School: Emly (B.) (roll number 16059)

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1. The Famine Years at Emly

   

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   Before the famine the potato became the chief food for the people of Emly. In 1844 they were very plentiful. The people had no regard for them. They had so much of them that they did not dig them. They left them in the ridges in some places.
   In 1845 the potatoes rotted in the ground. In 1846 they rotted again. The people dug gardens in peculiar places, such as the top of a hill to try and make them appear. But it did no good - they failed again.
   Most of the farmers were not badly off during the famine. They had some food. It was the poor people that suffered; because potatoes & milk were their only food. They ate raw turnips and weeds boiled with salt. They got a disease, called cholera, from the food. Really, in this place, it was after the famine most died.
   The story is told that one man who was hungry for a couple of days got a good dinner. He was dead the day after. That happened in a few cases where a hungry man got food. He ate too much & he died suddenly.
   In 1847 yellow meal was given out. Each person got one lb. per day. Some people got work on the roads also, and so got a little money.
   A great deal of people emigrated. They left their farms when the landlords gave them what took them to america. That is the cause of so much ranch land in this parish. The people got a price of a ticket to america & they left. Some of them died on the ship; because they took the cholera with them.
   The growing men of this parish walked to Limerick and joined the British army. They got many fine men during the famine - and hardly any one of them ever came back to Emly again.

   

   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

   John Nyhan

   Gender

   Male

   Address

   Emly, Co. Tipperary