crop, and immediately converting the partially diseased into wholesome food.  The noble Earl and a committee of gentlemen had sat the previous day (the fair of the town), in the Grand Jury Room, to receive the information of gentlemen and farmers, as to the extent of the failure in their respective localities, that his lordship and the committee might thereby be enabled to lay properly authenticated information before the meeting.  The meeting was attended by a large number of the landed proprietors, merchants of the town, and farmers of the county. 
     ...Lord Erne having taken the chair, addressed the meeting at some length, and was followed by Dr. Halpin, of Cavan, who spoke as follows: - My Lord and Gentlemen, I have for a considerable time been engaged in the investigation of the state of the potato crop, not only as to the cause of the disease which it is now suffering so severely from, but I have also devoted myself to ascertain what are the methods we should employ, that are most likely to prevent the disease from attacking the healthy potato; as also what may be done to prevent the extension of the disease in potatoes that at the present may be but slightly affected.  This, I take it, is the great question; for, although it is very desirable that the diseased portion of the crop should be converted into starch, which may hereafter be made available as an article of food, or used in the arts; still I have no hesitation in saying, that, if your efforts are to end here, you will have accomplished very little indeed, towards averting the famine that you so greatly apprehend.  I will endeavour to lay before you, as briefly as I can, the actual state of things at the present moment.  We are not without advisers in this crisis.  Government, fully alive to the welfare of the people, have taken such steps as they thought most advisable to ascertain the true state of the fact, and this knowledge attained, they would then feel most confidence in proposing remedial measures; for this purpose they appointed three commissioners, whose instructions were to inquire into this subject in all its bearings, report upon it to Government, and give such instructions as they thought most likely to avert impending danger.  These men, Professors Kane, Playfair, and Lindley, have acquired in their respective walks in science, a more than European celebrity.  They have already issued three reports.  The first report...is dated 24th October.  The moment I cast my eye over it, I perceived that the greater part of the advice it contained was calculated to do irreparable mischief; and yet there was sufficient in it to divest me of alarm on the subject, for the most dangerous part of it was so palpably dangerous that no practical man would be misled by it, and the least dangerous was utterly impracticable. I addressed a letter to the Lord Lieutenant, (Evening Mail, 29th October), in which I stated my charges firmly, but respectfully, and I then announced to him a plan which I had devised, by the adoption of which I had strong reason to hope the progressing disease of the potato crop would be checked.  A means of procuring through ventilation through all the potato pits in the country by means at once simple, easy of accomplishment, and so cheap that the poorest cottier in the land could avail himself of it.  His Lordship referred my letter to the Commissioners to report on it, and, as a matter of course, their report was, as I expected it would be, adverse to my plan of ventilation.  What did they say to my charge of “having given advice that, if acted upon, would be productive of an incalculable deal of mischief?”  Not one word.  They had told the people that, in the event of a continuance of fine weather, they recommend that the potatoes be allowed to remain in the ground for the present; but, if wet weather intervene, they should be dug without delay!!!  This is advice No. 1, from gentlemen who tell you in the same report that moisture hastens the spread of the disease – that dryness arrests it.  The same number of the Mail that contains the report with which they honoured my plan of a ventilating pit (Oct. 31), contains another report from them, in which they reiterate their instructions concerning dryness, and not satisfied with their former directions on this head,

[Shanachai]

1b.

