• This week we discussed the general theme of the course as the historical relationship between humans and land, the landscapes that are created by different cultures and natural conditions, and how these landscapes are developed as time goes by. This development of the Irish landscape is slow, incremental, and gradual with past layers surviving into the present day. Beginning with the the twelfth century and the meeting of a native Gaelic Irish society, of Celtic origin, with a colonising Anglo-Norman society, we see different approaches to occupying the land and creating a landscape. On the one hand there were socially based or clan based kingdoms with the Gaelic Irish and the tuath, while on the other there was a nascent attempt by the Anglo-Normans to assert a more physically land-based territorial structure.
Since the Anglo-Norman idea of territorial holding would gain eventual momentum over subsequent generations, the Gaelic Irish system would by contrast seem disordered and illogical since kin groups were constantly moving, as well as breaking and forging alliances. This would mean that the boundaries of a tuath did not remain static for very long. The Anglo-Norman idea of the manor, the barony, and the town lent a new sense of stability that represented order and structure. The mode of production here was feudalism and subsequent “New English” colonisation (the Anglo-Normans being “Old English”) would see that order and structure developed further into a capitalist mode of production – the essential difference is the introduction of money to aid and help standardise trade. The landscape is adapted to this new mode of production through improving and developing farmscapes through the agency of the landed estate, and similarly too the market town begins to emerge more comprehensively. The circumstances around this adaptation involve a succession of plantations during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries that allow the landed estate system to gain traction.
Thorugh the nineteenth century generally, the landed estate system moves into a period of decline that would ultimately prove terminal and so, the land is redistributed among tenantry through a series of land acts. Politically and socially motivated in the main, these land transfers accelerate a move for Irish independence, and by the early part of twentieth century, the Irish Free State and subsequently the Republic of Ireland emerge. With a changed political system, decisions are made around developing the country’s economy that have an influence on the making of the landscape. Where in the early days of the new state there were more isolationist policies, by the second half of the twentieth century there is a more outward looking approach that looks to initiatives like Foreign Direct Investment. This leads to features like industrial estates or business parks emerging through an empowered manufacturing sector. This outward looking approach would culminate in Ireland joining the EEC in 1973 and the creation of the modern landscape of today that is replete too with legacies of past cultures and inhabitants.
Some Useful Readings
Although there is no core text book for this course, the most useful general text is Duffy, P. (2007)Exploring the History and Heritage of Irish Landscapes, Dublin, Four Courts Press. (Library: 304.209415DUF).
These are some readings that cover the era of Gaelic Irish and Anglo-Norman. As with the general reading list contained in the course overview, it is not in order that students read all suggested material but rather have as many options as possible in the event that one or more text books are not immediately available in the library.
Cosgrove, A. (ed.) (1993) A New History of Ireland II: Medieval Ireland, 1169-1534, Oxford, Clarendon Press. (Selectively: e.g. chps. 1, 2, 8, 12).
Duffy, S. (2005) The Concise History of Ireland, Dublin, Gill & Macmillan.
Duffy, P. J. Fitzpatrick, E. Edwards, D. (eds.) (2001) Gaelic Ireland: Land, Lordship and Settlement, c. 1250-c. 1650. Dublin: Four Courts Press. (45-53; ch. 3).
Duffy, P.J. ‘The Nature of the frontier in Medieval Ireland’, Studia Hibernica, 1982-83, 21-38.
Graham, B.J., and Proudfoot, L.J. (eds.) (1993) An Historical Geography of Ireland, London, Academic Press. (chps. 2&3 also 420-426.)
Hennessy, M. (1996) Manorial Organisation in Early Thirteenth Century Tipperary, Irish Geography, 29(2), 116-125
Also, Jebb and Crowley (eds.) (2013) Secrets of the Irish Landscape (911.415JEB). The latter half, with chapters dealing with the emergence of Gaelic Ireland onwards, contains some useful information.
