The Black Death in Ireland

Photograph (c) Dublinia

In my last blog post I looked at the history of plague and pestilence across the world. The plague, also known as the Pestilence, Great Bubonic Plague, the Great Plague or, less commonly, the Great Mortality or the Black Plague, appeared in Europe in October 1347. It killed an estimated 75 to 200 million people in Eurasia, peaking in Europe from 1347 to 1351.

The Black Death, and its subsequent outbreaks, had a significant and lasting effect in Ireland. The website https://www.historyireland.com provides an account of the arrival of this plague in Ireland and its impact. It reports that Friar John Clyn, the Kilkenny-based Franciscan monk, records that the plague first appeared in Howth or Dalkey and spread to Dublin and Drogheda by late July or early August 1348.

The disease quickly spread to the rest of the country along overland routes between the ports and market towns and along the rivers connecting market towns and seaports, especially in the east and south. Sea traffic between ports on the east and south coasts aided transmission.

It is likely that the disease was introduced into the south directly from England or the continent through busy ports such as Waterford, Youghal and Cork. The plague raged in Dublin between August and December. Friar Clyn writes:

‘from very fear and horror, men were seldom brave enough to perform the works of piety and mercy, such as visiting the sick and burying the dead.’

The Black Death

Friar Clyn describes the symptoms suffered by the plague’s victims: people had eruptions on the groin or under the armpit typical of bubonic plague which is transmitted mostly by flea bite, but others endured headaches and spitting of blood that distinguish the pneumonic form of the disease. Before the end of the year 1348, the plague had reached Louth, Meath and Kildare arriving in Kilkenny by 25 December of that year.

The casualties suffered by port towns such as Drogheda, Dublin, New Ross, Waterford, Youghal and Cork, show that coastal areas bore the brunt of the deadly disease. Less populated areas of the north and west did not escape the ravages of the plague which was recorded in Ulster and Connacht in 1349. The disease was active in Mayo as late as 1350.

The Gaelic-Irish population was not affected to the same extent as was the Anglo-Irish. Geoffrey Le Baker, a contemporary English chronicler, wrote that the plague in Ireland:

 ‘killed the English inhabitants there in great numbers, but the native Irish, living in the mountains and uplands, were scarcely touched.’

The settlers were mostly concentrated in land below 600 feet, leaving the mountainous, hilly and less accessible areas to the Gaelic-Irish.  Anglo-Irish settlements were more vulnerable to the encroaching rats and fleas. It has been suggested that the mortality from the plague in the more densely populated areas was between 40 and 50 per cent. In the words of Friar Clyn, the pestilence was so contagious that: ‘both the penitent and the confessor were together borne to the grave’. The Franciscans are said to have lost almost 50 per cent of their houses in Dublin and Drogheda.

Photograph (c) Dublinia

Aftermath of the Plague

The effects of such loss of life were both immediate and long-lasting. In rural areas, landlords were faced with a continuing shortage of tenants, falling rents and profits. Tenants, on the other hand, were able to profit from the labour shortage and seek higher wages and better conditions. The continuation of warfare made recovery even more difficult.

In cities and towns, the effects of the plague were even more devastating due to their larger populations and living arrangements favourable to the transmission of disease.  Friar Clyn writes that 14,000 people died in Dublin between 8 August and 25 December, indicating an average daily mortality of around one hundred. The effects of the plague on the towns were dreadful. Labour shortages and the consequent disruption of the rural economy threatened the food supply to towns and food shortages became frequent.

The recurrent nature of the plague meant that lasting recovery was not possible. There were outbreaks in 1370, 1383, 1390-3, 1398 and periodically thereafter.  Subsequent outbreaks were less infectious, though research in other countries has shown that areas which escaped the plague in 1347-9 were severely affected in later outbreaks. Although antibiotics are available to treat the Black Death, according to The World Health Organization, there are still 1,000 to 3,000 cases of plague every year.

Conclusion

The recurrence of the plague was in effect the single, most significant effect of the Black Death. In addition to the mortality associated with each wave of the plague, it also had the effect of slowing population recovery. The population of Ireland had been decreasing for decades before the Black Death due to famine and warfare. For the people who survived the onslaught of this deadly disease in 1348, the Black Death was an incomprehensible and unavoidable disease and its reverberations were felt long after the terror it first inspired had been forgotten.

For further information see:

https://www.historyireland.com/medieval-history-pre-1500/unheard-of-mortality-the-black-death-in-ireland/
https://letterfromballinloughane.blogspot.com/2020/03/plague-and-pestilence-past-and-present.html