John Doyle, b 1900, labourer, who was reared at Craffle, Ballytugue, Aughrin, Co. Wicklow

“The people ate crabapples and holly berries and the leaves of the crabapple.  They climbed trees for nuts at Rednagh.  The favourite was the oak nut.  Many were so weak they fell out of the trees and were killed. They fought and killed each other over the blackberries before they were ripe.  A man went into a house and found the owner dead and a rat eating the corpse.  He killed the rat and brought it home and ate it.”

 Before the Bad Times