o CM13 Course Outline File
o CM13 – General Essay Guidelines File
o CM13 Lecture 1 File
o O’ Keefe (1996) – Rural Settlement and Cultural Identity in Gaelic Ireland 1000-1500 URL
• Week Two
This week we considered the medieval period and the tensions that emerged with the arrival of the Anglo-Normans into a very different pre-existing Gaelic world. The boundaries within the Gaelic world itself were constantly changing with varying allegiances but beyond, the boundaries between the Gaelic world and the Anglo-Norman colony were also fluctuating. On the one hand there were socially based or clan based kingdoms while on the other there was a nascent attempt by the Anglo-Normans to assert a more physically land-based territorial structure. With a more numerous and more historically established Gaelic population, and the potential for resistance where the Anglo-Normans attempted to exert dominance, there were fluctuating boundaries and tensions. This back-and-forth would ultimately lead to a Gaelic resurgence by the 14th century that forced the progressive Anglo-Normans back to the more eastern lands. The Anglo-Normans would attempt to arrest this decline by taking administrative steps to protect their societal structure. The 1366 statutes of Kilkenny would be a key piece of legislation in attempting to preserve Anglo-Norman society, and heightened the sense of division between Gaelic and Norman. In the case of the colony, there was an administrative centre within the Pale, itself the most English of areas. As one moved west that influence waned considerably; pieces of legislation such as the statutes of Kilkenny were designed to ensure it would not wane further. Into the sixteenth century the resurgence of the old Gaelic world meant that some of the old Anglo-Norman families became Gaelicised, fitting into the Gaelic system of overlordship. This made for a land of continually fluctuating frontiers.
These contrasting ideologies were also illustrated in the church of the time whereby a Gaelic church reflected the characteristics of the society. With attempts at reform and the arrival of continental influences, there began a transition to order and structure. Architecturally, this was illustrated in the monastic buildings and concerted organisation of land and people. The roots of the town may be found in the monastic context and its development, together with Anglo-Norman settlement practices, followed with ideologies of order and stability – things that would become the hallmark of ‘civilisation’. The emerging renaissance ideas and discourses of statecraft and classification meant a focus on gathering up land and territory for the crown. In theory, the independent lordships of old would be a thing of the past and a central government would come to rule over what would become an empire, facilitating markets (merchant capitalism) trading in the produce of the land (agrarian capitalism).
o Lecture Two File
o Strongbow and the Normans: 1170-1536 URL
This blog offers a handy, if very general outline, of the Norman presence in Ireland.
o King Henry VIII: The Church and The Reformation URL
This is a very brief video on King Henry VIII and the effects of Reformation. In the early part of the 16th century, division between Church of England and Roman meant the way was clear to legally take over vast swathes of monastic lands that could be ordered and framed in a modern way. Dissolution of the monasteries would also extend to Ireland but given the politically fragmented nature of the Island, an increased level of resistance and the struggle to impose authority beyond the Pale, the enterprise would be much more difficult and protracted.
See e.g. Dudley Edwards, R. & Hourican, B. (2005) ‘Religion’ in An Altas of Irish History, London: Routledge, 105-124; pp.113ff. (941.5 EDW)
o Higgins – The Lost Legal System: Pre-Common Law Ireland and the Brehon Law URL
This piece offers some information on the legal systems attached to Gaelic Irish (Brehon) and Anglo-Norman (Common Law). It gives an insight into the societal structures involved and the system of landholding that went together with it.
• Week Three
This week we continued looking at the societal transitions taking place in Ireland into the sixteenth century. The resurgence of the old Gaelic world meant that some of the old Anglo-Norman families became Gaelicised, fitting into the Gaelic system of overlordship. This made for a land of continually fluctuating frontiers. From the mid sixteenth century we saw the emergence of a ‘new’ English system. The core difference between old and new might be summed up in a transition from feudalism to capitalism and modernisation. As is often the case, there is an element of building upon what has gone before in that many relics of feudalism would still persist, and its influence would hold on many institutions in Western Europe (e.g. the estate system and many administrative governing elements would contribute to a theme of continuity and change). Money and its standardising effects, as well as its effect in separating producer from produce meant a fundamental reorganisation of land and people however. The emerging renaissance ideas and discourses of statecraft and classification of society meant a focus on gathering up land and territory for the crown through the justification of a civilising influence. In theory, the independent lordships of old would be a thing of the past and a central government would come to rule over what would become an empire, facilitating markets (merchant capitalism) trading in the produce of the land (agrarian capitalism).
