The relief efforts during the famine of 1740/41 were haphazard and woefully inadequate, but the work of one committee led to the first performance of one of the great works in the classical music canon -- Handel's 'Messiah'.

In Dublin, the Charitable Musical Society proposed to raise funds for its relief activities by inviting George Frideric Handel to the city for a charity concert. Troubled by debt and depression in England, Handel was glad of the invitation and arrived in Dublin in the autumn of 1741.

He made his first performance at Neal's Music Hall on Fishamble Street in November and was feted as a genius by Dublin's high society. Such was the generosity and warmth of the reception, he remained in Dublin indefinitely and premiered the 'Messiah' -- which he had first begun to compose the previous summer -- in Neal's Music Hall on April 8, 1742.

Tickets were sold for a half-guinea each and the concert raised more than £400 for the Charitable Musical Society, some of the funds going to the relief of debtors incarcerated in the city's prisons.

Evidence of the relief effort from 'Bliain An Air' also survives to this date in the shape of the obelisk on Killiney Hill, funded by south-Dublin landowner John Mapas to provide employment for the distressed in his area.

The most imposing monument from the crisis, though, is Conolly's Folly on the Castletown House Estate in Kildare. A mile west of the big house, this scheme was undertaken by Katherine Conolly -- widow of William Conolly, Castletown House's builder. Standing 140ft high, it consists of an obelisk mounted on a set of superimposed arches.

The redoubtable Mrs Conolly also commissioned the construction of a 70ft 'wonderful barn' or granary at Castletown, which was completed in 1743. The intention was to build a granary capable of storing enough grain to stave off the immediate effects of any future food crisis for the needy in the district.

Irish Independent