School: Donnycarney (roll number 10950)
- Location:
- Donacarney Great, Co. Meath
- Teacher: P. Ó Cadhain
Archival Reference
The Schools’ Collection, Volume 0682, Page 161
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- XML “Famine”
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- The village of Bettystown was very thickly populated before the Famine. A few years before the Famine the only food the people had were potatoes. The men when they were planting the potatoes would have a few cold potatoes in their pockets. They would take a piece of it and eat it and then then go on another bit and take another bite. Some person composed the following two lines:"May God above look down on us and pity us poor creatures,And send us food we can use and take away those potatoes"
When the blight came on the potato they began to rot in the drills and pits. The people were dying like flies in the year 1846. They began to eat seaweed and the stalks of the potatoes.When one would be going to Mass or to work he would pass as many as seven bodies in one mile each had their mouth full of grass. About 55% of the people of the district died during the hard years of the Famine.
- Collector
- John Taylor
- Gender
- Male
- Informant
- Bridget Taylor
- Gender
- Female
- Age
- 65
- Address
- Bettystown, Co. Meath