In the case of the Irish colony, there was an administrative centre within the Pale, itself the most English of areas. As one moved west that influence waned considerably. Establishing a lasting and secure presence in the colony would be vital and would call upon all the skills of rationality and logic as well as the power of justification. As we saw, the idea of race and difference was integral to establishing control and ownership. Indeed religious reformation too, as with Henry VIII would be key to this transition. Ownership and possession of land were key to the success of the new capitalist mode of production. As a resource, land was something to be owned and commonage, which was in effect the manner of landholding in the Gaelic system and had too been a feature of the Anglo-Norman feudal system (often on the outskirts of towns) upon which cottiers and lower classes relied, would ultimately be taken in possession by degrees and those classes converted to landless labourers – working for a wage. The educated, ordered and scientific minds of the colonial world would be brought to bear in projects such as the plantations and the progressive enterprise of improvement, consolidation and standardisation that would become integral in the evolving shape of the landscape.
Readings on modernisation and transforming effects of colonialism
Bartlett, R. (1993) The making of Europe: conquest, colonization and cultural change 950-1350, London, Penguin.
Butlin, R.A. (1993) Historical geography: through the gates of space and time, London, Edward Arnold. (ch. 8)
Canny, N. & Pagden, A. (eds.) (1987) Colonial Identity in the Atlantic World, 1500-1800, New Jersey, Princeton University Press.
Gillespie, R. (1991) The transformation of the Irish economy 1550-1700, Dundalk, Studies in Irish economic and social history.
Hamer, M. ‘Putting Ireland on the Map’, Textual Practice, 3 (1989), 184-201
Hill, C. (1991) The Century of Revolution: 1603-1714, London, Routledge. (Chps. 1&3)
Murphy, A. (1999) But the Irish Sea Betwixt Us: Ireland, Colonialism and Renaissance Literature, Lexington, UP of Kentucky (available online as ebook with MU library)
Ogborn, M. (2000) ‘Historical geographies of globalisation c. 1500-1800’, in Graham, B. & Nash, C. (eds.)Modern Historical Geographies, London, Pearson, 43-70.
Cormack, L.B. (1994) ‘The Fashioning of an Empire: Geography and the state in Elizabethan England’, in Godlewska, A. and Smith, N. (eds), Geography and Empire. Oxford: Blackwell, 15-30.
Kenny, K. (ed.) (2004) Ireland and the British Empire, Oxford, Oxford University Press.
Smyth, W.J. (2006) Map-making, Landscapes and Memory. A Geography of Colonial and Early Modern Ireland, c. 1530-1750, Cork, Cork University Press & Field Day.
o Lecture Three File
o O’ Conor – Housing in Later Medieval Ireland URL
This paper goes into detail on the characteristics of housing during the era of Gaelic Irish and Anglo-Norman (creats and crucks as smaller dwelling houses). It gives some insight into the look of the locality during this period.
o Morrissey- Contours of Colonialism URL
This paper looks at the complexities of sixteenth century Ireland through the beginnings of a New English arrival into an already fragmented cultural and political landscape.
• Week Four
This week we looked at the implementation of colonial discourse based upon the idea of difference, most pointedly between the civilised race and the savage natives, upon ideas of moral, ethical and legal justification through which would come ownership and, how this ownership would edge us towards the emergence of a recognisably modern landscape in the 17th century.
The main instrument of implementation was the idea of plantation. This was the planned settlement of English and Scottish migrants in the colonised areas of the British Empire. In the case of Ireland, the three main state sponsored plantation programmes were the Laois/Offaly, Munster and Ulster plantations. These plantations represented an evolution in planning territory and ordering the landscape according to the capitalist system. In tandem with these state efforts were private plantations where land was bought up by private speculators and adventurers. In its subtle way, this was more successful in terms of transforming the landscape by avoiding to a much greater degree the concerted rebellion provoked by state projects. Nevertheless by a continued process of civilisation through plantation overcoming a rebellion in 1641 and ushering in Cromwellian settlement, the conquest of Ireland was all but complete and the island integrated into a market economy.
This had important implications for the landscape in denuding Ireland of its native woodlands, creating farmland so that the quantities of Ireland’s traditional produce could be multiplied many times. Logic and order meant the commissioning of surveys and maps such as the Civil Survey and Down Survey, which assessed the quantity of land and its potential to produce in addition to incorporating society and settlement into a world of markets. Produce was fed into the infrastructure of the market economy and this meant something of a boom whereby population increased along with land values and rents. Integral to all this development would be the landed estate and the system of landlord-tenant relationships, creating a linked hierarchy of capital flow which would reach from the modern landscape of fields into the towns, on to the ports and abroad to, in Ireland’s case the trading routes of the North Atlantic.
