School: Tobar Ruadh
- Location:
- An Tobar Rua, Co. na Gaillimhe
- Teacher: Séamus Ó Cinnéide
Archival Reference
The Schools’ Collection, Volume 0040, Page 0166
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- XML School: Tobar Ruadh
- XML Page 0166
- XML “The Famine”
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- The famine in Ireland came in the year 1845 and the people all over the country were starved. The people who lived round here were in a critical condition. A large number of the poor people died of starvation because they had no food or no money to buy it. They never felt happy and they were hardly able to speak but always troubled. The people found it very hard to rear their children as they had nothing to eat for them but turnips and these itself they could not get often so a lot of the children got a fever and died.
All the crops of potatoes the farmers had sown turned black. This happened for three years after another. When the potatoes failed the first year the people had to go out and gather the small potatoes that were under the clay and these would do for seed potatoes for the next year.
The people's food consisted of raw turnips and Indian-meal and they hardly ever had any more than one potato with each meal. Sometimes they chanced to have a few birds killed and they would roast them on coal so they would think it a great thing to have those birds because on little bird would do two(continues on next page)
- Collector
- Mary Comber
- Gender
- Female
- Address
- Cluain Barr, Co. na Gaillimhe
- Informant
- John Burke
- Gender
- Male
- Age
- 58
- Address
- Cluain Barr, Co. na Gaillimhe
