ily of five
persons about half a weight of potatoes,[181] small and bad, which were
given to her by a kind neighbour, Mick Sweeney (God bless him, she said,
for he often relieved us), two pints of flour, and one head of cabbage.
It is no great marvel that the man who was trying to work on his share
of such provision was dead on Saturday. In M'Kennedy we have a specimen
of the people to whom the Board of Works insisted on giving task work.
"For the three weeks he was at work," said his wife at the inquest, "he
got two shillings and sixpence, being one week's pay." There was a
fortnight's wages due to him the day he died. "Even if his hire was
regularly paid," she added, "it would not support the family; but it
would enable us to drag on life, and he would be alive to-day."

Jeremiah Donovan, the steward of the works at Caharagh, deposed that
M'Kennedy was at work the morning of the day on which he died. On that
morning he saw the deceased leave his work and go to the ditch-side;
seeing him stop so long, he told him to return to his work. He did not
return, but said to deponent, "How can a man work without food?--a man
that did not eat anything since yesterday morning." Deponent then
handed him a bit of bread. He took it in his hand and was putting it to
his mouth when it fell from him. He died in two or three hours after.
His pay was eight pence a day.

The Rev. Mr. Webb, incumbent of Caharagh, then volunteered a
statement--hear it, ye rich, who have not that mercy and compassion for
His poor, which the God of all so strictly requires at your hands,--"I
have been told by some on the road," said the Rev. gentleman, "that this
poor man has frequently divided amongst the labourers his own scanty
food."

There were two physicians at the inquest, of whom Dr. Donovan was one;
having made a _post-mortem_ examination, no disease was discovered that
could account for death. There was no food in the stomach or small
intestines, but a portion of raw, undigested cabbage. The physicians
said they had seen hundreds of dead bodies, but declared they had never
seen one so attenuated as that of M'Kennedy. The representative of the
Board of Works, when asked to explain why it was that a fortnight's
wages was due to M'Kennedy, said, that the money was sent to the wrong
pay-clerk. It had really come, but through some mistake, had been sent
to Mr. Notter, and was by him expended in payment of his own district,
when it should have been pai