Some Readings
Barry, T. (ed.) (2000) A History of Settlement in Ireland, London, Routledge, (chp. 6)
Cullen, L. M., (1972) An economic history of Ireland since 1660, Dublin, Studies in Economic and Social History (chp. 1&2)
Gillespie, R. (1991) The transformation of the Irish economy 1550-1700, Dundalk, Studies in Irish economic and social history, p. 30ff.
Lyttleton, J. & Rynne, C. (eds.) (2009) Plantation Ireland: settlement and material culture, c.1550-c.1700, Dublin, Four Courts Press.
Robinson, P. (1984) The Plantation of Ulster: British Settlement in an Irish Landscape, 1600-1670, Dublin, Gill and Macmillan (chp. 7&8)
o Lecture Four File
o Overview of the Plantations URL
This document provides a handy, if a little general, summary of the plantations in Ireland and the main features of each.
o Canny, N. (2001) Making Ireland British 1580-1650, Oxford, Oxford University Press. (e-text) URL
o Visualising the Plantation – History Ireland URL
o King Henry VIII: The Church and The Reformation URL
This is a very brief video on King Henry VIII and the effects of Reformation. In the early part of the 16th century, division between Church of England and Roman meant the way was clear to legally take over vast swathes of monastic lands that could be ordered and framed in a modern way. Dissolution of the monasteries would also extend to Ireland but given the politically fragmented nature of the Island, an increased level of resistance and the struggle to impose authority beyond the Pale, the enterprise would be much more difficult and protracted.
See e.g. Dudley Edwards, R. & Hourican, B. (2005) ‘Religion’ in An Altas of Irish History, London: Routledge, 105-124; pp.113ff. (941.5 EDW)
o Curl – The City of London and the Plantation of Ulster File
This document goes into detail on the building of Londonderry and the involvement trade guilds and companies based in the city of London in its colonisation and development.
• Week Five
This week we looked at progressive change following the Cromwellian plantations of the mid-seventeenth century. The task for the colonist now is to implement ideas and discourse around statecraft- establishing a central government with influence and power. This influence and power is developed and enhanced through reconfiguration and the creation of networks of capital flow. In theory, this would involve marrying the productive farm to the market town. A network of towns and villages would serve as dots that would connect the entire countryside to this capitalist enterprise. A key aspect of establishing this connectivity was standardisation. The introduction of a monetary standard would facilitate ease of trade and would also be important in developing an efficient taxation system. Related to this would be increased accuracy in territorial structures. Mapping would be instrumental in accounting for the land in terms of quality and quantity and a territorial hierarchy ranging from state through province, county, barony, parish, and townland would help establish links between a centralised government and a local area.
On the ground, as it were, the landed estate was the key component in this process of reconfiguring the landscape through farmscapes and estate towns – giving practical structure at the most local level to the general ideas of order, rationality and organisation. As a system, the landed estate represented a hierarchy ranging from great landlords in possession of many thousands of acres, to smaller landlords, tenants, subtenants, cottiers and landless labourers. Put broadly, this system functioned most successfully in the eastern regions or perhaps more accurately, north east to south west. In the western regions, a lack of regulation and a lack of involvement in the running of their estates, usually due to absenteeism and a lack of incentive with poor quality land, the estate system was less successful. This estate system enabled the development and continued progress of the market economy, moving as it did from the estate to the town and county level and, on to bigger towns and cities which were most successfully located at ports. This allowed Ireland access the trade routes of the North Atlantic. Such was the success of this enterprise, chiefly owing to large tracts of cheaply available land, production costs were quite low meaning the ability to undercut the home (British) market was becoming a problem. Navigation and Cattle Acts were introduce to regulate production and trade, thereby illustrating the growing influence of colonial power not only in creating this new landscape, but also in regulating it.
Crawford, W.H. (1990) ‘The Significance of Landed Estates in Ulster, 1600–1820’, Irish Economic and Social History, 17
o Lecture Five File
o The Down Survey of Ireland – Historical Context URL
o The Down Survey Maps URL
This is a useful repository of the maps from the Down Survey; it may be handy for identifying your own local area to get an idea of how the map interpreted it.
o Sir William Petty, Ireland, and the Making of a Political Economist, 1653-87 File
o The End of Gaelic Ulster: A Thematic Interpretation of Events Between 1534 and 1610 File
o The Irish Cattle Bills: A Study in Restoration Politics File
This (lengthy) paper discusses English efforts to protect the home market in light of economic boom in Ireland that was effectively undercutting English produce in the second half of the seventeenth century. The “restoration” refers to events in England at the time whereby the monarchy that had fallen with Charles I in 1649 had been restored under Charles II from 1660. The intervening years, known as the “interregnum” were characterised by the Cromwellian republican government (notable in an Irish context for plantation and conquest of Ireland from 1649-53).
