A prolonged and cold winter meant that even the cattle
had too little to eat and that alternative (i.e., wild) foods
were not even available. The tale
Erchoitmed Ingine
Gulidi
contains a particularly devastating description
of a farm on the verge of starvation due to too much
cold. A rainy or windy autumn could cause damage to
crops still in the fields, leaving many insufficiently
prepared for winter.
Weather itself was not the only cause of famine,
however. Diseases among the cattle or grain crops, which
often followed unusual weather, could likewise create
times of hunger and famine. For example, the
Annals
of Ulster
record for the year 900 “A rainy year...
Great scarcity affected the cattle.” The first Irish Life
of Cóemgen clearly demonstrates that protection from
bad weather meant protection for the cattle: “For how-
ever great the frost and snow on every side of it [the
fort], it never penetrates within. And beasts and cattle
in time of cold and snow habitually find grass there.”
Cattle diseases are recorded more often than crop
diseases, but even so a scarcity of grain is recorded a
number of times.
There is little evidence that war alone caused famine
in medieval Ireland, but prolonged periods of fighting
could contribute to an already difficult situation. Prob-
ably the most tragic example of this occurred between
1315 and 1318. Famines are reported from all over
northern Europe for these years. When coupled with
Edward Bruce’s invasion of 1315
−
1318, things became
even worse for the Irish. The cost of wheat and oats
rose sharply; although when crops finally improved
the prices dropped back down.
It is clear that most famines primarily affected the
young, the elderly, and others already in a weakened
state. A. T. Lucas has shown that in times of trouble,
wild plants including nettles, water cress, and sorrel,
were eaten when they were available. Even tree bark
would be eaten if the situation were bad enough. As
Fergus Kelly has pointed out, killing off cattle for food
was a last, desperate resort, since that only led to food
supply problems in the future.
It was during these most difficult times that large
numbers of refugees were known to flee to other
regions, often wherever their king had allies. However,
even if they did manage to arrive in an unaffected area,
there was rarely much help to be found. Monasteries
helped when they could, and some people permanently
attached themselves to monasteries as base tenants due
to exactly these circumstances. However, monasteries
could not do much to help if they themselves were
stricken.
In general, periods of hunger and famine in medi-
eval Ireland were most often brief and localized. The
most devastating medieval famines were those that
affected not only all of Ireland but other nearby lands
as well. For example, a famine that the Chronicum
Scottorum reports as ended in 1004 is also described
in sources such as the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. How-
ever, while weather patterns that negatively affected
all of northern Europe would also impact Ireland,
such occurrences were rare until the “Little Ice Age”
of the fourteenth century. The Black Death, of course,
followed and devastated an already weakened popu-
lation. Even so, the fifteenth century saw a distinct
improvement in weather and therefore food production
all over northern Europe, and continued outbreaks of
the Black Death were never again as devastating as
the first.
M
ARY
V
ALANTEReferences and Further Reading
Crawford, E. M., ed.
Famine: The Irish Experience 900
−
1900:
Subsistence Crises and Famines in Ireland. Edinburgh: John
Donald, 1989.
Kelly, F.
Early Irish Farming
. Dublin: Dublin Institute for
Advanced Studies, 1997.
Lucas, A. T. “Nettles and Charlock as Famine Food.”
Breifne:
Journal of Cumann Seanchais Bhreifne
1 (1959): 137
−
146.
. “The Sacred Trees of Ireland.”
Journal of the Cork
Historical and Archaeological Society
68 (1963): 16
−
54.
See also
Agriculture; Annals and Chronicles;
Black Death; Diet and Food
FEDELMID MAC CRIMTHAINN
(
c.
770 TO 847)
Over king of Munster from 820 to 847, Fedelmid mac
Crimthainn’s birth year is given in the annals as 770,
although the date may have been a later interpolated
entry. He was a member of the Eóganacht Chaisil
branch of the Eóganachta, although he was not from a
dominant segment. The last of his ancestors to hold the
kingship of Munster had been Fingen mac Áedo (
+
619),
and Fedelmid’s accession was unusual in a time when
kingly succession was determined by relationship to a
recent king, that is a son, grandson, or brother. He may
have been a compromise choice at a time when Munster
had been under attack by the Uí Néill kingship of
Tara and needed a strong warrior as its king. He was
closely associated with the Céle Dé church reform
movement that began in the eighth century in Ireland
and had much in common with the Carolingian reform
associated with Benedict of Aniane. The Céli Dé were
ascetics who disapproved strongly of the worldly state
of the church in Ireland, particularly the great monas-
teries that were patronized by the great kings and
nobles of Ireland, who often stored their wealth in stoneFEDELMID MAC CRIMTHAINN (
c.
770 TO 847)