School: Carraig na Heorna (2) (roll number 14976)
- Location:
- Carricknahorna, Co. Donegal
- Teacher: Sibéal Nic Pháidín
Archival Reference
The Schools’ Collection, Volume 1028, Page 509
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- XML “The Great Famine”
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- In the year 1846 there was a great famine in Ireland which lasted for two years. It was then that the blight first came on the potatoes, and that spraying was introduced. The potatoes failed all over Ireland even in this district. Some of the old people can remember stories about it that they heard their fathers telling. The people died and starved on the roadside. The blight came on the potatoes on the night of the 12th July 1846. On that day a man in this district, named James Walsh was weeding his potatoes in a garden and when he would stand up the potato tops were as high as his waist. The next day when this man came out to continue his work the rich tops were lying rotting. When the potatoes all rotted and the corn and all the crops were lost people went out to the roads and sat on the ditches to die of hunger.
There was one family living in Donegal by the name of Kelly. They had three children and when the little children died of hunger, the father and mother fed themselves on greens such as(continues on next page)
