Sir: The strange point about the Irish famine literature (not
mentioned by Profes- sor Bew) is that there was a much worse famine in 1739-41, which almost no one, then or now, ever mentions.
The Irish people multiplied (because of the ease of potato culture) by three times in the 80 years 1660-1739. Ireland then lost a third of its population because of a new potato disease, as shown in my book, Seeds of Change.
In 1739, there was no media to speak of and no free trade agitation. There was no British tension with either Ireland or the Irish in America, and no political case to he made against the London government.
For the next century, the 1739 famine was not studied in any way, but there were at least a dozen other potato failures and consequent famines, though none as widespread. Nor was the lesson learnt before 1845 that Malthusian conditions were bound to apply, given the state of Irish agriculture in 1845.
Henry Hobhouse
Bottom Barn Farmhouse, Castle Cary, Somerset
Previous page
