School: Killymarley (roll number 15398)
- Location:
- Killymarly, Co. Monaghan
- Teacher: Bean Uí Chléirigh
Archival Reference
The Schools’ Collection, Volume 0957, Page 335
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- XML School: Killymarley
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- XML “The Great Famine”
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- One of the most terrible events in Irish history was the Famine which began in 1845. This was caused by a failure of the potato crop. The potato was the chief food of the Irish people from the year 1700. In 1845 the blight appeared in Ireland for the first time, and the crop failed throughout the country. The poor people were stricken with despair.
Thousands died of starvation and sickness during the years 1845 and 1846. The people ate raw turnips weeds and sea-weed. They gathered the wild weeds in the fields and boiled them. They ate these with salt without a potato. All Ireland waited with anxious hearts to see if the new crop would save their lives. But it did not.
The blight appeared again and their horror and despair can be imagined. The winter of 1846-47 was far worse than the last. Roads, towns, fields and villages were covered with dead and dying. The(continues on next page)
- Collector
- Harry Jackson
- Gender
- Male
- Address
- Ballymacforban, Co. Monaghan
