Famine

transcribed at

The Famine  [duchas:4767804]

Man of the old people speak of the famine as the "Black forty seven''.Kinerney told me that  his father often told him many stories which happened then.
He told me that the people were very careful in bolting their doors dwellings and out houses at night fearing any stranger or traveller who had the plague might come in and communicate it to them. He also told me that it was during the famine that the wall surrounding the Deerpark and also the wall surrounding the Demesne now owned by the Patrician Brothers but then in the possession of Cootes was constructed and the labourers worked at the rate of four pence per day.
People called Bantons who lived at the end of Mountrath gave Indian porridge and they also gave soup to the poor starving people who consented to turn Protestents.

The Famine  [duchas:4767805]

Porridge was also boiled at the Harrow cross beside the Chester school and the starving people came every evening for their share.
During the famine in this district many of the people denied illness or deaths in their family.
Matt Kinearney told his son James that one night he was in Cappagh and passing by Clonenagh at midnight saw seven corpses brought in for burial. This was a usual occurrence during the days of the famine and the plague.
john Phelan Kevinsheath told me that he heard from his father that it was nothing unusual to find a corpse or two in your yard or outhouses during the terrible time of famine and plague in forty seven and forty eight.
People seemed really callous about these deaths all they seemed to mind was to protect themselves and their families from the plague, and keep the wandering plague stricken strangers away.

The Famine  [duchas:4767806]

He also told me that many families in the area were completely wiped out with plague that he himself had often met the remains of their old mud ? on his own lands and on either side of the road from Briscooli School to the ? (Phelans).
John Phelan also told me that Porridge was given out to the pupils in the Protestant (Chester) school (In Allen's fields near Peyton's lane) but not in the Preston school (Rossmore at the Redgate) as the teacher of the latter school complained on hearing the former praised.
"If stirabout weregiven out"
"Preston would be as good as Chester"
I understand there were many versus of this song but i could get no one who remembered any other lines.