The Irish Famine Before An Gorta Mór: The Forgotten Hunger of 1740-41

Everyone knows An Gorta Mór, but few have heard of the famine that struck Ireland a century earlier — the forgotten hunger of 1740-41. In this episode, Lucas and Luna explore the 'Year of Slaughter' (Bliain an Áir), when a deep freeze across Europe killed crops and livestock, triggering a mortality crisis that may have been proportionally worse than the Great Famine. They discuss the brutal winter of 1739-40, the collapse of the potato and grain harvests, the failure of relief efforts under the Protestant Ascendancy, and the social breakdown that followed. Along the way, they touch on the role of the Irish Parliament, absentee landlords, the export of grain during scarcity, and the grim calculus of famine mortality. Lucas contrasts this crisis with the better-known famine of the 1840s, noting how the earlier disaster was caused by weather rather than blight, yet still exposed the same fault lines in Irish society. The episode draws on contemporary accounts, parish records, and the work of historians like David Dickson and Cormac Ó Gráda. #IrishFamine1740 #BliainAnAir #YearOfSlaughter #ForgottenHunger #DavidDickson #CormacOGrada #IrishHistory #Ireland #18thCentury #ProtestantAscendancy #PotatoFamine #ClimateHistory #LittleIceAge #FamineStudies #IrishParliament #AbsenteeLandlords #History #FexingoHistory Keep every episode free: buymeacoffee.com/fexingo