There was a nominal
charge of a penny or so a quart for some of this soup, but much of it
was given away gratuitously. Speaking of the accounts from different
parts of the county Cork, the Report says:--"Where the potato crop was
most completely annihilated--in the far west--the Famine first appeared,
but other quarters were also invaded, as the remnant of the crop became
blighted or consumed. Hence, in localities, which until recently but
slightly participated in this afflictive visitation, distress and
destitution are now spreading, and the accounts from some of these are
presenting the same features of appalling misery as those which
originally burst upon an affrighted nation from the neighbourhood of
Skibbereen." In the postscript of a letter to the _Cork Examiner_, Rev.
James O'Driscoll, P.P., writing from Kilmichael, says: "Since writing
the above a young man named Manley, in fever at Cooldorahey, had to be
visited. He was found in a dying state, without one to tend him. _His
sister and brother lay dead quite close to him in the same room. The
sister was dead for five days, and the brother for three days_. He also
died, being the last of a large family.
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