School: Drumdigus (C.), Kilmurry McMahon (roll number 13479)

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1. Famine

   

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   The famine was one terrible hardship which overspread Ireland. It was caused by the blight that destroyed the potato crop. The blight came on the potatoes when they were growing and this lessened the quantity a great deal. When the potatoes were dug and put in to pits they began to decay, so when the people went to the pits all the potatoes were black and most of them had rotted altogether. When the following spring came the people had no seeds to plant except the decayed ones. In these times the population was double what it is now. It was estimated to be over eight millions. The disaster in a thickly populated country was something terrible. Many people are said to have died of hunger or of a disease caused by the starvation. Of course it is a true word to say that many emigrated to foreign countries to escape the hunger. In the years of the famine the hunger-stricken and fever-stricken people not only died in their own houses but in the fields, on the road sides and by ditches. The breath used have scarcely left the people's bodies when they used to be buried. Many of them were buried uncoffined and other people's bodies were buried in trenches. Many an old person

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   Transcribed by a member of our volunteer transcription project.

   History Edit

   Topics

   1. am
      1. tréimhsí staire sonracha (~25)
         1. an gorta mór (~4,013)

   Language

   English

   Collector

   Mary Neylon

   Gender

   Female

   Address

   Binn Mhóráin, Co. an Chláir

   Informant

   John Sexton

   Gender

   Male

   Age

   76

   Address

   Cill an Dísirt, Co. an Chláir