Delving into Irish history can be a depressing endeavour. Oliver Cromwell and his genocide; the Penal Laws; the Great Potato Famine of 1845 to 1851; are just tasters of the misery of the nation over the past five hundred years . Last night I stumbled upon another horror which had hitherto been unknown to me – the Year of the Slaughter between 1740-1741.

I had been aware that the the Great Hunger of 1845 – 1851 is regarded as a defining event in the creation of modern Ireland when one million people died from starvation and disease, and one million emigrated to the USA and Canada when the potato crop failed. The population of Ireland was eight million before the Famine and to this day is still below that level. In school in Ireland we learn about this tragedy and we know that Ireland remained a net exporter of food throughout this horror thanks to the English government’s murderous greed, cruelty and xenophobia. One eighth of the population died. One eighth of the population emigrated (and this emigrant population in North America became very important in securing Ireland’s partial independence in 1922).

Last night I discovered that one century earlier between 1740 and 1741 there was another Famine in Ireland that killed a greater percentage of the population.

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