School: Foxrock, Ballacolla (roll number 15562)
- Location:
- Clogh, Co. Laois
- Teacher: M. Bevans
Archival Reference
The Schools’ Collection, Volume 0830, Page 030
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- XML School: Foxrock, Ballacolla
- XML Page 030
- XML “The Famine Times”
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- The Famine Times
The tenants on the Grantstown and Grattan Bellew estates did not complain of unduly harsh treatment by their landlords. The population of the district was very much larger than at present, the holdings generally were very small and the general distress caused by the failure of the potato crop caused numbers of people to emigrate to England and to Australia.
My grandmother who lived in this district in the famine times told the following story:-
A woman and her three sons lived on a small farm in this locality. The woman had yellow meal stir-a-bout prepared for the dinner. She went to the door and called out "Come in boys". One of the sons went in quickly, and he was so hungry that he had all the food eaten when the others came in. The boy who had eaten all the food died shortly afterwards.
The following was also told by her:-
A farmer living near Grantstown had a large field of turnips. He employed a man to guard this field by day and another man to guard it by night so as(continues on next page)
- Collector
- Mary Connor
- Gender
- Female
- Address
- Court, Co. Laois
- Informant
- William Connor
- Gender
- Female
- Age
- 49
- Address
- Court, Co. Laois
