School: Baile Nua an Fhaoitigh (roll number 9040)
- Location:
- Newtownwhite, Co. Mayo
- Teacher: Éilís Ní Mharascáil
Archival Reference
The Schools’ Collection, Volume 0145, Page 93
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- XML “Famine Times”
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- This district suffered severely during the Famine 1846-1847. The potatoes decayed in the ground owing to blight.
An old man named Jack Kelly came into a house at Newtownwhite cross-roads. Arthur Foster then owned the house, his great grand-son Arthur Foster at present owns the place. Old Arthur Foster had a good meal of Indian stirabout prepared, he gave the man a share of it. So long had he been fasting that the good meal of stirabout killed him, he fell dead on the roadside a few yards up from the house. So severe was the poverty of the time, that a number of boards were ripped out of the kitchen ceiling to make up a rough coffin in which to bury the dead man. In the kitchen you can still see where the four boards were replaced again {i.e. A Foster's house at Newtownwhite cross-roads} The woman who still recounts the tale is old Arthur Foster's grand-daughter.
- Informant
- Margaret Gardiner
- Gender
- Female
- Age
- 76
- Address
- Newtownwhite, Co. Mayo
