Famine of 1331

A great famine afflicted all Ireland in this and the foregoing year, and the city of Dublin suffered miserably. But the people in their distress met with an unexpected and providential relief.

For about the 24th of June a prodigious number of large sea fish, called Turlehydes, were brought into the bay of Dublin, and cast on shore at the mouth of the river Dodder (This is now called Donebrook river, and falls into the Liffey at Ringsend). They were from 30 to 40 feet long, and so bulky, that two tall men placed one on each side of the fish could not see one another.

The lord justice, sir Anthony Lucy, with his servants, and many of the citizens of Dublin, killed above 200 of them, and gave leave to the poor to carry them away at their pleasure.
(From the Annals of Dublin)