While there is no doubt that Ballyrashane was affected by the famine, as were all other areas, it would seem that the effects could not have been as disastrous as in other areas whcih are well documented and talked about. No-one alive today remembers their parents or grandparents talking about the famine and there is no evidence remaining in the parish.

The only recorded case of death during the famine, that can be found concerning a resident of the parish was Hugh Lyle, patron of the National School and a landlord of the parish who was also a Guardian of the workhouse from where he contracted cholera and died in 1847.

This is a reference found in a local history book. "the first parish to be affected by blight in this district was Ballyrashane, probably because it was exposed to the north-west winds." [J Mullin The Causeway Coast]

While this may well be true, there does not appear to be any evidence for it. Coleraine poorhouse numbers did rise substantially but there is no indicaation of where the people came from. There is no indication from the tombstones that a great number of people from the parish died in the famine years. In fact there are only two recorded deaths. Of course this does not mean that it did not happen, since the people who died were generally the poor, and their relatives would hardly be able to put up tombstones.

There is no doubt that the people were poor and that begging did go on, but whether this was higher than usual or not cannot be ascertained. The fact that a soup kitchen was established in Articrunnagh and possibly another at Ballindreen suggests that the famine years were ones of particular struggles for the people. One would have thought that if poverty was so bad, the marriage rate would be very low. In fact the famine years do not show any particular decline in the number of marriages.

There is one recorded court case where starvation seems to have driven people to extreme actions. The case of George and rose McKergan 1847 accused of stealing a duck belonging to John Stirling of Ballyrashane. He had found the remains of a duck in a chest in their house. The male prisoner got 2 weeks in jail and his wife 1 week. [Coleraine Chronicle] Although this seems exteme a similar case one hundred years previously would have possibly led to execution or at least had their hands burned. [see Linen; Continuity and Change UFTM]

It was hoped to alleviate the distress of the famine by publishing recipes inthe Chronicle for the Poor Man's Soup. 2lbs grated turnip, half pound barley ground whole with bran, pepper and salt, 4 quarts of water. It may have escaped the publisher's notice that if people had not enough money to buy food, they were hardly going to be able to buy the Chronicle, and also most of the people affected could not read anyway.

The Coleraine average of 560 in the poorhouse in 1847 may have included people from this parish but there is no information on parish breakdown. There was an average of 7 deaths per week in this one year.