they direct you to kiln-dry your potatoes – this is advice No. 2.  How is this to be done?  They admit that the corn kilns of the county are fully occupied, but all the lime kilns of the country can be employed in this drying process, “without interfering with their ordinary operations.”  Do they know so little of the actual state of the country as to be ignorant of the fact that there are not five lime kilns at work at the season of the year in this great country [passion, indignation, sarcasm]?  But then this is to be no obstacle – “the people can raise hurdles in the fields and dry the potatoes on them.”  Do they not know that the town classes seldom have as much turf provided for their winter firing as will serve for the ordinary requirements of cooking.  If this scanty store of fuel is consumed in kiln drying their potatoes on hurdles in the fields, where are they to procure the means of boiling them for consumption?  Do they not know that in many parts of Ireland there is no turf?  The greater part of Meath, for instance, where the winter fire consists of stubble pulled from the corn fields, and the straw of their crops, which should be used as fodder for their cattle, and for manure.  They appear to be ignorant of these things.  I wrote a second letter to the Lord Lieutenant, 3rd November, in which I gave my reasons for stating that the ventilating pit would be found valuable in storing the healthy potato, and called his Excellency’s attention to the circumstance, that the Commissioners had altogether passed over the grave charges I brought against their first report, and I quoted a leaf from the diary of a farmer, comprising five days of the week that had just passed.  I would beg your attention to this diary, as it really represents the state of the weather for those days, and shews what would have been the fate of the crop if the Commissioners’ advice had been followed out.  A marvellous “change now comes o’er the spirit of their dream.” [try to source this quote – I’m betting it’s Shakespeare’s Midsummer Night’s Dream, a personal favourite of all three Halpin brothers]  In the Mail of the 5th November, I find another report in which they abandon all their former counsels of “digging potatoes in wet weather,” “kiln drying,” and the like, and direct that potatoes now are “to be dug in dry weather,” “get dry somehow, as fast as you can,” “keep DRY,” with various other instructions anent drying; and they also give a very pretty model of a ventilating pit, with this drawback that, although they see the necessity for ventilation, they take means to prevent it effectually by “cramming the pit with packing stuff.”  They direct that potatoes shall also be kept cool.  Now, you cannot keep them cooler than the surrounding atmosphere – this condition is fully attained in the ventilating pit.  Lord Farnham examines all his pits every morning before they are opened for the day.  He does not trust this part of his experiment to another; and in no one instance did he detect the slightest elevation of temperature in any of them.  This post has brought me another report.  Will your Lordship credit me when I tell you that they have discovered that the potato disease is to be cured on Homeopathic principles.  The fundamental doctrine of this sect is - “like drives out like.”  But the most curious part of this is that while they are Homeopathists in principle, they are Hydropathists in practice.  Homeopathy and Hydropathy united, like the Siamese twins.  Bog water is the cure!!!  Ireland need only be converted into a great Hydropathic establishment; and the disease having been pronounced to labour under Hydrophobia, or dread of water, you have nothing on earth to do but plunge them neck and crop into bog water and they come out as sound as a bell.  It appears paradoxical that bog water should cure this watery disease of the potato; yet, if we examine the matter, we will find that it possesses this principle, no doubt from its containing a large portion of tannin or tanning material.  I now put the question to you, farmers and labourers, is not this the very thing you have ever been wishing for, but which you never could construct – a pit that you can let the wind through whenever you please, without disturbing the earth from off it?  And now my lord, I would call upon you and the gentlemen that surround me, to peruse e’er you vote upon the amendment I am about to propose – Are these men, who, on the 24th of October, tell you not to dig your potatoes in fine weather but tell you to dig them in the rain, and who abandon this advice on the 3rd of November, and tell you to dig your potatoes in dry weather and get them dry at any cost, worthy of your confidence in so grave a matter?  (hear hear)  They tell you on the 31st of October, that there is nothing to save you but kiln drying your potatoes.
They tell you on the 8th of Nov. that the cure is Bog Water.  These men have tried the powers of air, earth and fire and finding no good result in these elements, they plunge into water – Bog Water!!!  If

[Shanachai]

1c.

you think this course of proceeding entitles them to your confidence, you will of course vote against my amendment, and add the great weight of your names to the promulgation of advice that I am fully convinced will be followed by the total destruction of the potato crop.  But on the other hand, if you think that the plan for preserving the healthy crops of potatoes which I have had the honour to bring before you this day, is based on correct principles – that it is reasonable, in accordance with your views as practical men, capable of judging dispassionately on this subject; if you find that it has been tested by various persons, in various parts of the country, with whom I have no acquaintance, and if you find those persons stating their experience of its utility through the press – if you find it simple, cheap, easily constructed – if, in fact, you think it adequate to meet the emergency, I then feel confident of your support to the amendment I have had the boldness to move.  If I had access to the Viceroy I would thus address him – I would say, “Your Excellency must perceive that there is a wide difference of opinion amongst the faculty respecting the best method of treatment to be pursued in the disease that is now causing so much just alarm to the people of this country, and I have no doubt but that this difference of opinion will result in good to the patient; but I would respectfully submit that the State Physicians, called in by your Excellency, would be instructed to confine their attention to the theoretical questions that arise in the progress of the case, and I implore you, as the patient’s best friend, to leave the practical part of the treatment in my hands.” 

Dr. Halpin resumed his seat amid thunders of applause, which continued for several minutes.  Dr. Halpin then moved a resolution in accordance with his views above stated, which was carried.  Several other resolutions were also carried, but no memorial for the opening of the ports.  The meeting then separated.  (Compiled from the Erne Packet)
- from  The Belfast Newsletter, Tuesday November 18th 1845.

The tragedy of this wonderful assault on the powers that were, for their failure to produce effective measures to treat the blight, is in the awful knowledge that, despite his efforts, Dr. Charles Halpin was in the end no more effective than ‘the State Physicians’ he so brilliantly ridiculed.  In political terms, the implications of the Doctor’s attacks were very worrying – he was, in numerous ways, undermining the authority of the state.  And I suppose it ought not surprise us in the least that the high Tory newspaper – The Dublin Evening Mail – was eventually enlisted by the Castle to discredit Charles and his ‘method’.  Need I remind any of you that the Rev. Nicholas John Halpin was editor of the Dublin Evening Mail?  I wonder what the brothers had to say to each other about the issue?  Were they even divided on it?  Each day I take these questions to the archives, and search for answers.

[kenneth cooke]

Just a short comment, Ray-
So there was a John Halpin/pen in Q.Co. in 1807 & 1812.(Q.Co. infirmary list)
Solomon Delane's daughter Margaret married Paget Halpen in Dublin in 1794.
He was either the one who voted in Q.Co. in 1760 (?son of Mark), then aged abt 55, or his son.
Paget & Margt's son Paget, b. 1795, went to America.

