142 Famine Years. In the years 1846 - 1847. When the canal was being made poor men and women used work there drawing stones on their backs at fourpence per day. In the evening they used be so weak that they used sit down by the roadside and die. There used be so many deaths that a kind of an ambulance came around and pick up the remains take them away and bury them in some pit. Not far from where I am living - Ballyvelly, a very sad incident occurred. A poor man went to dig a well off farmer's potato plot, after the farmer had it dug, to try to find a stray potato. The farmer whose field had been dug brought out a gun and shot the poor man. There lived also in Ballyvelly at the time of the famine three brothers whose names were Denis, James and Jack Cahill. Jack was supposed to be an amadán. One day he went to the Union to procure a shave and a charity meal. When he came home he asked his brothers to make the Leitean. They refused and said he "I'll settle it for ye."An Dothra BheagEmily Doherty