School: Dhuish

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1. The Great Famine

   

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   The Great Famine

   The great famine was one of the most terrible events that happened in Ireland, and it began in the year 1845. It was caused by a failure of the potato crop. The potatoes became the chief food of the Irish people. At that time there were eight million people in Ireland and after the famine there were only four million. Between 1800 and 1845 there was a potato famine in several districts, but the famine which began in 1845 was far worse than any of the other famines. In that year the potato blight appeared in Ireland for the first time. It spread quickly and the crop failed all over the country. At that time there was no such thing as spraying the potatoes.
   The people had neither food nor money to but the potatoes. Thousands of people died of sickness and starvation in the winter. Raw turnips, weed and seaweed were eaten. The people went through the fields and gathered the wild weeds. They boiled theme with salt and they lived on them without a potato. You can think of their horror and despair when the potato blight again appeared. Hundreds of thousands of people in the famine years seeing nothing but starvation for them at home, sold all they had and went to America. More than a million people left Ireland between the years 1845 and 1850.Every year thousands of young men and women went to America. Those who remained at home had no heart. There are many old houses in this district

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   Transcribed by a member of our volunteer transcription project.

   History Edit

   Topics

   1. time
      1. historical periods by name (~25)
         1. the great famine (~4,013)

   Language

   English

   Collector

   Anna Freeman

   Gender

   Female

   Address

   Crossmakeelan, Co. Cavan