Recipes from Disaster - Part 1

term problem at least it was keeping people alive. Unfortunately the bitterest winter in living memory had added to the suffering, and epidemics of typhus and relapsing fever, no respecters of rank or status, were breaking out in town and country alike. Graphic descriptions by members of the Quaker Relief Organisation depicting the gruesome and heartrending sights encountered routinely throughout the country were published in the newspapers, engendering a great wave of sympathy amongst the readership, if not shared by some editorial staffs.

Alexis Soyer's concern for the homeless was well known in London, as he had opened 'Soyer's Philanthropic Gallery' displaying his late wife's paintings, devoting the profits to the establishment of soup kitchens in the worst slum districts. The Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, the well meaning though uninfluential Lord Bessborough, asked Alexis if he would come to Dublin to organise the distribution of soup to the starving population. Despite the danger of the typhus epidemic then raging in Dublin, Alexis readily agreed, and with open ended leave of absence from the Reform Club, he set off for the Irish capital.

With Trevelyan still obstinately refusing to commit public money to the soup programme unless it could be guaranteed to be reimbursed through the rates, the soup ingredients ideally had to go a long way. Alexis claimed that his recipes hit the balance between nutrition and economy - although there were those who disagreed. "Preposterous" exploded 'Medico', writing from the Atheneum, "The debilitating effects of a liquid diet are so well known to the medical officers of our hospitals....that it is unnecessary to dwell on the subject." Mr Dobree from Sligo agreed; "Soup is no working food for people accustomed to 14 lb of potatoes daily." he wrote. Fourteen pounds? And I thought Irish folk had the reputation of being slim and wiry!

There is no doubt that there were many so disillusioned as to disparage any government initiative, but Soyer maintained that a meal of his soup with a biscuit daily would sustain health, and the evidence of his work in the Crimea later would prove him right.

Alexis had a wooden building constructed in front of the Royal Barracks and installed a massive boiler with a capacity of 300 gallons of soup. The building was 40 ft long by 30 ft wide, with an entry door at one end, and an exit at the other. Long tables had two rows of circular

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