[kenneth cooke]

Re Mark Halpen, apothecary-
From British History Online:
Calendar of Treasury Books Vol. 28, 1714 by Shaw & Slingsby editors, 1955.
Declared accounts: Army
Money paid for several ordinary and extraordinary services- Pay of the officers at the hospital at Dunkirk:
Mark Halpen and Robert Taylor, at 5 s. a day as Apothecary's mates,
25.12.1713 to 24.6.1714- 91 pounds.
(Total at Dunkirk L8226.0.9)
Ken 

[BillW]

This is an excellent contribution, just the sort we need.  May I pose some follow-up questions?

1)  Would you care to advise the list of Georgiana's children and who they married.  This is a Wicklow list and any such information can be of general interest.

2)  Why do you think it was significant for you to have been told you were related to the Eatons?  The Eaton family has been a focus of attention here and any more knowledge welcome.  As you may know, Georgiana's senior uncle was named Eaton Cotter Halpin and the significance of the Eaton and Cotter families to these Halpins is of interest.

3)  As Ray would say to you, there is family lore about aunts in Carlow.  Do you know anything abut the Bayleys of Carlow and the relationship?  Do you know if it was definitely spelled that way as I will make inquiries.

4)  If you look (much) further back in these pages or their forerunners, there was more information on Ida and, I believe, a photo.

Bill

I was given the name of this website while I was in Wicklow a few weeks ago. I am the Great Great Niece of Robert Halpin of the Great Eastern and have often thought I must have Halpin relatives somewhere.  My Granmother was Georgiana Halpin, twin daughter of Dr George Halpin, she married Robert Kent and they had 6 sons and 2 daughters, my father was the 5th son.  Her twin sister Ida never marrried, and lived on Church Hill.  When they were 94 a photo of them on their joint birthday party was published in the Irish Times as they were thought to be the oldest living twins in Ireland.  There brother Robert died in Falmouth and the twins had to travel to identify his body.  Another brother, James married Adelaide Maude, and I see from the 1901 cencus that a sister in law of James was Martha Florence Eatton.  I was always told that we were related to the Eatons, but never how.  Also that we were related to the Bayleys of Carlow.  JAmes and |Maude had 3 children, as far as I know.  Raymond, Ernest and Marjorie, when James died Maude took them to America, Ray was the only one to return to Ireland, he married Belle Phibbs daughter of Bertram Phibbs of Wicklow, I saw a suggestion that she was a model but she wasn't, however her sister Clodagh was a well know dress designer.  I would be very interested to see a copy of the Halpin family tree if there is one, and look forward to reading more about the family.

[BillW]

Ray has recorded Dr Halpin in Arklow being threatened by riots in 1880 for causing some unsanitary water pumps to be closed. 

At the court hearing, a newspaper reports:   Dr. Halpin and Mr. JAMES EATON HALPIN were examined as to the alleged attempt to burn the doctor’s house..... (my caps).

Some time ago I recorded the birth of James Eaton Halpin in 1861 as being to Eaton Cotter Halpin, who had married Elizabeth Jones at Killiskey Wicklow in 1852.  This date is contained in an Ancestry family tree that I can't now access but someone subscribed may be able to at: http://trees.ancestry.com/pt/person.aspx?tid=129337&pid=-706467927.

But since then I have learned that Eaton Cotter Halpin had died in 1857.  So whose son was James Eaton Halpin, here reported in Arklow in 1880?

The only Halpin doctor that I know of at this time in Arklow was Dr Stopford William Halpin who had trained with Dr Charles Halpin in Cavan.  His first son Richard Frederick Bestall was born in Wicklow in1858 and I don't have another child recorded until Stopford in 1864 in Arklow.  Is James Eaton a child have missed between these two?  It would appear so.

Bill

[mkent]

I remember my Grandmothers cousins Aileen and Bessie Halpin talking about Uncle Stopford, they used to spend holidays with him in Arklow, I think there is a window dedicated to him in the church there.  I don't know anything about the Eaton connection, apart from the fact I was always told we were related, as to the Bayleys, that is the correct spelling, I am very close to some who farm just outside Carlow, they have always been told about the connection, but like me have no idea how it comes about.
I also remember as a child being taken to Tinnakilly to see Belle, Captain Halpin,s daughter, I don't know if anyone knows Tinnakilly, but her bedroom then was the room where the bar is now, and I remeber a very old lady in bed by the window, she had asked the gardners to cut the trees down so she could see the sea.  I will send the Kent connections to Bill, when I figure out how to use this site properly!

[Shanachai]

Memorial Plaque in St. Saviour’s Church, Church of Ireland, Arklow:[/b]

This window is erected by the parishioners and numerous friends in memory of Stopford William Halpin, for many years Medical Officer to the district
Who died February 27th 1885 aged 81. 
He was Secretary to the Life Boat Institution and an energetic worker
In the parish taking a lead in every useful work and his kindness
To the poor will be long remembered.
Also to his son Dr. Richard F.B. Halpin who likewise practised in the
Town and district for 18 years
And who will also be long remembered for his kindness to the poor.
He died October 18th 1903 aged 45 and was Parishoners Church Warden
At the time of his death.
(Memorials of the Dead)