InIrish mythology,hungry grass (Irish:féar gortach; also known asfairy grass) is a patch of cursedgrass. Anyone walking on it was doomed to perpetual and insatiablehunger.
Harvey suggests that the hungry grass is cursed by the proximity of anunshrivencorpse (thefear gorta).[1]William Carleton's stories suggest thatfaeries plant the hungry grass.[2] According to Harvey, this myth may relate to beliefs formed in theGreat Famine of the 1840s.[1] InMargaret McDougall's letters, the phrase "hungry grass" is - by analogy to the myth - used to describehunger pangs.[3]
