On this day 19 April in Irish History

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19 April 1741: In a letter to Dr. Thomas Prior, Dublin, the Bishop of Cloyne, Dr. George Berkeley, wrote of the famine which was then raging. ‘The distresses of the sick and poor are endless. The havoc of mankind in the counties of Cork, Limerick and some adjacent places hath been incredible. The nation, probably, will not recover this loss in a century. The other day I heard one from the county of Limerick say that whole villages were entirely dispeopled.’

19-21 April 1798: John FitzGibbon, 1st Earl of Clare and Lord Chancellor visited Trinity College and purged the College of United Irishmen - 19 were expelled.

19 April 1972: - Lord Widgery issued his infamous judicial report that effectively whitewashed the actions of the paras on "Bloody Sunday". He concluded that some of their firing ‘bordered on the reckless’.

19 April 1974: Charles Haughey TD bought the island of Inishvickillane off the Kerry coast for use as a summer retreat.

Guest

1741 - Berkeley the philosopher was trying to save people from Famine? Not long before that, Jonathan Swift composed the Modest Proposal and that was on famine too. Was Ireland just ravaged with famine all the time back in those days?

Guest

Auditor #9 wrote:: 1741 - Berkeley the philosopher was trying to save people from Famine? Not long before that, Jonathan Swift composed the Modest Proposal and that was on famine too. Was Ireland just ravaged with famine all the time back in those days?

Basically yes. It would have been obvious to any outside observer at this stage that such famines would eventually become catastrophic. There were constant reminders throughout the 17th and `18th century that the land redistribution was an economic and social disaster, yet no effort was made to correct this mess as most of the government had greatly benefitted.

Guest

riadach wrote:

Auditor #9 wrote:: 1741 - Berkeley the philosopher was trying to save people from Famine? Not long before that, Jonathan Swift composed the Modest Proposal and that was on famine too. Was Ireland just ravaged with famine all the time back in those days?

Basically yes. It would have been obvious to any outside observer at this stage that such famines would eventually become catastrophic. There were constant reminders throughout the 17th and `18th century that the land redistribution was an economic and social disaster, yet no effort was made to correct this mess as most of the government had greatly benefitted.

There are accounts I have read by a rural schoolteacher in the 1830s of going out to visit families in rural Kilkenny (skilled craftsmen or agricultural labourers) and finding the whole family dead in the cabin from starvation. People who talk about doing away with safety nets would do well to contemplate that.

Guest

riadach wrote:

Auditor #9 wrote:: 1741 - Berkeley the philosopher was trying to save people from Famine? Not long before that, Jonathan Swift composed the Modest Proposal and that was on famine too. Was Ireland just ravaged with famine all the time back in those days?

Basically yes. It would have been obvious to any outside observer at this stage that such famines would eventually become catastrophic. There were constant reminders throughout the 17th and `18th century that the land redistribution was an economic and social disaster, yet no effort was made to correct this mess as most of the government had greatly benefitted.

Famines were endemic in Ireland in the 18th and 19th centuries.

However the Famine of 1741 was exeptionally severe as Artic conditions the previous Winter had destroyed much of the crops and caused additional hardship above and beyond the norm.

It's estimated that possibly up to 400,000 Irish people died here as a result of this combination - about one fifth of the overall population.

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