School: Cill Fhearga (roll number 15128)

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1. Famine Times (continued)

   

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   years of age.
   There was Indian meal given out in Manorhamilton at two shillings and six pence per stone. Nobody was permitted to buy more than three pounds and a half. This food was given out in the County Home. A few people of this district were able to cook it. Some of them made porridge and others made bread.
   Before the famine most of the people nurtured on potatoes and milk twice every day except on Sundays. The people perished in their houses, in the fields, by the roadside, from the cold, but most of all from famine-fever. A great old people went to the Poorhouses, while the young ones emigrated to America and other foreign countries. Many of them died of hunger before they reached America, and their corpses were thrown into the sea.
   One million people died, and more than a million of them went out of Ireland. Very poor people boiled grass and nettles, and drank their juice. It was worst of all in the towns. People had to give their oats to pay the rent.
   During this dreadful Famine many people ate raw cabbage and raw turnips. They potatoes were set different to how they are set now. They were set broadcast. The people

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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

   Lizzie Ann O' Rourke

   Gender

   Female

   Address

   Darkvalley, Co. Leitrim

   Informant

   Mrs E. Carty

   Gender

   Female

   Age

   78

   Address

   Darkvalley, Co. Leitrim