School: Na Corráin (roll number 9938/9)
- Location:
- Currans, Co. Kerry
- Teacher: Cormac Ó Muircheartaigh
Archival Reference
The Schools’ Collection, Volume 0446, Page 179
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- XML “The Famine Story”
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- In the year 1845 there were 8 1/2 million people in Ireland nearly twice as many as there are there now. Most of these people lived on potatoes and milk. They had a lot of stock and grain, but they had to sell them to pay the rent.
In the end of summer, in the year 1848 when the stalks were coming on the potatoes the people saw blight coming on them.
They did not know at that time what it was and they did not know anything that would banish it. It failed nearly all the crops that year and that left the people half hungry, but they set them again the following year and they got blighted again that year. Then the people knew that there was a great famine on them. During that time the people died on the roads and in the fields. It is often they used close the doors and the whole family would die one by one. And others went to the work-houses.
As a result of this a great fever spread through the whole country and those that lived saw nothing but cart-loads of deads bodies being taken away and put into one big hole without(continues on next page)
- Collector
- Connie O' Connor
- Gender
- Male
- Address
- Portduff, Co. Kerry
- Informant
- Mr Michael Brosnan
- Gender
- Male
- Age
- c. 70
- Address
- Mullaghmarky, Co. Kerry
