School: Tullycasson

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1. The Famine

   

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   The famine was in the years
   '46-'47-'48. Before the famine there were twice as many people in this parish as there is at present. In my own townland there are only two houses now, and before the famine there were five or six houses. Where there are only one family living now, there were three or four living that time. The people still point out places where there were houses, but they are now in ruins.

   The blight came on the potatoes in the ground in the summer of 1846, and destroyed them all. It was on the potatoes that all the people of this parish lived, and when they were destroyed the people had no food at all, and they began to die of hunger. Most of the people had a good crop of turnips and corn, and they used the turnips instead of the potatoes and they made oat meal from the corn. The Government sent meal to this place, and the people used to travel five and six miles to get the meal. It was called '' Indian Meal, '' and this was the

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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

   Maura Dolan

   Gender

   Female

   Address

   Tullytiernan, Co. Cavan

   Informant

   Michael Shannon

   Gender

   Male

   Address

   Ardvagh, Co. Cavan