Part: de Profundis /The Story of a Family in Co. Cor

The Story of a Family in Co. Cork

The famine came, and Sheila and her father and mother and little
Diarmuid had to go into the poorhouse. As soon as they were inside they
were separated. The father was put with the men and the mother with the
women.

The workhouse was full and all the poor people in it were sunk in every
kind of dangerous sickness. There was not room in the house for half of
them. Those that could not get in just went and lay down on the bank of
the river below the bridge. They were to be seen there every morning,
stretched in rows, some stirring and some stirring no longer.

Presently people came and lifted those who were still, put them in carts
and carried them to a place near Carrigastyra where a big, wide, deep pit
gaped open for them, and threw them all into the pit together. The same
thing was done with those who were dead in the poorhouse after the
night.

Not long after they went in to the poorhouse, little Diarmuid died. The little
corpse was carried up to the big pit and thrown in with the other corpses.
Soon Sheila followed Diarmuid. Her young body went into the pit, but her
soul ascended to where Diarmuid was, in the presence of God.

The father and mother were enquiring for Sheila and Diarmuid. The
children were not long dead when they heard about it. All the poor people
knew Irish and they could pass information secretly.

The parents were heartbroken and arranged to creep away in the night.
Kate was the wife’s name and Patrick the father’s. They went up to where
the big pit was. They knew that their children were below in the pit among
all the corpses. They stood by the pit and cried their fill.

They started towards Derryleigh where they lived. Kate had the sickness
and they were hungry. When they had travelled a few miles Kate had to
stop. They met neighbours and were given a drink and scraps of food, but
everyone was afraid to let them in because they had come straight from
the poorhouse and the wife had the bad sickness.

So Patrick took his wife up on his back and headed for home. He reached
the cabin. It was cold and empty before him without fire or heat.

The next day a neighbour came to the cabin. He saw the two of them
lying dead. Patrick was holding his wife’s feet to his breast as if he were trying to
warm them. He must have felt death coming on Kate and her feet growing cold, and he drew them to him to take the chill off them.

The above is an excerpt from "Mo Scéal Féin" an autobiography of an tAthair Peadar O Laoghaire who lived locally during the Famine and his account of a family who entirely perished . The family were from Clondrohid, the poorhouse was the Macroom Workhouse and the two childrens were thrown into the mass grave at Carrigastyra Famine Graveyard (lies between Macroom and Clondrohid) along with countless others. The parents , Patrick and Kate, were most probably interred in the famine pit where their children’s bodies lay.

April 21 at 1:57pm · Delete Post