Irishtown, Knock and Castlebar
The immediate setting was an agricultural depression rather than a return of the Great Famine on its earlier scale. Rural Ireland had changed greatly since the 1840s: population had fallen, the cottier system had contracted and emigration had become an enduring outlet. Yet these changes had not abolished precarity. Across much of the west, farms were small, holdings were commonly rented rather than owned, and families balanced potatoes, small livestock, seasonal earnings and credit from local shops. A weak potato harvest could therefore threaten both food and the ability to meet rent.