In this idyllic setting of Bantry Union, thousands of the poorest inhabitants starved to death in the decade of the 1840s. Little is known about the sequence of events of the famine in the Union and how the tragedy unfolded. Many people living in West Cork today think the ravages were less severe in Bantry than in neighbouring Skibbereen Union. Not even the geographical extent of the Union is clearly known.

Geraldine Powell is an author, psychiatrist, a graduate of the UCC Local History Master’s programme and a member of Bantry and Cork historical societies. Her work has been published in CHAS, the Journal of the Cork Historical and Archaeological Society.