• Week Six
This week we looked at the emergence of the estate system in Ireland. Coming about as a result of colonisation in Ireland and amid the plantations, the landed estate was the key component in reconfiguring the landscape and giving practical structure at the most local level to the general ideas of order, rationality and organisation that were the hallmarks of colonial discourse. As a system, the landed estate represented a hierarchy ranging from great landlords in possession of many thousands of acres, to smaller landlords, tenants, subtenants, cottiers and landless labourers. This system then fitted into a territorial structure which enabled the development and continued progress of the market economy, moving as it did from the estate to the town and county level and, on to bigger towns and cities which were most successfully located at ports which allowed Ireland to key into the trade routes of the North Atlantic. Put broadly, this system functioned most successfully in the eastern regions or perhaps more accurately, north east to south west. In the western regions, a lack of regulation and a lack of involvement in the running of their estates, usually due to absenteeism and a lack of incentive with poor quality land, the estate system was less successful.
In general though, from the mid-late 17th century onward, Ireland experienced an economic boom due to its natural locational advantage and the effective implementation of an estate system that brought the landscape into a modern, capital driven era. Demand for land became ever greater, rents rose and population levels increased. Middlemen who had taken advantage of long, cheap leases were removed from the equation so that landlord incomes increased. With demand for produce high, this income was often reinvested in the land and so began the age of improvement through the 18th and into the 19th centuries.
Crawford, W.H. (1990) ‘The Significance of Landed Estates in Ulster, 1600–1820’, Irish Economic and Social History, 17
Dooley, T. (2007) The Big Houses and Landed Estates of Ireland: A Research Guide, Dublin, Four Courts Press.
Smyth, W.J. (1976) ‘Estate records and Irish Landscape: An Example from Co. Tipperary’, Irish Geography, 9(1), 29-49
o Lecture Six File
o Whelan – Catholic Middlemen in the Eighteenth Century File
• Week Seven
The Age of Improvement would arrive in the mid eighteenth century bringing with it myriad possibilities for refinement and enhancement of landscape and society. This age was facilitated by considerable increases in landlord incomes because the theories of merchant and agrarian capitalism laid down in colonial discourse were being enacted so effectively. The landed estate system was the fundamental agency in putting these theories into practice. Creating a modern, improved farmscape through developing enclosure, carrying out drainage and reclamation works meant that the land was becoming increasingly functional. Allying this farmscape to the nucleus of the town allowed for trade and this would enable economic boom, not least because trading could be carried out easily with increased standardisation. Standard currency and mapping helped set down this standard. Middlemen who had taken advantage of long, cheap leases were removed from the equation further allowing for increases in landlord incomes. With demand for produce high, this income could be reinvested.
Functional and aesthetic improvements were rendered as an enlightened eye was cast over the landscape; just as the state would have its maps, so too would the landed estate have maps and surveys to inform how best to proceed with improvement. In estates in Ulster and others around Ireland with the advent of the industrial revolution, landlords also looked at manufacturing as a way to maintain incomes alongside the more successfully productive good lands. The linen industry was popular and its implementation would see the estate system function well without a heavy reliance on acreage and land quantity. This economic boom and improvement would be successful so long as there was a market for the produce. The life of the individual too, was changing through all of this as oftentimes landlords would see themselves not only as agents in manufacturing a modern landscape, but also as moral agents encouraging civilised behaviour and a strong work ethic. Model farms, increasingly ornate houses and gardens and an overall zeal for improvement would also see power and symbolism inscribed in the landscape. This power and symbolism would contribute to the scales of the class system and contribute to increased regulation of society and space. This represents a step forward in the evolution of the landscape as functional improvement and ostentatious aesthetic improvements give a new shape to the landscape and imbue its resident society with an evolved understanding about its place in the world.
