School: Bennettschurch, Baile Mhic Cairbre
- Location:
- Graignagower, Co. Waterford
- Teacher: Máiréad, Bean Uí Dhíomasaigh
Archival Reference
The Schools’ Collection, Volume 0656, Page 211
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- Before the famine the food the people ate most was the potato. There was no blight then. People would set potatoes and in six weeks after they could dig them. Then they had so many of them that they were only an annoyance to them so they threw them up on ditches and out in fields. The next year they set them very carelessly and the blight came and no potato grew. Then the people were starving for they had nothing to eat. No potato grew then for three years. The priests published from the altat that it was only a curse from God when they threw away such good food. The people used go around the ditches looking for the potatoes they threw there, and they used be found dead beside the ditches in the morning. There used be four men with guns watching the dead in graveyards because the dogs would eat them in the night. Then the Government gave a grant(continues on next page)
- Informant
- Pádraig Ó Crothaigh
- Gender
- Male
- Age
- 64
- Occupation
- Feirmeoir
- Address
- Castlereagh, Co. Waterford
