School: Mount Talbot (roll number 14056)
- Location:
- Mount Talbot, Co. Roscommon
- Teacher: M. Ó Héimhthigh
Archival Reference
The Schools’ Collection, Volume 0267, Page 198
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- XML “Famine Times”
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- My mother often heard her grand - uncle tell stories about the Great Famine which occurred in the year 1846. The district in which he lived was affected very much. Before that time the district was thickly populated.
During the three months of May,June and July there was constant rain and that was why the potato crop failed. It was when the people were digging them that they noticed them black.
My father told me that on the following year the people got the potatoes from the government. They did not sow them in ridges but they sowed them broadcast like grain.
The food they ate was porridge made out of Indian Meal because this was more plentiful than anything else. They also ate turnips. With these they ate boiled nettles and the roots of some weeds.
Thousands of people(continues on next page)
- Collector
- Máire Ní Éimhthigh
- Gender
- Female
- Informant
- Mrs Heavey
- Gender
- Female
- Age
- 50
- Address
- Mount Talbot, Co. Roscommon
