School: Streamstown (roll number 15291)
- Location:
- Streamstown, Co. Westmeath
- Teacher: S. Garland
Archival Reference
The Schools’ Collection, Volume 0734, Page 129
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- In the years 1846 and '47 the great famine spread over this country. It did great destruction in this district and the old people still have some stories to relate about the famine years.
According to Jim Finnerty who told me this story, this district was thickly populated before the famine. He told me that his grandfather remembered when sixty families were evicted the one day in Streamstown. Between Moran's gate and Roe's back gate there were sixty cottages and when the families were evicted the houses were immediately knocked down.
It was the failure of the potato crop in the year 1846 that caused the famine. Towards the end of July the potatoes were flourishing but in the beginning of August they were decaying in the ground.
He does not know how the blight came on the potatoes or how the people got the seed potatoes for(continues on next page)
- Collector
- Peter Stokes
- Gender
- Male
- Address
- Creeve, Co. Westmeath
- Informant
- Jim Finnerty
- Gender
- Male
- Age
- 74
- Address
- Creeve, Co. Westmeath
