Potato Famine - Feeding Desperate People

With very little food - and no money to buy provisions - starving Irish families looked to the government for help. In the spring of 1846, Indian Corn became available in Cork. The Illustrated London News (from the 4th of April, 1846) describes the scene:

On Saturday last, the Government Sales of Indian Corn and Meal commenced in Cork. Immediately on the depots being opened, the crowds of poor persons who gathered round them were so turbulently inclined as to require the immediate interference of the police, who remained there throughout the day. Among the poor, who were of the humblest description, and needing charitable relief, the sales were but scanty . . .

. . . Our artist at Cork [noted as Mr. Mahoney] has sketched the crowd immediately on the opening of the store.