School: Moyvore
- Location:
- Moyvore, Co. Westmeath
- Teacher: Mrs Kelly
Archival Reference
The Schools’ Collection, Volume 0742, Page 440
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- XML “Famine Times”
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- The great famine began in 1845. It was caused by the failing of the potato crop. The country was very thickly populated before the famine. The chief food the people of this district had when the potato crop failed was raw turnip and weeds. Thousands of the people died of cholera and yellow fever.
The roads and fields and villages and towns were thronged with dead people and they could not be kept buried. Some of the people had wheat and oats sown in their gardens but they didn't eat it to keep away starvation as they had to sell it in order to pay the rent.
There was a woman named Mrs. Gannon living outside Ballymahon in those days. She was better off than most of her neighbours. She was a very generous and charitable woman. The story is told locally of her that on Xmas eve 1846 she gave out a bin of meal which she had, till the last grain was gone. On Xmas morning when she came down-stairs, her bin was again full of meal.
