In Irish mythology, the fear gorta (Irish: Man of hunger / Man of famine; also known as the fear gortach) is a of hunger resembling an emaciated human.
According to Yeats' Fairy and Folk Tales of the Irish Peasantry the fear gorta walks the earth during times of famine, seeking alms from passers-by. In this version, the fear gorta can be a potential source of good luck for generous individuals. Harvey relates a myth that the fear gorta was a of famine during the Great Famine of the 1840s, and that the spirit originally arises from a patch of hungry grass (féar gortach). In the region of Kiltubbrid, the term is also used to refer to a sudden hunger that can seize people traveling in the mountains that will become fatal if not quickly satiated.