School: Cloonmorris (roll number 12496)

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1. The Famine

   

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   In the year 1846 and '47, the famine was caused by the failure of the potato crop. The people sent their corn early in the year to England in order to pay the Landlords, and depended on the potatoes as their sole support so when they failed, they starved.

   My Great Grandfather lived along the old coach road then, so hundreds of poor people were found dead with the grass in their mouths. That old coach road is now our lane. When the people of our town found a corpse, it was customary for a man out of each house to come and roll the corpse in a mat and bury him in the graveyard.

   Here is an old story concerning those days:

   A dead body was found at Eddercloone crossroads, so all the men from Eddercloone started with him to the graveyard. One man happened to turn back and thought that he would not be noticed. The crowd soon missed him, and went back with the corpse and left him standing up against the man's door. In the morning when the man opened the door, the corpse fell in on top of him. So he had to go alone and bury him.

   In those times, a certain woman and child

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   Transcribed by a member of our volunteer transcription project.

   History Edit

   Language

   English

   Collector

   Teresa Beirne

   Gender

   Female

   Address

   Eadarchluain, Co. an Longfoirt

   Informant

   Patrick Beirne

   Gender

   Male

   Age

   50

   Occupation

   Farmer

   Address

   Eadarchluain, Co. an Longfoirt