School: Swords (B.) (roll number 755)
- Location:
- Swords, Co. Dublin
- Teacher: A. Hamill
Archival Reference
The Schools’ Collection, Volume 0789, Page 136
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- XML “The Famine Times”
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- There are very few people around this district that remember the famine of 1847 but there are some people that remember stories that were told to them by their parents of it.
It affected this district a lot because at that time this district was thickly populated.
The famine was brought about by the failure of the potato crop. The blight came in the form of a germ which setteled on the leaf of the potato stalk then it went down through the stalk to the potato, after a while this potato became a black soft thing that could not be eaten. This happened to all the potatoes and all the crops were ruined. The potatoes were not dug up out of the ground because the people saw that it was of no use to dig them up, when they were blighted. The chief food of the people at the time of famine was raw turnips and Indian meal which they had to buy at a very dear price. The English Goverment did not help the people untill the famine was nearly over. During the famine half of the population emigrated.
- Collector
- Jack Savage
- Gender
- Male
- Address
- Swords, Co. Dublin
- Informant
- Patrick Donnely
- Gender
- Male
- Age
- 78
- Address
- Swords, Co. Dublin
