The forgotten malady

While the Famine is keenly remembered, the Spanish flu is often overlooked

WHEN YOU utter a throwaway phrase in conversation such as "I'm starving" or "I'm dying with the flu", it's probably safe to assume some exaggeration. But there have been times in Ireland when those afflictions wreaked widespread misery and death across the country.

Two such devastating health catastrophes will come under scrutiny later this week, when the Great Famine and the Spanish flu are discussed at a conference on the history of science, technology and medicine in Ireland.

The Famine of mid-19th century Ireland has little positive going for it, as it wiped out a million lives and forced millions more to emigrate. But one scholar argues that, from a scientific point of view, it represents a turning point in studying nutrition. "It was the first time they had a big famine in Europe when the medical profession was quite questioning and thinking about it in a scientific way, so it was quite important to research at the time," says Ian Miller, a PhD candidate at the University of Manchester.

The post-famine 1850s saw a wealth of written works to educate the public about diet and nutrition, says Miller. "It was about teaching people what food they should eat and how much and to have variety in your diet. There was a huge amount of publications on how to eat properly and how to look after your stomach and digestive system. So the Famine encouraged a widespread education of the general public about digestion in the last half of the 19th century."

But while the Famine is still keenly remembered in the history books and popular culture, the Spanish flu (1918-1919) has been largely forgotten, according to Ida Milne, who is studying the disease for her PhD at Trinity College Dublin's school of histories and humanities.

"The flu has been very much under-recorded by Irish historians because the 1918-1923 time was so busy with other events," says Milne. "You had the first World War with which Ireland had such huge involvement, then you had the War of Independence and the Civil War. Historians have been busy coping with that rather than the flu."

But whether widely heralded or not, the "mystery malady" arrived in Ireland in June 1918 and swept through the country in waves, killing a conservatively estimated 20,000 people and leaving another 800,000 ill. On a global scale, it wiped out between 40 and 100 million people in less than two years.

"Bird flu is creating a huge new interest in it because there is the threat of a new pandemic and when [ authorities] look at a worst-case scenario they always talk about the Spanish influenza," says Milne.

Many documents relating to the pandemic were destroyed in the War of Independence, so she has been combing newspapers, remaining official documents and other records, such as memoirs, from the time of the malady nine decades ago.

"Leinster and Ulster had a far more intense experience of the flu," she says. "Ulster because it was industrialised and it hit very badly in the factories, and the east coast because it seemed to come in through the ports."

At the height of the pandemic up to 300 people a week were dying from it in Dublin, and badly hit towns, such as Dundalk and New Ross, had thousands left ill at one time. "The schools were closed, the courthouses were closed, police forces would have been very much under stress," says Milne.

The health system was also overwhelmed because medical staff were involved in the war effort overseas, and many hospitals were tending to returned soldiers, notes Milne. The Local Government Board, which had responsibility for health, also seems to have washed its hands of the problem. But she has found reports of communities rallying in response to the sickness and running soup kitchens to help the afflicted.

Many questions remain over the 1918 flu. "Scientists still debate over what caused it and why it spread so quickly," Milne says of the virus, which is thought to have infected one-fifth of the world's population.

She wants to speak to people who lived in Leinster at the time. "Some I have interviewed just said 'it came and went, what could you do about it?' It was part of the whole war experience, it was just another part of the awfulness that had gone before."

Other medical topics up for discussion at Friday's conference will include how medical traditions and more orthodox approaches interfaced here in the 19th century, and an examination of the fate of many Irish medical students who studied at the University of Glasgow.

The History of Science, Technology and Medicine in Ireland will be held on Friday, March 14th at the M4 Lecture Theatre, Museum Building, Trinity College, Dublin. Registration is €10. The event is hosted by the Royal Irish Academy. For more details, e-mail Juliana Adelman at juliana.adelman@gmail.com

If you would like to speak to Ida Milne about memories of the Spanish flu in Leinster, e-mail milnem@tcd.ie or tel: 087-2207994I.