School: An Fearann (roll number 14438)
- Location:
- Farran, Co. Cork
- Teacher: Muiris Buttimer
Archival Reference
The Schools’ Collection, Volume 0345, Page 304
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- XML “The Big Flu”
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- This severe "flue" swept over Ireland in the year 1918. Nursing Sisters from Montenotte called it "Trench Fever" and stated that it was brought from France by soldiers returning from the Great War.
In some cases whole families were stricken, pneumonia sabbing the patient's strength so rapidly that in a few hours the poor sufferer was beyond medical aid.
This out-break continued into the year 1919. In March of that year the four Mac Sweeney brothers of Crookstown died. The three men who were tailors died first. Another brother who was a carpenter, his wife and three children were removed to a Cork hospital and there the father and two children died; only the mother and one child returned home.
Doctors recommended whiskey as a good remedy at that time to counteact the "flue" but it was hard to get.
People get the "flue" since then but it is less severe.
- Collector
- Margaret Deasy
- Gender
- Female
- Address
- Aherla More, Co. Cork
- Informant
- Mrs Deasy
- Gender
- Female
- Address
- Aherla More, Co. Cork
