School: Sráid na Cathrach (B.) (roll number 8850)

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1. The Famine (continued)

   “Before the Famine the people of Ireland lived mainly on potatoes and the stapll food of the majority of the people was three meals of potatoes...”

   

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   daily In June 1846 a very heavy blight came on the potatoes and a great portion of the crop was destroyed all over the county potatoes were so scarce that the people were compelled to eat those that were usually kept for seed In Spring the food was so scarce that the farmers ate the greater portion of the little seed left and cut out a small portion round one of the eyes of the potato and used this as seed. The result was the complete failure of the potato crop of 1847 and the Famine. People died by the thousands the undertaker in Miltown Malbay was a man named Donnellan and even though he employed many extra hands he found it nearly impossible to keep coffins made In Legard South there was an old workhouse and messengers came daily from there to Donnellan for supplies of coffins and often the coffins of today were for the messengers of yesterday The dead were brought in cartloads every day to the graveyard and often when when it was too late at night to bury them they were left in cartloads at the

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   Topics

   1. time
      1. historical periods by name (~25)
         1. the great famine (~4,013)

   Language

   English

   Collector

   Gerry Rynne

   Gender

   Male

   Informant

   Mrs Fitzpatrick

   Gender

   Female

   Age

   88

   Address

   Milltown Malbay, Co. Clare