On this day in history… a forgotten Irish Famine started.

Cultural Representations

The above are two of the very few (cultural) representations of the famine. In light of its considerable impact, the lack of sources around the famine is striking. Though some of this can be attributed to the less prominent print culture of that age, perhaps the most significant factor here is the fact that the majority of the general population still spoke Irish. They were often poor and were most likely illiterate, as “literacy in Irish was not available to the masses.” Even if people were literate, though, “[t]he Gaelic written tradition was elitist and exclusive”^[vi].    

This also means that the sources that have survived in English are written from a distinctly different, more privileged perspective. Indeed, most of the prose literature that the famine produced – sermons, pamphlets, newspaper articles – has some underlying agenda. In the case of the sermons, this is, quite predictably a representation of the famine as a warning from God for national sinfulness. The pamphlets are often written by members of the Anglo-Irish Ascendancy who pleaded for improvement, emphasizing the need for reform often at the detriment of the poor, who are portrayed in stereotypical ways as inherently indolent. There are echoes of these perspectives in references to The Great Frost that were made during the Great Famine. There this idea of much-needed reform was used by both sides, either to show that the Irish were weak and that these crises kept happening as a result of their rejection of progress; or, alternatively, to show that the English had continually oppressed the Irish and not taken care of agricultural development. 

The poetry that the famine produced, paints a very different picture.  The singularity of the extreme weather is portrayed vividly in both the ten English poems, as well as the five Irish poems, collected by Diarmaid Ó Muirithe and Lucy Collins. Both sets of poems use recurring imagery, such as the eerie silence – “There is no birdsong from the woods as a custom”[vii] – and the rotting of the potatoes underground – “Beneath his frozen Sod, dead may be found”[viii] –, as well as images more widely used in famine literature over time, such as those of (pregnant) women and children, which are often used to portray death indirectly as Margaret Kelleher points out.[ix] One of the English poems is written for Francis Bindon, who made a painting of (Anglican) Archbishop Hugh Boulter, who offered relief to thousands of starving Dubliners. A painting by John Brooks based on Bindon’s offers the sole visual representation of the famine, as Boulter can be seen standing between the begging elderly and women with children, emphasising his benevolence. Notably, there is a clear difference in tone between the English and Irish-language poems. Because the English poems are usually dedicated to some benefactor, they generally have a much more hopeful undertone. The Irish language poems paint a more poignant picture of the heavy suffering: “food and drink/ Belong to the rich and clothes/ While the pauper lives in sorrow/ In cold, famine and hardship”^[x].  

Politics of Memory

Despite its impact, The Great Frost is no longer part of Irish collective memory. The apparent lack of interest in the Great Frost in modern times is especially notable, considering the passionate academic interest in Irish history and politics. However, even books on eighteenth-century Irish history specifically, such as Ian McBride’s Eighteenth Century Ireland (2009), devote very little space to it. This begs the question why this famine has been forgotten. And this not only applies to The Great Frost. In fact, hunger was a consistent occurrence throughout Irish history, a fact few people realise. 

Though many factors play a role, part of the answer to this question might lie in the politics of memory. The materials described above demonstrate how most of the material had a hidden agenda, one that was no longer relevant after the famine a century later. The memory of The Great Frost was effectively erased by the Great Famine. Arguably, the Great Famine completely overshadowed The Great Frost and still plays an important role in the lack of interest in the latter. The 1740-41 famine was and is simply less controversial, taking place before the Act of Union and in a time when the (Dublin) government was not yet seen as having much responsibility for relief. By contrast, political relations between Ireland and its London government evoked much resentment during the Great Famine. Consequently, if the Great Frost is remembered at all nowadays, it seems to be in the light of the Great Famine, a fact that is underlined by the section on the Great Frost in The Atlas of the Great Irish Famine (Crowley et al., 2012). 

This underlines what the Heritages of Hunger project has shown: famine memory and commemoration are seldom, if ever, neutral, and hierarchies are unconsciously created. As has hopefully become clear, The Great Frost shows the importance and potential of studying famines, especially lesser-known ones, as it highlights the political nature of famine memory. Studying “forgotten” famines, like this one, has the potential to challenge existing discourse and putting existing historical narratives in a new light. They raise and create new questions, so we can understand why some famines are remembered so vividly, while others seem to be completely forgotten; and why some histories of suffering seem to matter more than others. And that matters. 

This blog is based on a paper written for the Heritages of Hunger project in 2020-2021 as part of my MA degree. For their help in the writing of the paper and the blog, I want to express my gratitude to Prof. David Dickson, Prof. Marguérite Corporaal, and Dr. Chris Cusack.