School: Brúgh Ríogh (B.) (roll number 8572)
- Location:
- Bruree, Co. Limerick
- Teacher: Donncha Ó Haragáin
Archival Reference
The Schools’ Collection, Volume 0498, Page 326
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- XML “The Famine”
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- Long ago during the time of the Famine a great number of people who were mostly stangers died around Bruree, and were buried inside the churchyard walls where their graves can still be traced. At this time Ryans' mills were in "full swing" and the starving people used come long distances to get fistfuls of corn from the passing cars on the way to the mills. Every day numbers of them were found dead by the sides of the ditches, for example Leahy's Corner in Clogher where a number of strong men were found starved to death against the ditch. The workhouse in Kilmallock was overcrowded and when no more could be possibly buried in the workhouse graveyard - known as Bully's Acre, the dead were piled into common cars and sent to Tankardstown churchyard where they were heeled off the car into big pits. This church-yard soon got filled and the bodies were often left unburied. On numerous occasions the cattle in the fields around got in to the churchyard and the destruction wrought by them(continues on next page)
