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The immediate origins of the disaster belonged chiefly to the preceding year. The exceptional frost beginning in late 1739 and continuing into 1740 damaged stored potatoes, interrupted labour and transport, and was followed by drought and failures in tillage and livestock. Ireland’s poorer households did eat potatoes, but they also depended heavily on oats and other grains, dairy produce and seasonal work. The crisis was therefore broader than a potato failure. It was a compound collapse in food, fuel, fodder, employment and purchasing power.
On 9 April 1737 William Cavendish, third duke of Devonshire, was appointed lord lieutenant of Ireland, replacing Lionel Sackville, duke of Dorset. He was sworn in on 7 September. The office made Devonshire the crown’s chief representative in a kingdom that retained its own Parliament, executive administration and legal institutions, yet remained constitutionally subordinate to Great Britain. The Declaratory Act of 1720 had asserted Westminster’s authority to legislate for Ireland and to hear final appeals. Thus Irish political life operated within narrow boundaries, even where Dublin’s parliamentarians guarded their local influence fiercely.
