The site of the pre-Famine ‘Village of Meenies’, to the north-west of Drimoleague village, is now commemorated by a plaque erected by the Drimoleague Community Association. Researched and compiled by staff at Skibbereen Heritage Centre, this panel tells the story of a local community ravaged by the horrors of the Great Famine.

Meenies was not a village as we understand it today. Rather a cluster of houses (a clachan) whose occupants farmed communally under a system called rundale. These dwellings were encircled by vegetable gardens (garraí), surrounded by an infield in which oats or potatoes were grown. Around this, the remainder of the lease holding was held as commonage.

In 1845, some 43% of the land in this area was farmed in this way.

This Village of Meenies became famous internationally when it was visited by a reporter from the Illustrated London News,  James Mahony, at the height of the Great Famine, in February 1847.

Mahony went to visit Meenies because of a horrific report from Skibbereen-based Dr Dan Donovan which had appeared in the Southern Reporter newspaper a few weeks previously. Dr Dan wrote about a man called Leahey who had died in this village: “His wife and two children remained in the house until the putrescent exhalations from the body” drove them from the house.  A “day or two after, some persons in passing the man’s cabin, had their attention attracted by a loud snarling, and on entering, found the gnawed and mangled skeleton of Leahey”. The remains of poor Mr Leahey had been attacked by dogs.

A subsequent report from May 1847 tells us that:  “[In] Meenies 80 individuals have perished out of 280”.

Parish records show three families of Leahys/Leaheys living in Meenies at that time but a ‘clearance’ occurred subsequently. A land record from January 1850 gives notice that: “possession of this townland has been taken and all the tenants are to leave it. Some of them are allowed to remain for only a few days on the land.”

With the ruins of the houses demolished in the 1980s, today there is nothing left to remind us of Meenies or its occupants other than the outline of a road and some encircling walls.

This plaque, erected by the Drimoleague community to honour their Famine dead, now commemorates this tragic story which represents in microcosm the experiences of many more such settlements in the West Cork area. (The map co-ordinates for the site are 51°40’19.4″N 9°17’49.0″W or What3Words senses.since.throwing)

 Ar dheis Dé go raibh a n-anamacha.