Cos. Tyrone, Donegal, Londonderry & Fermanagh Ireland Genealogy Research

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Death from Starvation of a Young Lad on the Roadside near Minterburn, Co. Tyrone 1847

Extracted from the Belfast Protestant Journal, April 24 1847
Transcribed, Compiled and Submitted by
Len Swindley, Melbourne, Australia
len_swindley[at]hotmail.com

 

DEATH BY DESTITUTION

Urged by the pressing necessity of hunger, a boy named BERNARD CAMPBELL, living in the townland of Shantavney, near Ballygawley [Errigal Keerogue parish], lately left home to seek employment, but after ineffectual and fruitless search in several localities, much disappointed, and greatly worn down and reduced, he was endeavouring to reach home on Tuesday, 13th inst.; and, when about one mile out of Caledon, near Minterburn, being no longer able to bear up, he, at length, sank down on the roadside. A farmer, at the time, chancing to see his condition, and rightly guessing the cause, from his weak and debilitated appearance, immediately brought him some food, which, at first, he was scarcely able to take. With care, however, and by degrees, he greatly revived; and after he had eaten the food, appeared to be a good deal strengthened, and determined to proceed on his journey. Not far from the place, however the next morning, was found his dead body, lying on the road – Armagh Guardian

[During the Great Famine 1845-49, the roads of Ireland were crowded with starving single men and whole families seeking work or sustenence. Inevitably, as the Famine continued, many of the destitute found it necessary to seek refuge in workhouses]