School: Árd-Fhearta
- Location:
- Ardfert, Co. Kerry
- Teacher: Tomás Ua Nuanáin
Archival Reference
The Schools’ Collection, Volume 0414, Page 039
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- XML “Famine Times”
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- The famine broke out in Ireland during the years 1847 and 1848. The potato crop upon which the nation depended for its existence had failed. Typhus fever caused by hunger broke out and 300,000 people perished. The year before the famine the potato crop was wonderful; they pitted them by the ditches and when they went to them for seed there was nothing but a mass of rotten potatoes. There was no seed to set the crop for the following year. The people had to live on turnips, and some had to steal them to try and live.
In 1848 things were worse, there were no potatoes at all, and again the people died in hundreds of thousands.
- Collector
- Della Meehan
- Gender
- Female
- Address
- Commons East, Co. Kerry
- Informant
- Mr Meehan
- Gender
- Male
- Address
- Ardfert, Co. Kerry
