School: Uachtar Achaidh (roll number 9762)
- Location:
- Oughteragh, Co. Leitrim
- Teacher: Caitlín Knott
Archival Reference
The Schools’ Collection, Volume 0224, Page 037
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- XML “The Time of the Famine”
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- Some of the old people have a lot of stories about the Famine. It effected this district a lot. People point out houses which were one occupied and are now in ruins.
The year before the famine it is supposed that the potatoes were very plentiful, so that the people had no regard for them. They were left in heaps in the fields and in the spring they grew in the heaps, but in the summer the blight started and then spread in the potatoes that were set. When the blight cut down the stalks the potatoes stopped growing so that they were very small.
When the Government relief reached this district a lot of the people were bad with fever. It was at this time the Indian meal first came to this country. People died in great numbers because fever followed hunger.
During the famine my great grandfather had a girl employed at a penny a day to pick potatoes. She used to be so hungry that she became almost blind. Afterwards she took fever and died.
I got this information from my father.
- Collector
- Olive Mitchell
- Gender
- Female
- Address
- Killaneen, Co. Leitrim
