harvests and want of tillage: "We
have had," says the author, "twelve bad harvests with slight
intermission." To find a parallel for the dreadful famine which
commenced in 1740, we must go back to the close of the war with the
Desmonds.[15] Previous to 1740 the custom of placing potatoes in pits
dug in the earth, was unknown in Ireland. When the stems were withered,
the farmer put additional earth on the potatoes in the beds where they
grew, in which condition they remained till towards Christmas, when they
were dug out and stored.[16] An intensely severe frost set in about the
middle of December, 1739, whilst the potatoes were yet in this
condition, or probably before they had got additional covering. There is
a tradition in some parts of the South that this frost penetrated nine
inches into the earth the first night it made its appearance. It was
preceded by very severe weather. "In the beginning of November, 1739,
the weather," says O'Halloran, "was very cold, the wind blowing from the
north east, and this was succeeded by the severest frost known in the
memory of man, which entirely destroyed the potatoes, the chief support
of the poor."[17] It is known to tradition as the "great frost," the
"hard frost," the "black frost," etc. Besides the destruction of the
potato crop it produced other surprising effects; all the great rivers
of the country were so frozen over that they became so many highways for
traffic; tents were erected upon the ice, and large assemblies
congregated upon it for various purposes. The turnips were destroyed in
most places, but the parsnips survived. The destruction of shrubs and
trees was immense, the frost making havoc equally of the hardy furze and
the lordly oak; it killed birds of almost every kind, it even killed the
shrimps of Irishtown Strand, near Dublin, so that there was no supply of
them at market for many years from that famous shrimp ground.[18]
Towards the end of the frost the wool fell off the sheep, and they died
in great numbers.[19]

On Saturday, the 29th of December, there was a violent storm in Dublin,
which did much damage to the shipping in the river; and the cruiser,
"Man of War," which was at the North Bull, being in great danger, "cut
her cables, and ran up between the walls as far as Sir John's _Key_,[20]
where," adds the chronicler, "she now lies frozen up."[21] Another
curious incident is recorded which proves the intensity of the frost at
this time: the pressgang