School: Johnstown, Arklow

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1. Famine Times (continued)

   

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   on all the potatoes, they all decayed in the ground so that there was not the eye of one the following year. before the potatoes rotted away the people need to scoop the white parts and then they used to throw the black parts to the hens. The people (used) had nothing to eat but the gruel which they mixed. This gruel was mixed in Coolgreanney. There was a tanyard at the bottom of the street. In this tanyard the old people say there was a boiler kept and the people used to boil oats and bran and then they used to mix it all up. Day after day the people used to to coolgreaney with old black cans for a pint of thin old gruel. The farmers too had to go and if they had one pint of milk they would swap it for one pint of gruel. They also to go to the Barracks of Arklow three times a day and they used to carry home the full of old black cans of porrage. When they had not the porrage to go for they used to gather the water-grass and a weed and they used to boil these and eat the,.
   In some parts of Ireland people drew the blood of the cattle and drank it and in some places they killed and ate the donkeys that had served them on their little

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   Transcribed by a member of our volunteer transcription project.

   History Edit

   Topics

   1. time
      1. historical periods by name (~25)
         1. the great famine (~4,013)

   Language

   English

   Collector

   Eibhlís Ní Chinnsaolaigh

   Gender

   Female

   Informant

   Bean Uí Bhroin

   Gender

   Female

   Age

   85

   Address

   Johnstown Lower, Co. Wicklow