School: Dún Béicín (roll number 14822)
- Location:
- Doonbeakin, Co. Sligo
- Teacher: Máire Nic Giolla Geanainn
Archival Reference
The Schools’ Collection, Volume 0167, Page 0738
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- XML “Famine Times”
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- In the year 1847 there was a great famine all over Ireland. It lasted for two years and during this time millions of people died with starvation.
The cause of the famine was the failure of the potato crops, caused by the blight. That was the first of the blight and it is in it still.
The food used was Indian meal porridge and it was called relief meal, got from the English Government. They had to work hard on this food, building ditches and making roads. There was a man employed making the porridge for the men who were working. They cooked the porridge in a large boiler on a fire, and each one got a certain amount. The district thickly populated before the famine. During the famine there were lots of people found dead lying along the ditches. Some of them used to eat grass and the barks of trees with hunger.
The disease they took out of the famine was fever. After the famine they got the seed potatoes over from England.
- Collector
- Winnie Dunleavy
- Gender
- Female
- Address
- Dunowla, Co. Sligo
- Informant
- John Dunleavy
- Gender
- Male
- Address
- Dunowla, Co. Sligo
