School: Lower Warren (roll number 7793)

Location:
Warren Lower, Co. Westmeath
Teacher:
Liam Mac Coiligh
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The Schools’ Collection, Volume 0746, Page 423

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The Schools’ Collection, Volume 0746, Page 423

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  3. XML “The Famine”

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    saw a man and woman and six children, around a pot of potatoes was steaming on the floor of clay and on the fire were a few herrings roasting on a wire tongs - it being a fast day. Such was the christmas fare in that house of mud walls.
    Another story or account rather she (my mother) often told me was: She had a sister married in Rahan, Co. Offaly, and from her mother-in-law the sister had this account of the Famine Times in that district. These people were just able to hold their own, and often and often an unfortunate 'traveller' would come the road and perhaps have a turnup which they would wash to boil. Getting the turnips boiled they would ask for a grain of oaten meal. This they would throw over the boiled turnips and so their dinner, breakfast and supper were all cooked together. This they ate, went out and would rush be at the head of the "boneen"[?] until they would have their meal vomitted. This what led on to the terrible plague fever.
    Transcribed by a member of our volunteer transcription project.
    Language
    English
    Collector
    Liam P. Mac Coiligh
    Gender
    Male
    Occupation
    Múinteoir