School: Cill Cholmáin, Shanagolden (roll number 4014)
- Location:
- Kilcolman, Co. Limerick
- Teacher: Bean Uí Chriobáin
Archival Reference
The Schools’ Collection, Volume 0484, Page 012
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- (continued from previous page)awful time as her father was able to secure a few barrels of potatoes, some of which he kept for seed from a Mr. Lhyod who lived beyond Rathkeale.The people living solely on potatoes were hard hit. They were forced to eat turnips, and the Indian meal then imported into the country. During '47 she remembers being sent for the cows and finding a man dead near a fence in the field. Poor man, he died of starvation, and had nothing but a grain of meal in his pocket. This was only one of the many cases in our district.She told me the following little story about a woman from Connaught, who often came to her house for charity. This woman's name was Mary Salmon and used to get an awful disease called the falling sickness (epileptic fits), while in this fit she had second sight. She visited this old lady's house in '47 and after one of her fits foretold that the potato crop would be so plentiful the following year that they would be in pits near the ditches. True for her, they were in great abundance, but the national disaster left its toll as the population of our district was reduced to just half.
