School: Cluain Fhada (roll number 15091)

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1. Famine Times

   

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   The year eighteen forty six was the year of the Great Famine. All the crops failed and the people had no store laid up. All the oats was sent out to the foreign countries that year. Potatoes and milk were all the people had to depend on. They perished by hundreds and thousands, in the houses, in the fields, from hunger and cold. Here and there, by the roadside a corpse stares at the passers by as it lies against the hedge where it sought shelter. Around its mouth were darkened lines of green, the dry juice of grass and nettles. All day long the carts were going to the grave yards with uncoffined loads. In the towns it was worse. The shops were shut. Great fires blazed at the corners of the streets to purify they air. At the government stores starving people dipped their hand into the boiling maize or Indian meal and swallowed the burning food. A priest was called from his bed at every night. He knelt in the mud over the figure and administered last rites, while someone held an umbrella over his head to guard the sacred oils.

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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

   Kitty Callaghan

   Gender

   Female

   Address

   Lahagboy, Co. Roscommon

   Informant

   James Callaghan

   Gender

   Male

   Address

   Lahagboy, Co. Roscommon