School: Coole (roll number 3936)
- Location:
- Coole, Co. Westmeath
- Teacher: T. Mac Cormaic
Archival Reference
The Schools’ Collection, Volume 0719, Page 378
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- XML “Essay on the Famine Times”
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- Essay on the Famine Times.
There are a few old people that can tell stories of the famine in the year 1846 and 1847. It was called the black Famine.
This townland was more thickly populated during the Famine years. It was also very much afflicted by the great Famine. They lived mostly during that time on turnips. In the year 1847 the potatoes rotted in the fields and the pits. There were very few crops of turnips and the people thought they would die of hunger.
In some farmers houses they used to have Indian meal porridge. Old people say they never got any help or food from the Government. The people began to get ill and take diseases from the hunger. Two or three people died in the famine year of 1847. The poor people of this district used to do work for the farmers, as to earn a bit of food to live on.
Kate Keenagh says she remembers when her father used(continues on next page)
- Collector
- Peggy Meehan
- Gender
- Female
- Address
- Coole, Co. Westmeath
- Informant
- Kate Keenagh
- Gender
- Female
- Age
- 64
- Address
- Coole, Co. Westmeath