o Lecture Seven File
o Busteed – The Practice of Improvement in the 18thC – Fermanagh File
o Duffy – Eighteenth Century Estate Maps File
o Smyth – The Greening of Ireland URL
• Week Eight
This week we looked further into the role of the landed estate in the evolution of the Irish landscape. The estate is at the heart of modernising the landscape and enacting colonial discourses. This enactment may be seen in the fields and farms of rural Ireland and too, in the evolution of the town. The estate town served as a nucleus for the surrounding agrarian hinterland. Throughout the 17th and 18th centuries and, beyond the landed estate was the benchmark for the influencing landscape change and development because it helped to connect the locality with the bigger picture of an emergent state. The estate system is systematic because estates have the common goal of creating a functional landscape. At its most basic level, this means creating monetary yield from the landscape.
Estates would go about creating this yield in different ways due to land quality, quantity and location; some estates such as those in the Golden Vale would have rich pasture land and be in close proximity to the major market centre of Cork city, so dairy and beef farming would be most common. In the east, there is also land of high quality and close proximity to Dublin city. Other areas such as in Ulster, there was a more industrialised approach with the linen industry nurtured. During the economic boom that ran for most of the eighteenth century and into the early nineteenth, the demand for produce was such that there was an incentive to manage these estates closely and there was clear benefit to investing in improvements. The legacy of this increased yield from the functional, working landscape can be seen in big, ornate houses and impressive gardens. These would especially, as all ‘Big Houses’ would in their way, would have an important symbolic value in demonstrating power and underlining a hierarchical social structure that would sit alongside a territorial structure. In other areas, such as most commonly in western Ireland there was often poorer quality land and so there was not the same degree of incentive. Very often these estates simply survived by the quantity of tenants rather than the quantity of produce. Such estates would be home to what was known as the ‘rundale’ system.
This system would illustrate a lack of involvement by the landlord in creating a settlement that was ordered and structured, as would be the case in more closely managed estates in the east. The degree of involvement of the landlord, or his representative can be seen clearly during this age of improvement in the degree of uniformity in town buildings and streetscapes, as much as it can be seen in rural areas. This close management would symbolise a successful estate with an enlightened landlord with uniformity carrying echoes of standardisation and order. The estate system in its most effective examples demonstrated functionality and aestheticism. Where on the one hand we had a system of estates, towns, cities and ports that helped to generate capital, on the other hand these features were weighed with symbolic meaning: they had a particular look or style. This was evident in the layout of towns and the design of buildings as well as in the demesne itself – the Big House and its attendant gardens that bore the fruit of functionality in an enlightened aesthetic guise. The conditions for prosperity were set down in functionality and shown off in aesthetics.
With aesthetics we saw change over time as tastes evolved. Initial developments on the demesne involved linear lines, radial structures – emblematic of the order and rationality which had distilled through colonial discourse. From the second half of the 18thC, we saw a more relaxed approach which concentrated on more pastoral, natural agrarian scenes that illustrated a blended presence between the big house and nature: it would be created to appear, for example, as if the Big House had always been there and had a right to grace the Irish landscape as it did. These changing fashions illustrated in a very direct way, the wider continental influences (such as from the palace at Versailles) upon the elite classes, and pushed an enlightened view of how a landscape should look and feel in the modern day. Helping realise this vision would be gardeners such as Repton and Brown, architects such as Cassells and Morrison and a variety of artisans and craftspeople. In this respect not only were landlords pioneers in making the functional landscape function even better, such as with technology and the steam plough for example, but they were also pioneering a modern aesthetic in the buildings and gardens of town and country, across Ireland.
o Lecture Eight File
o Co. Cork in the 18thC File
o Hood (2015) – Landlord Influence on an Irish Estate Town URL
• Week Nine
This week we progressed into the 19th century and we considered changes brought about by the Act of Union in the early days of the 1800’s. Ostensibly the passing of this act meant that the Irish Parliament which had stood within the Pale in some shape or form since the 14th century was now abolished and Ireland was ruled directly from London. Politically, this followed the rebellion of 1798 which led to a belief in a requirement for a more direct mode of governance. A rebellion against the circumstances set in motion by colonial discourse, successive plantations and established estate system, it was demonstrative of growing dissatisfaction on the part of the natives who were politically disenfranchised with power resting in the lap of the landlords/landed elite. Poorer people had little to no input in how the Irish Parliament worked, even though they made up most of the population. This inequality in terms of power would be reflected in how the landscape was developed and improved, especially during the Age of Improvement. Big Houses and demesnes through farm and town with systemic designs and frequently uniform architecture, displayed the singular ability of the landlord, where it was exercised) to direct the process of modernisation and development.
