School: Long an Inbhair

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1. Famine

   

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   The name of the potatoes used at the time of the famine were the "Copper Donns" and the potatoes failed with everyone, except those who had them set in moory land. Those has a few stone, and they gave some of them to their neighbours for seed for the following year. At that time the people used make gruel from the oats, which they called "oaten grot" and eat two noggons of this at a meal. The people also grew bear meal and they used cut some of this every day and dry it and grind it with querns and it would then be used. During the famine period the people ate a lot of turnips and cabbage and this kind of food gave them many diseases which they died from.

   The inhabitants of Drogheda died from a disease called "the collar" but this disease did not spread to this part of the country. After three million people died with the hunger there was a few pounds sent from England for all the poor starving people of this country. The people were so poor at that time that they had to be buried in sheets, as they had no money to buy coffins. The year of the famine there was a boiler erected at Bill Jameson's house Billis where the people used get a small quantity of Indian meal porridge every week. At that time a woman in Drumfomina left a pot on the fire and went to two places for meal and got none and when she went to the third place, she got two stone of meal for six shillings. Luke Molloy

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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

   Thomas Nulty

   Gender

   Male

   Address

   Drumfomina, Co. Cavan

   Informant

   Patrick Byrd

   Gender

   Male

   Age

   66

   Address

   Drumfomina, Co. Cavan