School: Fairymount, Crettyard, Carlow (roll number 4776)
- Location:
- Doonane, Co. Laois
- Teacher: Ml. Ó Gormáin
Archival Reference
The Schools’ Collection, Volume 0838, Page 023
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- The Famine
The harvest of 1847 saw the beginning of the famine period in Ireland. Potatoes were the staple food of the people and in that year they blackened and rotted in the ground, so that the people were left with no food. The Winter of that year saw the people die in their thousands from starvation and fever occasioned by want of nourishment. In many places people for want of food were forced to eat the grass of the field so that one English official declared "Ireland is now a land of living skeletons" In all parts of the country there were houses where porridge was ladled out but in many cases not enough to keep the life in the people.
In that year and the next emigration from the country started, mostly to America. In all emigration and death accounted for four million of the population.
To relieve the plight(continues on next page)
- Collector
- Christina M. Delaney
- Gender
- Female
