Potato Famine - What is a Scalpeen?

While some displaced families could only find shelter by digging a Scalp (a hole in the Earth or a bog), others - more fortunate, by far - created a home (called a Scalpeen) within abandoned (or ruined) houses. 

As reported in the December 15, 1849 issue of The Illustrated London News:  

A Scalpeen is a hole, too, but the roof above it is rather loftier and grander in its dimensions. It is often erected within the walls when any are left standing, of the unroofed houses, and all that is above the surface is built out of the old materials. It possesses, too, some pieces of furniture, and the Scalpeen is altogether superior to the Scalp.

Credits

Image, and quoted passage, from "Conditions of Ireland:  Illustrations of the New Poor-Law," an article from the December 15, 1849 issue of The Illustrated London News.