School: Gort na Carraige (Rockfield) (roll number 9009)

Location:
Knocknashangan, Co. Donegal
Teacher:
Nóra Nic Aodhagáin
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The Schools’ Collection, Volume 1029, Page 171

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The Schools’ Collection, Volume 1029, Page 171

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  1. XML School: Gort na Carraige (Rockfield)
  2. XML Page 171
  3. XML “Famine Days”

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  1. It is now almost a hundred years since the famine of 1846-1847 but it still lingers in the memories of the old people, who recall, not without a shudder of horror, the events that occurred during those two terrible years. In those times the Irish peasants depended upon the potato crop as their sole food and when this crop failed the people were without food.
    This district was, like the rest of the country, affected badly. The crop failed completely in 1865 and the harrowing scenes that followed remained in the mind of the survivors until death. The potato crop again failed the following year and the hardships that followed were even worse than the preceding year.
    the population of this district was twice as large before the famine as it is now. The storyteller relates how there were houses all over the countryside in those times and now not even a stone of them remains. There were five houses up at Mc Cormicks bridge with five families living in them
    (continues on next page)
    Transcribed by a member of our volunteer transcription project.
    Topics
    1. time
      1. historical periods by name (~25)
        1. the great famine (~4,013)
    Language
    English
    Collector
    Marty Keegan
    Gender
    Male
    Address
    Templenew, Co. Donegal
    Informant
    Pat Mulhern
    Gender
    Male
    Age
    c. 68
    Address
    Lissacholly, Co. Donegal