School: Coill-Chéim (roll number 9044)
- Location:
- Calhame, Co. Donegal
- Teacher: Seán Mac Cuinneagáin
Archival Reference
The Schools’ Collection, Volume 1038, Page 15
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- XML “The Great Famine”
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- The great famine came in the year 1846 and lasted for two years. The blight came on the crops early in July and destroyed them all. Before this great famine came, the district was very thickly populated, but when they had no crops most of them died on the roadsides and in the fields, of hunger and starvation. The sites and ruins of the houses in which these people lived are plainly seen even to this day. The potatoes decayed both in the ground and in the pits. The people had no seed for the following year except some small ones that were left in the ground. Some of these were sown broadcast like grain the following year because they were so small. In this district a man named James Gillespie left a field of potatoes undug until Spring. Then he dug them to make seed and the year following the crop improved greatly. During these times certain men came and sold a sort of meal as a food and in other places people got some relief from the government. A great sickness followed the hunger called "Cholera", and thousands of people died.
- Informant
- P. Mc Closkey
