Pupils take to the soil to learn of the Irish famine tragedy

Pupils take to the soil to learn of the Irish famine tragedy

10 September 2014

PUPILS at St. Mary’s Primary School in Saintfield have been learning about the Irish famine.

And while there is nothing unusual in that, the Saintfield pupils have been getting a unique hands-on history lesson by growing the old famine potato — the lumper — in the school garden.

Following the famine, the lumper potato which was particularly prone to blight, was never grown widely in Ireland again. It was almost 170 years after the famine before it was reintroduced by the Glens of Antrim potato company which donated seed potatoes to the pupils at St. Mary’s.

The young students were told that the managing director of the potato firm came across the lumper at a potato fair in Co. Down and grew some in his back garden before introducing the variety on a commercial basis last year.

The Saintfield schoolchildren have discovered the lumper potato was popular because it produced a high yield from poor soils and stored well, allowing it be used to feed a family for a large part of the year.

Despite the wet summer, pupils at St. Mary’s Primary discovered on their return for the new term that their crop did not succumb to blight and lived up to its name — a lumpy potato.

The pupils said they really enjoyed preparing the ground, planting, watering and digging their very own potatoes, gaining a great appreciation of where food comes from and the seriousness of the potato crop failing during the famine years.