School: Lacken and Leny (roll number 3244)
- Location:
- Lackan, Co. Westmeath
- Teacher: S, Mac Shamhráin
Archival Reference
The Schools’ Collection, Volume 0738, Page 171
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- About the year 1845 Potatoes began to be the only food the people had in Ireland. All that time there were about 8,000,000 people in Ireland, but after it there were about 4,000,000.
In the years of 1846-1847 the potato crop failed, and this was the cause of a great disaster in Ireland. These years the potato blight appeared for the first time in Ireland, and this meant that the potato crop would be a failure, and that the people might either starve or Emigrate to some other countries.
The people commonly ate grass, weeds and raw turnips. The district around Multyfarnham in Co. Westmeath did not suffer as bad as other districts. In the village of Multyfarnham where a graveyard stands at the present day, there were a row of houses about twenty in number. When old people go into this graveyard they often point out the foundations of these houses, which is said to be there a the time of the famine in 1847.
In Multyfarnham district the people brought the potatoes in to pits where they decayed. It was an awful sight to see the father, mother and(continues on next page)
