School: Rathcoyle, Kiltegan
- Location:
- Rathcoyle Lower, Co. Wicklow
- Teacher: Aodh Ó Broin
Archival Reference
The Schools’ Collection, Volume 0920, Page 209
Image and data © National Folklore Collection, UCD.
See copyright details.
DownloadOpen data
Available under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
- XML School: Rathcoyle, Kiltegan
- XML Page 209
- XML “Famine Times”
- XML “Famine Times”
Note: We will soon deprecate our XML Application Programming Interface and a new, comprehensive JSON API will be made available. Keep an eye on our website for further details.
On this page
- (continued from previous page)man by the name of Shiel who lived in this district went to America during the famine. He landed at New Orleans and died there a short time after landing, with "famine fever".The population of Ireland was reduced by two and a half-millions on account of the famine. All the workhouses were crowded with people.
- In the year of 1847 a great famine occurred in Ireland. The potato crop is easily raised but it is liable to several diseases. A brown spot was seen on the leaf of the plant and soon the plant was covered with spots. Then the leaves fell off. Potatoes were the only food that the Irish people had and when the crop failed there was nothing to eat. Thousands died of hunger, and some of the people went to England and America.
There is the remains of an old house in one of our fields. The people who lived in this house went to England during the famine. - Informant
- James Byrne
- Gender
- Male
- Age
- 60
- Address
- Ballymaconey, Co. Wicklow
