School: Killymarley (roll number 15398)

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1. Famine Times (continued)

   

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   with the disease would often lie in an unconscious state for days at a time. Sometimes they showed signs of life just when they were being placed in the coffin.

   There was a man in charge of the dead cart and it was his duty to draw away the dead bodies to the graveyard where they were to be buried. More than half the people in the Work-house in Monaghan died of starvation or from the dread disease - cholera - caused by same during the famine years. They had wooden coffins made of deal boards nailed roughly together. Where a great many died in any district at the same time the dead bodies were thrown on the dead cart and drawn to the burial place in it and covered over with earth and sods. When the famine was over there was not an empty grave left in the old burying-ground at the Cathedral - every available piece was used up. The three-cornered piece of ground at the junction of the Armagh and Castleblayney roads were also filled to overflowing. When this corner was taken away a few years ago several

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   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

   Ethel Gillanders

   Gender

   Female

   Informant

   Joe Gillanders

   Gender

   Male

   Address

   Ballymacforban, Co. Monaghan