In addition to political disenfranchisement, religious exclusion would be an issue. The majority of the population were Catholic but the established church was Church Of Ireland. The benefits of establishment came in the form of taxes known as “tithes”. Such taxes would be invested in improved and pertinently symbolic church buildings. While a good portion of the population would continue in ordinary, everyday circumstances, a significant amount rose in an ultimately failed rebellion. This had the result of justifying the Act of Union and the Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. The main consequence of direct rule would be the gradual but continual growth in influence of the state in the life of the individual. Generally, this involved a transfer of power from the landed elite or landlords to centralised government and municipal authority. In terms of landscape, the implications of this were wrought through continued and more intensive organisation and structuring. The census was an expression of this in its effort to gather knowledge on the ground of population numbers, distribution and standard of living. The process of census taking was a continually improving one. As experience grew and technology evolved new methods could facilitate the gathering of increasingly accurate information.
In the vein of continuity and change, the parish and the townland would be central to the process of information gathering. The Church of Ireland parish or the Civil parish (which was effectively a more standardised and fixed version of the Church Of Ireland parish, in that ecclesiastical administration differed from state administration) would be the core territorial unit – taking a pre-existing territorial structure and adapting it to the needs of Ireland post-Act of Union. Standardisation and fixity at a more evolved level than had been managed up to the nineteenth century would be necessary if the state were to succeed in its endeavour. This endeavour involved creating an efficient taxation system and then to use the taxes earned to provide services such as health, education and infrastructure. In this respect the town would become not only a centre of capital but also a centre of state administration at the local level.
Though rebellion had failed in 1798, the very act was emblematic of dissatisfaction and in the years subsequent to the Act of Union, gradual relaxation of the Penal Laws (the legislation disestablishing the Catholic Church) culminating in Catholic Emancipation in 1829. This emancipation would also allow Catholics hold a seat in the Westminster parliament. Emancipation would come to be seen in more impressive and prominent Catholic churches and politically it would forge the way for local government and municipal authorities that would see the era of landlord power begin to wane.
For some primary sources on the Act of Union see: http://www.actofunion.ac.uk/actofunion.htm.
o Lecture Nine File
o Census Ireland 1813-15 File
o Religious Inquiry Census File
o Geoghegan- ‘An Act of Power & Corruption?’ File
o Hogan – The Role of Connacht’s Landed Gentry – Act of Union File
o McCavery – Politics, Public finance – Act of Union File
o Jones-Hughes – Administrative Divisions and Development of Settlement in Nineteenth Century Ireland File
• Week Ten
This week we considered the evolution of the landscape from 1550-1850 in light of the essay. In the mid sixteenth century, the colonial world was beginning, theoretically at least, to find its feet. New ideas about land management in terms of both the physical landscape, and society and settlement were beginning to emerge in colonial discourses. Ideas around order, structure, logic and rationality were translated into a new capitalist mode of production that would gradually replace the feudalist model. Finding a means to apply these ideas meant developing legislation that would help justify a colonial project that was hungry for more and more land. Religion and reformation would also be important here as the monastic confiscations, justified by a schism within the church, paved the way for a takeover of vast quantities of land. Politically, rebellious clans such as the Moore’s and the O’Connors in Laois/Offaly, would see their land confiscated following failed processes of surrender and regrant. With ownership falling to a nascent colonial power, successive plantations were carried out. These plantations represented successive attempts at modernising land and society. This modernisation meant fashioning the landscape into a structure that reflected merchant and agrarian capitalism. Merchant capitalism could be seen in the towns while agrarian capitalism could be seen in the fields and farms. This process of modernisation would stutter and experience failures owing to resistance from the natives and a lack of experience on the colonial’s part in implementing effective plantation strategies. Private plantations in the sense of speculators and private individuals buying land would also be a feature alongside the more conventional state plantations. Altogether, these represented the slow, incremental growth of a capitalist mode of production. The money economy and an increasing level of standardisation in currency, for instance would help to facilitate trade.
