Human skeletal remains offer direct evidence of the lives of people in the past. Chance discoveries can lead to unexpected opportunities to investigate such lives. This was the case in 2005 during an archaeological evaluation prior to the construction of a shopping centre and residential complex in Kilkenny, Ireland. On the site of the former Kilkenny Union Workhouse, archaeologists identified 63 rectangular pits containing the physical remains of nearly 1000 inmates. Equally significant were the archives that revealed these burials to be contemporary with the Great Irish Famine (1845–1852), also known as the Great Hunger, during which approximately one million people died and about the same number emigrated. The decision by the authorities at the time to provide famine relief solely through the Poor Law contributed significantly to the overcrowding of workhouses, the spread of infection and the resulting high mortality rate. The poor quality and quantity of food provided to inmates inevitably compounded these problems.

The workhouses were despised, and for good reason. Founded on Victorian social ideology, they were very much a last resort, admitting the ill and the desperate. Whether these were whole families, the elderly or abandoned children, many would never re-emerge. It was overcrowding in the Kilkenny churchyards that led to the burial of inmates within pits in the workhouse grounds. Every week during the crisis a new pit was dug, a process that would have been visible to all within; indeed, as inmates were probably involved in the preparation of these pits, some may literally have been digging their own graves. Although interred in unconsecrated ground, the excavations revealed the ordered and respectful treatment of the dead; for example, in some cases mothers and babies were buried together.

Victims of Ireland's Great Famine begins by briefly summarising the contribution of funerary archaeology and palaeopathology to studies of nineteenth-century communities. The following chapter provides information on the famine in Ireland, and in Kilkenny specifically, describing the location and circumstances of the mass burials and their excavation. A ‘social bioarchaeology’ of the population is then attempted through the interpretation of the results of the study of markers of socio-economic stress on the physical remains, and by comparison with other burial grounds of varying social status. Famine diseases and mortality are explored and discussed in light of the reported poverty and overcrowded conditions within the workhouse. Evidence of post-mortem intervention, in the form of craniotomies, is described and discussed. Some inmates were clearly subjected to anatomical investigation, presumably without prior permission. The book ends with a discussion of its contribution to the study of the Great Famine and a catalogue of the burials. Chapters are introduced by passages, from eyewitness reports and travelogues, describing pitiful scenes of suffering during the famine, alien to our modern Western culture, yet still a fact of life in other parts of the world.

This keenly anticipated and well-referenced work records the results of the bioarchaeological study of workhouse famine victims. It is written with the clear aim of reaching both academic and lay audiences, combining results and discussion within themed chapters. To a great extent, it succeeds in this aim, managing to include a large amount of data within a flowing narrative. In particular, the author takes the time to include good descriptions of pathological conditions together with the clinical consequences for the individuals affected. While acknowledging the difficulty in comprehending the true nature of the Great Famine, he states that the mass burials from the Kilkenny Union Workhouse “provide a snapshot of the worst and most critical years” and the “physical reality of the famine” (p. 185).

It is through archaeology and specifically bioarchaeology that we can reveal the lives of this historically under-represented group, the poor and destitute classes, who, largely through Victorian social practice and widespread illiteracy, were refused a voice. As this book shows, there is rare eloquence within the physical remains themselves to speak for their suffering.

In an impressive piece of detective work, using both contemporary written sources and osteological evidence, Geber discusses a publication by a workhouse physician, Dr Lalor, who while reporting the clinical symptoms of clear cases of scurvy, nevertheless reaches a mistaken diagnosis of typhoid fever. Indeed, there is remarkable evidence of vitamin C deficiency, the cause of scurvy, among the Kilkenny workhouse population, showing that the great majority of inmates were probably suffering from this painful and debilitating disease. This and other metabolic conditions weakened the population, exposing them to infectious killers such as typhus. Despite the lowly standing of the inmates, there was access to medical facilities and treatment within the workhouse. If doctors could contain diseases they knew, there was less chance of them spreading to the general population of Kilkenny.

For the uninitiated, this book serves as an introduction to the forms of skeletal changes experienced as a result of chronic disease, and places such evidence in the context of a specific population. In so doing, it helps to highlight the strengths and value of nineteenth-century archaeology. As well as promising to act as a catalyst for further work on the Irish Famine, this study provides a baseline against which we can investigate famine episodes from Europe and beyond. The presentation of the data, however, will to some degree hamper those who wish to undertake comparative work. The most significant failing is the inconsistency of sample sizes given in the text, both overall and by sex. The book would also benefit from a glossary and the inclusion of scales in the images.

That this work is published at all bears testament to the author's dedication and considerable efforts over a long period. This appears to have been very much a personal journey into a difficult and sensitive subject, and, as such, the book is improved by this level of investment as a result. In the narrative, Geber never loses sight of the human story: the suffering of the Irish during the Great Hunger. He also shows how archaeology can help both academic and non-specialist readers to comprehend the lives of even the most unfortunate.