Opinion

Tom Kelly: Poverty is still a killer in 2021

Tom Kelly

Tom Kelly

Tom Kelly is an Irish News columnist with a background in politics and public relations. He is also a former member of the Policing Board.

Food bank use has soared during the Covid pandemic. Photo: Jonathan Brady/PA Wire.
Food bank use has soared during the Covid pandemic. Photo: Jonathan Brady/PA Wire. Food bank use has soared during the Covid pandemic. Photo: Jonathan Brady/PA Wire.

I recently discovered that my two times great grandfather and namesake Tom Kelly died in Newry Workhouse in 1888. That’s just over 133 years ago.

It’s a difficult concept to take in.

Not just because Tom, like his father Michael, were both long term tenant farmers from Shean and Shanroe in south Armagh but because we have a very vivid picture of just how shocking workhouses were in Victorian times. We also know only pure desperation took a person to the doors of these refuges of last resort.

At some stage late in life, Tom lost his tenancy. Maybe to make way for a younger farmer or possibly the farm was too meagre to give a return to the landlord. He took up work as a jobbing labourer in Newry. What brought him to the workhouse, its infirmary and a pauper's grave I do not know. He was survived by his wife, Rose, who thankfully didn’t reside in the workhouse but lived in Newry at her son’s house until her death in 1902.

Tom’s death certificate said the cause of his demise was exhaustion. It was witnessed by the Workhouse Warden whose name, JJ Wauchope, sounds like a character from a Dickens novel. Tom was 60 years of age. The average morality rate for someone born in 1828 was about 45 years. Given he worked well into old age it is perhaps unsurprising exhaustion did for him but his real killer was poverty. Poverty drove him from the land he farmed and poverty brought him to a workhouse.

Sitting comfortably in my detached home with central heating, satellite TV, a full larder, a job and feeling hard done by the Covid restrictions takes on a whole new perspective when reading about the plight of my forebear.

Coming from a working class home, I thought I’d perspective on poverty. I did not.

Certainly there were no trappings of wealth growing up. No central heating, no family car, no colour TV, no lavish birthdays and certainly no such thing as branded and designer gear. Being the oldest I was spared hand me downs.

Days out were more regular than actual holidays and perhaps my ability to cope with lockdown comes from the fact that heading to Omeath, Newcastle or even Dundalk seemed exciting and exotic. Those days seemed to be sunnier though the Troubles blunted what should have been a more carefree childhood. But everyone else around us seemed the same. We never went hungry. We never were short of laughs or friends.

Observing life during Covid and mainly through the prism of social media I have been amazed that despite being surrounded by the trappings of a first world country there is huge actual need amongst some communities staring us in the face. These communities are united by the shared experience of rampant deprivation rather than the divisions caused by tribalism.

Golfers lamenting the closure of courses is pathetic when pitched against some of the issues being faced by ordinary families struggling with lockdown and poverty.

The allocation of colossal amounts of Covid money from the Northern Ireland Sports Sustainability Fund to places like Royal Portrush and Royal County Down is deeply troubling. Those organisations should seriously consider returning the cash immediately. The Stormont bubble needs a reality check.

Hundreds of food banks existed in towns across Northern Ireland before Covid but uncertainty and job losses have resulted in thousands more turning to charity in desperation for the first time ever.

Some food bank volunteers have reported a 700 per cent rise in the need for support. This is both staggering and shocking. Good as the food banks are they are not a permanent solution to financial hardship. People need sustainable support and intervention. A hand up.

But witnessing the lunacy of some politicians fretting over flags before people - one wonders do politicians get it? Poverty is still a killer in 2021.