Canal Work Resumes
December 11, 2020Wheldon, Cholera or Fable?
December 11, 2020“Never” says a letter from Limerick of the 14th of March, “was there anything like the state of the surrounding country. The Cholera has spread all around. The Rev. Mr. Noonan, Curate of Knockany, was here today to purchase cot-[?], there not being hands enough in that place to make them. At Hospital, to-day, the parish priest and twelve of his flock are dead of cholera. Forty persons were attacked last night with the pestilence, out of which the above number fell victims in a very few hours to its malignant fury. Poor Dr. O’Connell said [?] yesterday and appeared to enjoy excellent health. The manner of his death (being taken off in three or four hours) had created a general feeling of regret and consternation through the surrounding country. Kilmalleck, too, is nearly as bad. Brurce is totally disserted; Fedamore attacked at all points; the Rev. Mr. M’Carthy, the parish priest, and his coadjutor, have been called out of bed to attend the sick and dying, eleven nights in succession. In short, the panic through the country far exceeds any thing within the memory of man.”
Kilmurry, Ibraickane, and Seafeld, in the county of Clare, have been like wise visited with the disease, and as if to provoke its rage, the deluded inhabitants refuse to go to the hospitals where every necessary is provided, but parish in their own miserable dwellings. — Upwards of sixty deaths out of seventy-three attacked, have occurred in Kilinallock. Of those who were affected seven remained under treatment, and only six have recovered. In several other places in that part of the kingdom the disease was extending.
We use this timeline to help us understand the events that may have affected or shaped a person's life. Here are some ideas as to how this timeline may help your further your own research: