During the ravages of The Famine a man by the name of James Fraiser toured Ireland and produced a publication, A Hand Book for Travellers in Ireland.[1] He briefly mentions squalid and wretched poverty when travelling through Galway town[2] but that is the merest of mentions that is given to what was a desperate time to be touring Ireland. One of his journeys takes him from Dublin to Kilkenny, where he travels through Paulstown, calling it “the hamlet of Shankill”. As usual with these publications, the only people that are mentioned are the local gentry.
