A Story About the Famine

Kilkerrin, Co. Galway

Long ago, in the dreadful famine years there lived a very generous woman and her husband in the village of Derry in the parish of Kilkerrin. They were wealthy and owned a large store of oaten meal to support them during the famine.
The hungry neighbours came to this woman every day whilst her husband was engaged in outdoor work, for food, and she always gave them some meal. Her husband heard this and he became very angry, and he locked the chest in which the meal was. Every morning before he began his work he gave his wife a sufficient quantity of meal for their own wants for the day. The people were constantly coming but the woman could not supply any of them with meal. At length, she found a tiny hole in the bottom of the chest and then she succeeded in getting meal for the hungry people. She gave away more than two cuts of meal on that day while the chest contained almost ten cuts. The following morning her husband went to the chest, as usually he did, to supply her with meal for their own meals for the day. The woman was trembling with fear as she knew her husband would be enraged when he would find such a large amount of meal gone. But, to her amazement, on his opening of the chest it contained its full amount of meal.

Collector: Kathleen Gibbons, Derreen Upper, Co. Galway

Informant: John Gibbons, Derreen Upper, Co. Galway

Place: Kilkerrin, Co. Galway

Footnote: Duchas, http://www.duchas.ie

This page was added on 13/05/2017.

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