School: Kinsealy
- Location:
- Kinsaley, Co. Dublin
- Teacher: C. Mac Domhnaill
Archival Reference
The Schools’ Collection, Volume 0792, Page 209
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- The Famine.
The great Irish famine occured in the years '46, '47 - caused by the blight that destroyed the potateo crop in the years '45, '46. Of course Kinsealy was a farming district, and the people had no other food; so the had to depend on the potatoes. About one hundred died of hunger, and another hundred were emmigrated to America and other countries.
In these dread famine days a lot of people died in the wood ditch running along the Malahide Road. More died in the Castle wood. All the mud houses that were thrown in the past few years is the past result of the famine. The people were not able to rent and were thrown out on the road to starve. Another thing was - anyone found out of their house between sunrise and sun-set, were liable to fourteen years transportation beyond the seas.
The people were so famine-stricken around Kinsealy that one could see them eating grass. They drew blood of cattle and drank it. They killed the little donkeys, that served them years on their little farms.
When the little ships left Malahide and Baldoyle with dying passengers on board, they were thrown overboard. These ships were called coffin ships, Many of these people's bones lie in the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean all the way to the U,S,A.
William Redmond.
No 7 Kinsealy Lane,
Malahide,
Co Dublin.
- Collector
- William Redmond
- Gender
- Male
- Address
- Kinsealy Lane, Co. Dublin
