School: Dromad (roll number 16781)

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1. The Famine Times

   

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   The old people who lived during the famine have stories to tell about it. This district was thickly populated before the famine. In the year 1846 the potatoe crop was very good and the people had heaps of potatoes. In the Spring of 1847 when the people started turning their potatoes they found that they were all soft and were not fit for use or fit to be set again. The wheat and oats crops did not fail so the big farmers who had plenty of wheat and oats lived but the poorer class died. The year after, the people had to get potatoes imported into the country. The poorer class dug in their bogs for "briscains" which are white roots and tried to keep themselves alive by eating them. People died in dozens in this district because the old people say that plenty of people died on the roads and are buried inside the ditches. There was a man named Bohely he died with hunger when he was going in on a gap and he is buried in the gap and it is still called Bohel's gap. There is a big stone in a field near our school a man is buried under it who died during the famine. My grandmother said that people going on carts and on horses fell dead with hunger. There was another famine since but a slighter one because very few people died. It was called the black spot famine it was in the year 1923 because the potatoes were all soft and covered with black spots. The spraying of the potatoes started then and there never was a famine since.

   

   Transcribed by a member of our volunteer transcription project.

   History Edit

   Topics

   1. time
      1. historical periods by name (~25)
         1. the great famine (~4,013)

   Language

   English

   Collector

   Susan Crowe

   Gender

   Female

   Age

   14

   Address

   Drumod Beg, Co. Leitrim

   Informant

   James Crowe

   Gender

   Male

   Age

   66

   Occupation

   Farmer

   Address

   Drumod Beg, Co. Leitrim