School: Cill Chais, Cluain Meala (roll number 596)

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1. The Famine (continued)

   

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   houses all along the side of the hill from the village of Killurney. Some ruins are still to be seen. This meal which was given to the people was supplied by the Board of Works.

   In order to get some seed for the following year the people took the eyes out of any good potatoes they had, hoping in this way to have a crop for the following year. They had very few good ones as the potatoes rotted in the ground. The people used to notice a kind of whitish mist or fog in the mornings over the potato gardens and the smell of rotting potatoes was terrible.

   
   In Kilcash the poorer people brought bags on their backs looking for a spoonful of flour or meal. There was an old man found dead in a turnip garden here, he was too weak to pull it. He died as he gnawed at the roots in the ground. Little children died on the floors of the cabins for their mother were too weak to hold them in their laps. The ravenous dogs used to come in the door to eat the dead bodies of the children. The disease of Typhus was also rampant in these parts as well as Cholera. Maize meal was sent from America. The priests, doctors and landlords around here worked hard

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   Transcribed by a member of our volunteer transcription project.

   History Edit

   Language

   English

   Collector

   C. Ní Mhainnín

   Gender

   Female