Book contents
- A History of Irish Literature and the Environment
- A History of Irish Literature and the Environment
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Tables
- Contributors
- Introduction Culture, Climate, Capital, and Contagion
- Chapter 1 Landscape and Literature in Medieval Ireland
- Chapter 2 The Irish Annals and Climate, Fifth–Seventeenth Centuries CE
- Chapter 3 The Environmental Vocabulary of Irish Folklore
- Chapter 4 Narratives of Arboreal Landscapes
- Chapter 5 Famine and Ecology, 1750–1900
- Chapter 6 Political Ecology in Nationalist Literature, 1880–1922
- Chapter 7 Solastalgic Modernism and the West in Irish Literature, 1900–1950
- Chapter 8 The Ecology of the Irish Big House, 1900–1950
- Chapter 9 Refuge and Domestic Space in Northern Irish Poetry, ca. 1940–Present
- Chapter 10 Irish Travellers, the Environment, and Literature
- Chapter 11 The Oceanic Imaginaries of Modern Irish Writing
- Chapter 12 Landscape in Irish-Language Literature: Poetry and Prose, 1900–2000
- Chapter 13 Poetry and Place
- Chapter 14 Animals and Climate Crisis in Irish Poetry
- Chapter 15 Animals and Animality in Irish Fiction
- Chapter 16 The Political Ecology of Food and Hunger, 1950–Present
- Chapter 17 Built Environments and Lived Ecologies in Contemporary Irish Poetry, 1998–Present
- Chapter 18 Transnationalism and Environment in Contemporary Irish Literature
- Chapter 19 Energy Futures in Contemporary Irish Fiction
- Bibliography
- Index
Chapter 5 - Famine and Ecology, 1750–1900
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 14 July 2022
- A History of Irish Literature and the Environment
- A History of Irish Literature and the Environment
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Tables
- Contributors
- Introduction Culture, Climate, Capital, and Contagion
- Chapter 1 Landscape and Literature in Medieval Ireland
- Chapter 2 The Irish Annals and Climate, Fifth–Seventeenth Centuries CE
- Chapter 3 The Environmental Vocabulary of Irish Folklore
- Chapter 4 Narratives of Arboreal Landscapes
- Chapter 5 Famine and Ecology, 1750–1900
- Chapter 6 Political Ecology in Nationalist Literature, 1880–1922
- Chapter 7 Solastalgic Modernism and the West in Irish Literature, 1900–1950
- Chapter 8 The Ecology of the Irish Big House, 1900–1950
- Chapter 9 Refuge and Domestic Space in Northern Irish Poetry, ca. 1940–Present
- Chapter 10 Irish Travellers, the Environment, and Literature
- Chapter 11 The Oceanic Imaginaries of Modern Irish Writing
- Chapter 12 Landscape in Irish-Language Literature: Poetry and Prose, 1900–2000
- Chapter 13 Poetry and Place
- Chapter 14 Animals and Climate Crisis in Irish Poetry
- Chapter 15 Animals and Animality in Irish Fiction
- Chapter 16 The Political Ecology of Food and Hunger, 1950–Present
- Chapter 17 Built Environments and Lived Ecologies in Contemporary Irish Poetry, 1998–Present
- Chapter 18 Transnationalism and Environment in Contemporary Irish Literature
- Chapter 19 Energy Futures in Contemporary Irish Fiction
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
This chapter provides a crucial historical perspective on the repeated crises of hunger leading up to the Great Irish Famine of the mid-nineteenth century. Margaret Kelleher argues that “Although the Great Irish Famine of 1845–1851 is the best-known occurrence, the experience of large-scale famine in Ireland was of much longer duration.” Ireland of course had experienced a number of famines (smaller in scale) before the devastation of the 1840s. Kelleher points to “periods of great hardship in 1756–57, 1782–84, 1800–1801, 1816–18, 1822, and 1831,” and relies on the environmental history of the eighteenth century for a longue durée historicization of the Great Hunger.
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- A History of Irish Literature and the Environment , pp. 115 - 133Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2022