School: Ballyhahill (C.) (roll number 10686)

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1. Famine Times

   

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   Famine Times
   Our grandparents never cared to speak of the Famine. There was such misery and poverty, when the potato crop failed, owing to bad wet weather in 1846-47, that they hated to talk of those dreadful days. The thought of that black period brought back such bitter memories, that they never cared to dwell much on the subject.
   The district around was altogether very thickly populated in those times, and some of the country roads could be likened to streets, so thick were the houses. They were notable for the fact that all of them, it might be said were built along the roadside and belonged to poor people. They were made of mud, and have crumbled to dust long since, so that no traces of them are to be seen. But old people to-day can point on the spots, where mud cabins once stood.
   The farmers' houses on the other hand were built of stone, and stood some distance in from the raod. In the majority of the farm houses to-day, the occupants are descended from, and are the same flesh, and blood, as those who dwelt in them in 1846. Whereas the poor people either died of the famine, or fled over the seas away from England's hard rule, and for some more genial clime.
   The potatoes blackened in the ground, and rotted

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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

   Teresa Danaher

   Gender

   Female

   Address

   Knocknabooly West, Co. Limerick

   Informant

   Robert Danaher

   Gender

   Male

   Age

   53

   Address

   Knocknabooly West, Co. Limerick