Often when watching
the television news some horrific scenes of a
natural disaster are flashed on our screens.
They may be of a hurricane with a fancy name
wrecking havoc on parts of America, severe
flooding and landslides somewhere in Asia,
volcanoes, earthquakes or huge forest fires
raging out of control over thousands of acres.
Our usual reaction is to think how lucky we are
to escape such severe weather conditions and
natural disasters and to convince ourselves that
disasters of great proportions could never
strike poor old Ireland.
However a look
through the history books would tell us
otherwise and show us that many disasters have
happened in the past and could very easily
happen again and adversely effect our
comfortable lifestyles. Without warning
they have happened before and the resultant
deaths, disease and severe hardships suffered
were beyond imagination.
The great famine
of 1845/48 has been well documented and everyone
in Ireland is familiar with the happenings of
those dreadful years. The potatoes were
planted as usual, and as conditions were good,
farmers predicted a bumper crop. The
stalks were green and healthy looking but
overnight a fungus which had originated in
America struck the potatoes wiping out a large
portion of the crop. The potato was then
the only food of the vast majority of the 8 ½
million population and their outlook was now
disastrous. The crops of the following
three years were also a total loss.
Starvation, disease and death were now the lot
of the people of this land. One and a half
million of them died and a similar number fled
the country never to return. It took the
country and the economy decades to recover but
the population never recovered.
The
Forgotten Famine - The Great Frost
On the
other side of the world a great volcanic
eruption on the remote Kamchatka peninsula in
Russia pumped thousands of tons of smoke, dust
and ashes into the atmosphere in 1739.
Most Irish people of the time would have been
unaware of this occurrence and if they were
aware of it they would not have known that it
was responsible for the dramatic climatic
changes in Ireland for the next two years.
Nothing could have prepared them for the Great
Frost of 1740 or for 'bliain an Aire' (the year
of
slaughter) of 1741. Severe Arctic
winds, hitherto unknown in these islands, caused
chaos in the country and along the seacoast.
A great many ships sank and the crews were lost
in the icy water. The terrible winds
abated after a week but the severe cold
intensified in January 1740. Potatoes
which had not been stored indoors were lost and
hunger added to the great hardship of the
people. The land, rivers and lakes were
frozen over and vast quantities of fish were to
be found dead on the shorelines. The ice
was reported to be
nineteen inches thick on
the Shannon and shortcuts were being taken
across rivers and lakes, sometimes with fatal
consequences. A funeral ran into trouble
when a thin patch of the ice was been crossed
and twenty mourners were drowned. The
country was in the grip of Siberian weather
never before or after experienced here.
At first many did not realise the seriousness of
the situation. By the end of January and
early February food of all sorts was becoming
very scarce. Many were delighted by the
great novelty of the ice and went dancing and
skating and held carnivals and banquets on the
frozen lakes sometimes roasting a sheep.
Hurling matches were also played by teams
selected by the local gentry.
Country
people who had turf stored for the winter could
stave off the intense cold but the necessity to
keep the fires high saw supplies running out
earlier than usual. Coal was not available
in the towns and fuel was collected where
possible with trees and hedges soon stripped
bare. The frozen rivers could not turn the
waterwheels and mills were unable to grind oats
and wheat thus adding to the food scarcity.
The frost ended in late February but this,
unfortunately, did not ease the situation.
The Spring rains did not come and the severe
cold north winds persisted. By April the
country had a parched bare look as nothing was
growing. There was no sign of wildlife,
birds and other animals had all died off.
Crops of wheat and barley planted the previous
Autumn had failed and grass and other
fodder for farm animals was non-existent.
Cattle and sheep were dying all over the country
of starvation. No rain fell and the
terrible drought and cold continued with snow
falling in May from Cork to Antrim. The
price of wheat doubled and there were no
potatoes available, while the news from Europe
was equally bad with bad harvest prospects and
food scarcity. Storms, blizzards, great
amounts of snow and widespread flooding were
reported from August to December. The end
of December was particularly bad with snow and a
great frost which lasted for ten days.
From January to late June of 1741 the frost
and drought continued and the weather suddenly
changed in early July. The rains fell and
the remainder of the summer was very hot.
The harvest was fair with a reasonable crop of
potatoes and a good crop of wheat.
Quantities of wheat were also imported from
America and the prices of foodstuffs eased.
Thus ended the great frost. Over 310,000
died of starvation, fevers and plague out of a
population of 2 ½ million.
The Night
of the Big Wind
Old people in times gone
by were never sure of their age or the date of
their birthday and when the Old Age Pension was
introduced in 1909 some found it difficult to
establish whether they were entitled to it or
not. In most instances parish records were
not available but if a person could produce any
evidence that he or she was born in the year of
the night of the Big Wind or thereabouts then
that increased his or her chances
considerably.
January 6th,
Little Christmas, 1839 is a night that was much
talked about for a long time in this country,
and one hears reference to it occasionally to
this day. There was a great calm as the
sun was setting and the western sky was a blaze
of the most wonderful colours. However a
few hours later the sky changed and snow fell
accompanied by a great blizzard. This was
followed by the fiercest of gales which lasted
for twelve hours from 8 pm to dawn. Houses
were stripped of their roofs, the thatched
cottages suffering the most damage.
Falling thatch was blown onto the open hearths
and furniture and belongings were lost in the
flames. Huge old trees were blown down all
over the country causing death and damage to
people, stock and buildings. The strong
winds overturned many ships and others were
dashed to pieces on the rocks. Over 1,000
sailing ships went to the bottom with losses of
40,000 lives. Farmers left their houses to
look after their stock and drove them out to the
open spaces to avoid being killed by falling
trees and falling houses. The tremendous
winds wrecked havoc throughout the country and
rivers overflowed their banks sweeping trees and
bridges before them. Next morning the wind
had abated but it left a trail of desolation in
its wake.
The Moving Bogs
In
the old newspapers we often come upon another
phenomenon, the Moving Bog, which happily has
not happened for some time now. Monday 28th
December 1896 was fair day in Killarney and the
people of the Rathmore district slept uneasily
waiting for daylight to walk over the hill to
the fair. Many had been awakened by a
strange sound in the night as if an earthquake
was taking place. When daylight arrived
they found the road blocked "with the mountain".
As they assessed what had happened they realised
that the mountain was on the move "in fits and
spurts". They could hear the rumbling and
hissing sounds as the bog rose and fell in it's
movement. The panic stricken people soon
discovered that Donnelly's house had been swept
away taking with it Con, his wife and five
children. Over 200 acres of the bog was on
the move in a southerly direction taking
everything before it, leaving a deposit 30 feet
deep in a ravine. It followed the course
of the Ownachree river into the river Flesk.
Donnelly's children's ages ranged from 1 ½ years
to 16 years and were Daniel, Humphrey, Margaret,
James, Lizzie and Kate. Kate was the sole
survivor as she had been staying with her aunt.
The bodies of Con, his wife and five children
were found some ½ mile, others 1 mile and 1 ½
miles from where their home once stood. No
trace was found of his hay, outhouses, three
cattle and few pigs.
An inquest on the
victims was held in the schoolhouse at
Gneeveguilla. The verdict was "death by
suffocation". The funeral to Knocknagoppal
included all kinds of horse drawn vehicles and
over 100 farmers on horseback.
The bog
continued to move until New Year's Day. It
then came to rest covering hundreds of acres of
pastureland.