School: Clashaganny (roll number 8051)

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1. On the Famine

   

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   On the famine
   The famine took place in the years if 1846-7. Th people were so poor at that time that they had nothing to depend on for food only their crop of potatoes. Years before the famine potatoes grew in abundance everywhere, no matter how poor the land was one potato produces a bucketful. Heaps of them were to be seen everywhere. The Blight disease was unheard of that time. There was no such thing as spraying.
   A man named Murphy who lived in this village had such a good supply of potatoes that he grew tired of looking at them and he asked a neighbour by the name of Monaghan to take them away. he refused to take them as he had too many himself, Murphy enraged at the refusal, shovelled the potatoes into the dykes and went on his knees and prayed to God that they would never be so plentiful again. His prayer was heard.
   In the harvest of the following year the potatoes were found to be rotten in the heaps and so the famine started. Hundreds of men, women, and children died everywhere. At the beginning these people got christian Burials but as time wore on and people's strength failed the corpses were left in holes in the bogs. For a time men lived on water-cress and roots which the dug out of the earth. They were often found dead with green juice dripping from their mouths. Indian meal was given as a home help to the very old, poor people by Mr. Holmes the landlord's agent. Roads were started to give employment

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   Transcribed by a member of our volunteer transcription project.

   History Edit

   Language

   English

   Collector

   Nancy Boyle

   Gender

   Female

   Address

   Ballydaly, Co. Roscommon