Editing Irish Famine (1740–1741) (section)

==Protestants and alms-giving==
[[Image:Conollys Folly - the obelisk.jpg|thumb|right|The Conolly Folly, built in 1740 to give employment to local workers]]

The municipal leaders (mostly Protestant merchants and members of the landed gentry) paid closer attention to the state of urban and rural artisans and tradespeople because of their contributions to the commercial economy on which the landowners depended. These leaders knew from experience that "an unemployed or hungry town often became a sickly town and such sickness might be no respecter of class or wealth".<ref>Dickson (1997), p. 17</ref> This is what happened as the Frost continued.

The propertied classes began to respond to fuel and food shortages when the Frost was about two weeks old. The [[Church of Ireland]] parish clergy solicited donations, which they converted into free rations in the city parishes, distributing nearly 80 tons of coal and ten tons of meal four weeks into the Frost. The [[Lord Lieutenant of Ireland|Lord Lieutenant]], [[William Cavendish, 3rd Duke of Devonshire|the Duke of Devonshire]], in an unprecedented move on 19 January 1740, prohibited the export of grain out of Ireland to any destination except Britain.<ref name=":0" /> This action was in response to Cork Corporation (City of Cork), which remembered vividly the city events of eleven years earlier when serious food riots erupted and four people died.

In [[Celbridge]], [[County Kildare]], Katherine, the widow of [[William Conolly]], commissioned the construction of the [[Conolly's Folly|Conolly Folly]] in 1740 to give employment to local workers. In 1743, she had [[The Wonderful Barn]] built nearby as a food store in case of further famines.<ref>{{cite news |last=Thompson |first=Sylvia |date= |title=Buildings at risk: The Wonderful Barn, Co Kildare |newspaper=The Irish Times |url=https://www.irishtimes.com/life-and-style/homes-and-property/buildings-at-risk-the-wonderful-barn-co-kildare-1.1820394 |accessdate=20 March 2019}}</ref>