School: Borris (C.)
- Location:
- Borris, Co. Carlow
- Teacher: Bean Uí Loinneáin
Archival Reference
The Schools’ Collection, Volume 0904, Page 463
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- (continued from previous page)the dread(ed) "Coffin ships", sought new homes in far - away America. Again many of them, expecting to be evicted for non-payment of rent, left their homes & drifted to the towns where there was a chance of getting something to eat.
In a neighbouring district, at the other side of the Barrow, people died in such numbers that they were not coffined at all - they were collected by "Body-lifters" paid a few shillings for every corpse and buried together in trenches. One of these "Body-lifters" was over-zealous: one day he entered a house where a man was prostrate with Famine Fever; he hoisted the invalid on to his shoulder & was rushing out to the death cart when in a weak voice the poor invalid said "I'm not dead".
The body-lifter's response was "Damn you! Do you know better than the doctor?" and he would have thrown the poor creature among the corpses only that a neighbour heard the remark.
- Collector
- Kitty Byrne
- Gender
- Female
- Address
- Borris, Co. Carlow
