School: Snaidhm (B.) (roll number 8251)

Location:
Sneem, Co. Kerry
Teacher:
Muiris Mac Gearailt
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The Schools’ Collection, Volume 0468, Page 032

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The Schools’ Collection, Volume 0468, Page 032

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  1. XML School: Snaidhm (B.)
  2. XML Page 032
  3. XML “Story of Famine Times”

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  1. (continued from previous page)
    On the return journey two of those poor stricken creatures were dead. Another man lost his three young children and he just put them into a big Ciseán and buried them in a field a short distance from his house. He was too weak himself to carry them to the local graveyard.
    Here is a little poem about the famine times:-
    (I)
    Give me three grains of corn mother
    Only three grains of corn
    It will keep the little life I have
    Till the coming of the morn
    The Queen has lands and gold mother
    The Queen has lands and gold
    While you are forced, to your empty breast,
    A skeleton babe to hold.

    (II)
    How can I look to your mother
    How can I look to you
    For bread to give your starving boy
    While you are starving too.
    I read the famine in your lips
    And in your eyes so wild
    I felt it on your bony hand
    As you laid it on your child
    (continues on next page)
    Transcribed by a member of our volunteer transcription project.
    Language
    English
    Collector
    Robert Topham
    Gender
    Male
    Age
    13
    Address
    Sneem, Co. Kerry
    Informant
    Richard Mansfield
    Relation
    Relative (other than parent or grandparent)
    Gender
    Male
    Age
    46
    Occupation
    Farmer
    Address
    Sneem, Co. Kerry