Donaghmore

We went to Donaghmore museum on the fourth of May 04. We went on a bus. We had to pay five euro per family because the bus cost ninety euro. When we got there we ate our lunch. Then we met Mr Martin Keane.
He was our guide for the day. First he told us about the famine in Ireland. That was in 1845-1848.
Then Donaghmore workhouse was build two years later because the people were starving and had nowhere to live. We saw where they slept on straw, lying on timber. They slept head to head. The agricultural co-operation movement was initiated in 1889 by Sir Horace Plunkett to combat poverty which had become endemic in Ireland. When the famine started the people starved. People were dying because they had no food. There were 8,000,000 people at the time of the famine and when the famine ended there was only 4,000,000.We saw a potato Sprayer. If there had been a potato sprayer during the famine the potatoes would not have failed and there would not have been a famine.

He brought us round the Donaghmore museum and showed us some of the old machinery that the old farmers used. Donaghmore Co-Op was founded in 1927 . The farmers could not sell their milk and butter. A group of people got together because they knew that if they worked together they would do better, They were different people but they worked together even though no one thought they could do it. Donaghmore became a big Co-Op. It is now part of Glanbia We saw a special room. We did not think it was special because there was nothing in the room but then Martin Keane told us it was special because it was the only room in the workhouse that had a fire place. We saw a desk. He said it was special. We thought that it was a desk like ours but it was folded in two spots. We saw lots of other things. We put them on a slide show.

By Niall Hogan