Introduction
Over one million people died during the Great Irish Famine. Around one third of these perished as a result of infectious disease. The aim of this study is to analyse the reaction of the Irish people to the ‘fever’, a term used at the time, combining typhus, typhoid fever and relapsing fever, and cholera epidemics that swept through the country during the famine years. Previous historical scholarship has focussed on the medical establishment. This study moves beyond that to analyse the reaction of the sufferers themselves.