School: Feighroe, Inish

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1. An Drochshaol

   

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   Long ago the potatoes failed and a great famine came. The people used to die with the hunger and often they used to be found dead by the roadside. They used to live mostly on stirabout and black tea.
   In olden times the poor people were far more numerous than now a days. I often heard the old people say if you gave a turnip or a leaf of cabbage to every begger during the day that you would keep a garden of cabbage bare of leaves. They used to grind corn into meal with a quern and if you gave a saucer of meal to them they would keep you grinding all day. They times were so bad when the people used to die by the roadside for the want of food, in some cases they used to take the shoes off the dead person and leave the corpse by the roadside.
   In another case there lived in an old cabin and old woman and her son. They had only an ass and baskets. She died and when she was dead he threw her across the ass's back. Then he went from door to door to beg the price of a coffin for the old woman. When he had got it the next stream he meet he threw her into it.
   My mother also told me that an old woman came begging one day. As he was coming in she saw the gills of fish which had been thrown out a week before. she brought them in and fried them on the

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   Transcribed by a member of our volunteer transcription project.

   History Edit

   Topics

   1. time
      1. historical periods by name (~25)
         1. the great famine (~4,013)

   Language

   English

   Collector

   Eily Nealon

   Gender

   Female

   Informant

   Mrs Nealon

   Gender

   Female

   Address

   Connolly, Co. Clare