School: An Clochar, Cill Ruis
- Location:
- Kilrush, Co. Clare
- Teacher: An tSr. Pól
Archival Reference
The Schools’ Collection, Volume 0629, Page 433
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- XML “Famine Times”
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- There are numerous tales of the famine years as they were called in 1846 and 1847. In those years the potato crop failed and the potatoes which were then the staple food in the country blackened in the ground and were diseased and unfit for food. Then owing to the shortage of food the government distributed meals through local agents. In some cases next was starvation and it was recorded that a man travelled thirty miles to Kilrush and was in such a pitiable state that he put his hand into a large boiler in which turnips were boiled to get a turnip to eat having scalded his hands. There was an epidemic of cholera and the people died in large numbers. There was a case of a man in Kilrush who was buried when he kicked at the cover of his coffin. He was released his health was restored and he afterwards went to Australia. The population decreased and a good many old habitations and landmarks of the famine years.
