School: Baile na n-Éan (Birdstown) (roll number 16090)
- Location:
- Birdstown Demesne, Co. Donegal
- Teacher: P. Mac Fhlaithbheartaigh
Archival Reference
The Schools’ Collection, Volume 1109, Page 405
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- XML “Famine Times”
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- In the year 1846-47 the great famine begun. It effected this district very much. The potatoe crop failed badly. My Great Grandfather and two other men went out to dig early in morning without any breakfast but grass to eat. The men dug all day long and when came into the house and put the potatoes altogether. They had not what made a dinner for them. There were no potatoes to put in pits because they all decayed in the ground. The food the people had that time in this district was indian porride. That was the first time the indian meal came into force. Many people died of hunger because they had no indian meal. You would see woman and children lying dead on the roadside starved with hunger. They also had oat bread and some milk but the poorest of them had nothing but grass to eat and other green things.
- Collector
- Margaret Grant
- Gender
- Female
- Address
- Gortnaskea, Co. Donegal
- Informant
- Mr Denis Grant
- Gender
- Male
- Age
- 48
- Address
- Gortnaskea, Co. Donegal
