The chief places he visited were Balla, Claremorris, Ballyhaunis, and Hollymount.  The scenes he witnessed were, he says, scarcely if at all less harrowing than those which had been reported from the locality of Skibbereen.  This writer, a Protestant, conversed, amongst others, with the priests of the districts which he visited, and of them he says:  “The Catholic clergy are the only persons who can form a tolerably correct estimate of the numbers of persons who are now dying of starvation.  The Catholic clergy know all the people of their respective parishes—­no one else does; the Catholic priest knows them as the shepherd does his sheep; he knows them individually; he knows not only every lineament of every individual face, but he knows, too, every ailment of body—­every care of mind—­every necessity of circumstance from which he is suffering.  The Catholic clergy of the West attend every death-bed:  the poor there are all Catholics.  The Catholic clergy know, then, to what it is that the extraordinary mortality now prevalent is owing—­and they set it down as the immediate consequence of want and starvation."[225]

One of the priests of whom W.G. asked information told him his whole time, and that of his assistant, was unceasingly occupied in administering the last comforts of religion to the victims of starvation.  It would, he said, be an endless task, and he feared a useless one, to record his sad experiences.

People died in Connaught whilst in full employment on the public works, just as they did in Munster.  Of such cases, the following is one of which W.G. collected some particulars:—­James Byrne, of Barnabriggan, Brize, parish of Balla, was employed up to his death on the public works.  The last food of which he had partaken was obtained by his wife pledging her cloak.  There was an inquest upon this poor man’s remains, at which his wife deposed that up to the time of his death he was employed on the public works, and as they had no food she was obliged to pledge her cloak for one stone of meal.  Deceased often said he would do well if he had food or nourishment.  Deponent states to the best of her belief that her husband died for the want of food.  She and her four children are now living on rape, which she is allowed to gather in a farmer’s field.  James Browne, Esq., M.D., being sworn, said he found, on examination, all the internal organs of the deceased sound.  There was no food whatever in his stomach, or in any part of the alimentary canal.  There was a small quantity of thin faeces in the lower portion of the large intestine.  Is of opinion that deceased came by his death from inanition, or want of food.  Verdict:  “James Byrne came by his death in consequence of having no food for some days; and died of starvation.”