Broughan House, Garvaghy

Image: © Kenneth Allen Taken: 9 Sep 2014

Pictured along the A5 Omagh Road The Brochen House was formally a Post House where the Dublin Stage Coach changed horses. The horses were known as "Tallyho" and "No Surrender". In the stables of the post house there was a harness, which linked around the horses middle, and then pulleys hoisted the horses up into the air to rest their weary legs and the hay baskets were located high up on the stable walls to enable the horses to eat whilst resting. The Irish Famine 1846-1847 The 'Soup Kitchens Act' was developed to supply the famished Irish people with cooked free food in the shape of soup, broth, oatmeal porridge, - and Jater Indian meal porridge. The Houses where this food was distributed came to be known in County Tyrone as "Brochen Houses," deriving from the Irish name for porridge. A local saying which derived from the famine times goes "May your giving hand never fail when you haven't potatoes you may have meal" One such Brochen house still exists to this day and although it is in a relatively poor state of repair it remains virtually unchanged since the days of the Irish Famine. The property is located in Garvaghy on the roadside of the Dublin to the Derry / Londonderry Road. See close-up here Image] Famine pots were used throughout the country too Image]

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