On 'the Line' - Excavation of a Famine Road in Boho, County Fermanagh - Eileen Murphy

2020 marked the 175th anniversary of the commencement in 1845 of the Great Famine (An Gorta Mhór) in Ireland., The disaster continued to devastate the country until 1852 and was caused by the near-annual destruction of the potato crop as a result of Blight among a population that relied on the tubers for their sustenance. Starvation and its associated diseases caused social chaos across Ireland, as evidenced in the census returns of 1841 and 1851 which demonstrate that the population had reduced by almost 20% representing those who had either died or were forced to emigrate to survive. “Famine Roads” are a striking element of the historic landscape across Ireland but they have largely escaped archaeological attention. The Centre for Community Archaeology (CCA), supported by the QUB Engaged Research Fund, was to undertake an archaeological investigation of a “Famine Road” at Drummacoorin, Boho, County Fermanagh, last year but this was delayed until Summer 2021. Within Fermanagh the roads were constructed in the period from October 1846 to June 1847 when the British government’s response to the crisis in Ireland was to initiate public work schemes, frequently involving the construction of new roads where the poor might obtain payment or food in return for work. Undertaken during a terrible winter, the schemes caused more harm than good among a population already racked by the effects of the catastrophe, and by Spring 1847 the programme was abandoned as a failure by the Whig government in London, and replaced with a network of soup kitchens. The paper will provide an introduction to famine roads in Fermanagh as well as an overview of the excavation of the “Famine Road in Boho.

Professor Eileen Murphy is Professor of Archaeology and Co-Director of the Centre for Community Archaeology in the School of Natural and Built Environment, Queen’s University Belfast, and a Vice-President of the Ulster Archaeological Society. Much of her work focuses on human osteoarchaeology and burial practices but she has a long-standing interest in the archaeology of Fermanagh and she went to primary school just down the road from the famine road at Drummacoorin.