School: Carnadough (B.), Newtowncashel
- Location:
- Cornadowagh, Co. Longford
- Teacher: P. Eustace
Archival Reference
The Schools’ Collection, Volume 0753, Page 312
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- The following tales of the famine were told me by an old man named Dan Farrell of Derrygowna NewtownCashel Co Longford who remembered the famine period very well.At the time of the famine the people were dying with hunger. The potatoes all blackened and they had to eat a bad quality of food such as turnips and other roots. Then the Government gave them a small quantity of Indian meal, they only got a pound each and if there were ten in a family each one had to go for his own pound to where ever it was given out in each parish. Still the people were found dead in the fields and grass and leaves in there mouths and the coffins were so badly made that the corpses fell through some of them on the way to the graveyard. Thousand of people imigrated to America and Canada. And they died with a plgue going across the sea. The potatoes were so bad that the priest told them to stop sowing them and sow other vegetables instead and anyone that sowed them that year had a great crop and they kept growing since. At that time there were about one thousand familes in this parish and(continues on next page)
- Collector
- Brian Ó Maoil Mhichil
- Gender
- Male
- Age
- 13
- Address
- Leab, Co. Longford
- Informant
- Dan Farrell
- Gender
- Male
- Address
- Derrygowna, Co. Longford
