Surgeons on board famine and convict ships exhibited strong
anti-Irish sentiment in their reports it has been revealed.
Medical records from 1,200 ship surgeons from the period 1793 to
1880 have been released and they paint a grim portrait of how
Irish convicts and famine passengers were treated. One surgeon,
Andrew Henderson, described the character of the Irish on board
a convict ship as a “Complete tissue of inconsistency and
stupidity.” He also found that the Irish constantly “brooded
over their misfortunes.” Another ship’s doctor described Irish
women as “ignorant and stupid “. “This is too much the case
among the lower Irish wrote James Greenlaw in 1844. Irish women
in particular seemed to be singled out. Irish women on board a
convict ship in 1832 were described as “very inferior to English
women of the same class.” ”The most difficult thing is to get
prevent them form smoking beneath deck and keeping themselves
clean,” wrote ship’s doctor E.J. Bromley. Thomas s Bell, another
doctor stated that the “lo