Latest / The History of Ireland: Rebellion, Empire, and Independence — Fexingo History / The First Irish Famine: The Forgotten Crisis of 1740-41
Transcript
- Lucas: So we've talked a lot about the Great Famine of the 1840s, an Gorta Mór, but there's another famine that happened a hundred years earlier that's sometimes called 'the forgotten famine' or an Gorta Beag, 'the little hunger.' Though little it certainly wasn't. Luna: Wait, the little hunger? How many people died in it? Lucas: Estimates are around 300,000 to 400,000, which in a population of maybe 2.5 million was a huge blow. Proportionally, it might have been as severe as the Great Famine. But it's barely remembered because it wasn't tied to a single crop like the potato, and it didn't spark a massive political movement. It was just a brutal combination of weather and disease. Lucas: It started with what they called 'the Great Frost' in December 1739. A Siberian cold front swept across Europe. In Ireland, temperatures plunged so low that Lough Neagh froze solid, and people could walk across it. The frost lasted for weeks, then months. Luna: That must have destroyed the crops. Lucas: Absolutely. Wheat, barley, oats—all ruined. Then when the thaw came in February 1740, it brought floods that rotted whatever was left. And then there was a drought that summer. So you had three consecutive harvest failures, basically. By autumn 1740, people were starving. Lucas: And here's the thing—this wasn't just an Irish problem. The cold snap affected all of Europe. But Ireland was particularly vulnerable because of its reliance on a limited range of crops, especially oats and potatoes, which were already becoming a staple among the poor. Luna: So the potato was already important in the 1740s? I thought it became dominant later. Lucas: It was already spreading. By the 1740s, the potato was a key food for the rural poor, especially in the west and south. But it wasn't as universal as it would become by the 1840s. So when the frost killed the potato crop, it was devastating, but not the sole cause of famine. Lucas: What really pushed it over the edge was disease. Typhus, which they often called 'famine fever,' broke out in 1741. It spread like wildfire through weakened populations. There were also outbreaks of smallpox and dysentery. The mortality was staggering. Luna: What did the authorities do? Was there any relief? Lucas: There was, actually, and that's one of the interesting contrasts with the 1840s. The Irish Parliament, which was still in Dublin at that time, did take action. They passed laws to regulate the grain trade, tried to prevent exports, and even voted money for importing corn from the American colonies. The Primate of all Ireland, a man named Hugh Boulter, was very active in organizing relief. Luna: So they tried to intervene, unlike in the 1840s. Lucas: Exactly. There wasn't the same laissez-faire ideology dominating things. But the problem was sheer scale. The infrastructure just couldn't handle it. Roads were bad, distribution was patchy, and local magistrates often prioritized their own districts. And there was a lot of corruption and profiteering. Lucas: One figure who stands out is a man named John Wesley, the founder of Methodism. He was traveling through Ireland in 1740 and wrote about the suffering. He described seeing people dying in the streets, and he organized soup kitchens in some towns. But it was a drop in the ocean. Luna: And after the famine, did anything change? Lucas: In some ways, yes. The famine of 1740-41 is thought to have accelerated the shift toward the potato as the main staple. Because the potato could be grown on small plots and was more resilient to cold than grain—ironically, given that the frost got it this time—people turned to it even more. It became a survival strategy. Lucas: It also spurred emigration. There had been Irish emigration to North America before, but it picked up after the famine. Many of the 'Scots-Irish' who settled in the Appalachian regions were actually Ulster Presbyterians who left in the aftermath of 1741. Luna: So this famine helped shape the American frontier? Lucas: Indirectly, yes. And it's a reminder that the 19th century Great Famine was not the first time Ireland faced a demographic catastrophe. The forgotten famine of 1740-41 killed a similar proportion of the population, but it's been overshadowed because it didn't lead to a political reckoning. It was just seen as a natural disaster. Lucas: There's a Bishop of Clonfert, a man named Edward Synge, who wrote a detailed account of the famine in his diocese. He described people eating weeds, dogs, and even corpses. He said the roads were lined with dead bodies. It's harrowing reading. Luna: And yet most people have never heard of it. Lucas: Exactly. It's been called 'the forgotten famine' precisely because it didn't have the same political aftermath. There was no mass movement for independence, no huge diaspora narrative. But for the people who lived through it, it was every bit as devastating as what their descendants would face a century later. Luna: So when we talk about the Great Famine, we should remember that it wasn't the only one. Lucas: Absolutely. And the fact that it's forgotten tells us something about how history is shaped by narrative. The 1740 famine was a tragedy of nature and poverty. The 1840s famine was a tragedy of nature and policy—and that made all the difference in how we remember it.