School: Baile an Doire (roll number 16410)
- Location:
- Ballinderry, Co. Galway
- Teacher: Tomás Ó Maolmhichíl
Archival Reference
The Schools’ Collection, Volume 0021, Page 0237
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- XML School: Baile an Doire
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- XML “The Bad Times”
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- There were very bad times in Ireland long ago, about ninety years ago. The blight came on the potatoes and the people were dying of hunger. They sowed them again the next year but they did not grow, and any kind of a bit of a potato they got they sowed it and the next year they had the finest potatoes that ever grew.
There were twice as many people in Ireland long ago as there are now. The people were very poor at that time, because they had not much land, and they used not sow but the potatoes, and when the blight came on them they had nothing to eat, and they died.
They used to leave their houses and go around from place to place looking for something to eat.
A man was bringing his wife into the workhouse one time when he met Father Duggan the parish priest of Cummer who gave him a little food for the road. The next day the same man came again and told him that he heard the woman was dead.
"I do not think she could be dead yet, but go in quickly for fear they would bury her alive" said Father Duggan. The man was just in time to prevent her burial. He brought her home and Father Duggan said to some women to bathe her in hot water. The women did and the poor woman recovered and attended Father Duggans(continues on next page)
- Informant
- Mrs Cullinan
- Gender
- Female
- Address
- Corrofin, Co. Galway
