The tenant lived at the mercy of the resident landlord. Home was a one-roomed house, a chimney of wicker work plastered over with mud or just a hole in the roof. The walls might consist of mud too, or sods of grass. Any windows, were rarely glazed and would be open to the elements all year round. The Pig, if any, was kept in the house, the most valuable possession. Sold for cash at local market. The main items in the house were a  potato pot and water bucket. As well as mother, father and children, there could well be grandparents all living in the same cramped conditions. The family would sleep on rushes or straw lain on the floor.

Most tenants were tenants 'at will ', which meant they could be evicted at the 'will' of the landlord. Some had a lease for the life of the father and the eldest son, and this meant they were relatively safe from eviction as long as they could pay their rent.

A typical one-roomed cabin is shown. With only straw on the floor on which to sleep. To the left is a pile of turf for the fire, beside this a fire, the smoke from which exits through a gapping hole in the roof. This cabin belonged to a family named Mullins near Schull in County Kerry, and appeared in the THE ILLUSTRATED LONDON NEWS. [Feb. 20, 1847].

Though the potato was formed the main part of their diet, herrings, oatmeal, and maybe milk if they had a cow might also be taken.

There was a tradition of passing on a portion of your land from father to each of the sons, who would build a small dwelling, and in turn pass a portion onto their own sons. This cycle of subdivision meant that many families were surviving on a tiny plot of land from which to derive a crop of potatoes for the year.

Women worked hard in this environment, rearing children, cooking, cleaning, tending to any animals such a pigs or chicken and when needed, helping in the potato field.

Life was dictated by the annual rent due to the landlord. Other  typical expenses could be the Hearth Tax (actually charged by the number of fire places in a house) Turf,  Hay (for any farm animals) and tithes.

A tax known as the tithes were calculated at one tenth the value of everything saleable. Tithes were a bitter issue. They were for the support of the Church of Ireland, Protestant Bishops and Ministers, and a cess tax for the construction and maintenance of Protestant Church buildings. The problem being that the vast majority of those paying the Tax were Catholic and paying to support something that was contrary to their beliefs.

"Bridget O'Donnell and Her Children," from The Illustrated London News , 1849: Even with  land, life could change so quickly as the extract below shows...

"The Sketch of a Woman and Children" represents Bridget O'Donnell. Her story is briefly this: 'I lived,' she said, 'on the lands of Gurranenatuoha. My husband held four acres and a half of land, and three acres of bog land; our yearly rent was £7 4s; we were put out last November; he owed some rent. We got thirty stone of oats from Mr. Marcus Keane, for seed. My husband gave some writing for it; he was paid for it. He paid ten shillings for reaping the corn. As soon as it was stacked, one 'Blake' on the farm, who was put to watch it, took it away in his own haggard and kept it there for a fortnight by Dan Sheedey's orders. He then thrashed it in Frank Leille's barn. I was at this time lying in fever. Dan Sheedey and five or six men came to tumble my house; they wanted me to give possession. I said that I would not; I had fever, and was within two months of my down-lying (confinement); they commenced knocking down the house, and had half of it knocked down when two neighbours, women, Nell Spellesley and Kate How, carried me out. I had the priest and the doctor attend me shortly after. Father Meehan anointed me. I was carried into a cabin and lay there for eight days, when I had the creature (the child) born dead . I lay for three weeks after that. The whole of my family got the fever, and one boy thirteen years old died with wants and with hunger while we were lying sick. Dan Sheedey and Blake took the corn into Kilrush and sold it. I don't know what they got for it. I had not a bit for my children to eat when they took it from me. . . . '

Potatoes were the staple diet from September through to the end of Spring of the following year. But the summer months were months of hunger and hardship as they waited for the following harvest to come in Autumn. During these months people had to resort to eating anything they could find; turnips, cabbage, even wild grass, nettles, wild berries and dandelions.

Those who lived close to the sea would collect seaweed and use it spread on their land as a form of manure.

The dependency of so much of the population on the Potato as their sole source of food was to prove disastrous during the Famine years.