School: Cill Fhearga (roll number 15128)

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1. Famine Times

   

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   The Famine affected this district very much. This place was thickly populated before that time. The potatoe crop failed with the blight which old people believed fell from the air.
   The seed that the people had for the following year was what remained in the ground after the blight. They were as small as birds' eggs, but still they produced a good and plentiful crop. The ground was cultivated and they were sown te same as they are now.
   Maize meal was sent in by the English Government. It was cooked and given out by a man named Tom Gilmartin of Mullaghduff. There was a woman employed for making the maize porridge and keeping the boiler clean.
   It has not been known of anyone dying around here except one person named Peter Giblin of Buggan. He was found dead in a byre. A disease called cholera followed the Famine. A large number of people died in other districts from this disease.
   People who remembered the Famine said that it was the potatoe crop failure that caused it. A number of people left their houses and lands and went to England and Scotland and some of them went to the Poorhouses. The landlords were so cruel in these days that the people had to sell their corn to get money to pay the rent. If they did not have to do that

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   Transcribed by a member of our volunteer transcription project.

   History Edit

   Topics

   1. time
      1. historical periods by name (~25)
         1. the great famine (~4,013)

   Language

   English

   Collector

   Eileen O' Rourke

   Gender

   Female

   Address

   Gortnacorkoge, Co. Leitrim

   Informant

   Joseph Boles

   Gender

   Male

   Age

   40

   Address

   Gortnacorkoge, Co. Leitrim

   Informant

   Mrs James Slevin

   Gender

   Female

   Age

   54

   Address

   Gortnacorkoge, Co. Leitrim