School: Coill-Chéim (roll number 9044)
- Location:
- Calhame, Co. Donegal
- Teacher: Seán Mac Cuinneagáin
Archival Reference
The Schools’ Collection, Volume 1038, Page 17
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- XML School: Coill-Chéim
- XML Page 17
- XML “My Townland”
- XML “The Years of the Great Famine”
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- (continued from previous page)The battle was started in a place called the Strife Hill in the morning and was ended at the Bloody Bridge. The water was red with blood when the battle was over and from that day to this it got the name Bloody Bridge. This battle was fought between the Calhame men and the Castletown men and the Castletown men won.
- The years of '46 and '47 were the two greatest years of suffering and hardship that ever Ireland experienced. The potato blight came early in the year and the potato crop failed. Like the present year it was very wet and the potatoes rotted in the ground and in the pits as well. In those days the people paid the rent to the landlord by selling their oats and potatoes. There was none for sale and the people therefore were unable to pay the rent. The landlords and the sheriffs and the Crowbar Brigade came to evict the tenants. They put people out of their houses and many old people died outside their cabins or by the roadside. The old people who escaped death were sent to a house called the Workhouse. Most of the young people went to America on the free emigration scheme leaving Ireland desolate and lonely. The Government started to give relief to the few survivors that remained. They would get a certain quantity of meal according to the number in the family.The store that supplied the meal is still in Dunkineely(continues on next page)