It would not be until the mid seventeenth century when the conquest of Ireland could be considered practically conclusive, the events of Civil War in England and the subsequent Cromwellian plantations in Ireland saw a definitive incursion and an effective redistribution of land. Growing initiatives in surveying and mapping, such as the Civil and Down Surveys, modernised the process of regulating and managing land and settlement in a systematic way. The estate system would come to prominence during these years whereby landed estates varying in size from some hundred acres to thousands of acres would apply the ideas of merchant and agrarian capitalism in a practical and lasting fashion. With the landlord at the centre, or with agents working on their behalf, the evolution of the landscape would take a further step. This step was greatly aided by the leasehold system. This represented the relationship between landlord and tenant, and the terms of the lease, on well-run estates at the very least, would see progressive improvement in the shape of enclosure, drainage and general reclamation to make the land more productive. Enclosure had been an early theme of colonial endeavour in that the effort to establish ownership meant that land needed to be fenced or hedged off, made private in such a way that commonage as a feature of the old feudalist system particularly, was eradicated. Land and the produce grown on the land was now a commodity and investment in improvements would see that commodity grow in value. On less well-run estates the levels of improvement were rather more limted, the settlement of tenants was often not all that effectively managed and while there may have been enclosure in a general way, the terms of the lease would sometimes not be particularly stringent. The perseverance of the rundale system in western regions and poorer quality land particularly, would illustrate this.
Generally though, the landscape of the estate saw the Irish landscape fit into the bigger picture of markets and trade. The network of the system enabled ease of trade and cheaper land in Ireland than in England during the seventeenth century meant that the Irish market was particularly competitive. Legislation such as Cattle Acts and Navigation Acts would be introduced to regulate this competition. This illustrates the booming Irish economy and the growth in wealth. Adaptability in Ireland towards production saw better quality land such as that in Munster and the region of the ‘Golden Vale’ produce more conventional agricultural produce while in other areas, such as in Ulster particularly and other pockets around the country, dependent on the initiative of the landlord, moved into more industrially based concerns such as the linen industry. These circumstances would have an effect on the layout of the landscape and its progressive modernisation.
It would be during the eighteenth century that this modernisation and economic development would pay off particularly well. The Age of Improvement would see the heyday of the landed estate where functional as well as aesthetic improvements would continue apace because the capital was available. Technological developments in the shape of early machinery would aid here too. The appearance of towns and cities such as Dublin illustrated the developments during this latter half of the eighteenth century. Buildings grew more ornate and illustrated how wealth created was translated into an improved landscape.
For all improvements and economic success however, the Irish landscape was home to tensions around political power and enfranchisement. Oftentimes, it was a tale of two countries where the landed elite, who were in the minority, held the majority of power and influence over how the country was run and its landscape developed. The 1798 rebellion would illustrate these tensions and the introduction of the Act of Union at the beginning of the nineteenth century would see the beginnings of change in political, social and cultural terms. This act would have the immediate result of removing the Dublin parliament from the role of governance and replacing it with direct rule from London. This meant the beginnings of an erosion of power among the landed elite. The state would grow to have a more direct influence on managing society and settlement. The census and mapping projects such as the Ordnance Survey would help with gathering information on people and land. That information could then be used for taxation as well as the provision of services such as health, education, and law and order. Religion too would have a prominent role and would be used as a means to mollify the generally Catholic population. Ultimately this would lead to emancipation in 1829. The evidence for this in the landscape could be seen in the changing nature of church buildings, their location within villages and their establishment as a key element of Irish towns and villages.
Economically, in the early years of the nineteenth century the Napoleonic Wars which had been a rich market for Irish produce drew to a close and this meant a general economic decline was in the offing. The landed estate as a functional system that granted security to both landlord and tenant, if not equal power, was beginning to deteriorate. The population that grown so significantly during the years of economic boom were now left struggling to eke out a living and in many cases the tenantry were becoming a burden on the estate as a business model. Emigration schemes and initiatives to reduce the number of tenants on an estate began to grow during this time. This was especially the case where estates were attempting to reduce costs by introducing grazier landscapes that were less labour intensive. Corn laws during this period would keep the price of grain artificially high too meaning that domestic producers were favoured over imports though these measures did not last. This led to a fall in food supplies but not necessarily a fall in production. Though a feature in Britain as well, these corn laws meant a good deal of produce was leaving Ireland rather than maintaining consistent supplies. These examples of legislation show how the landscape is adapted to changing economic circumstances. Using the example of Dublin city, we see an example of a transition from the earlier Age of Improvement in the latter part of the 18thC to 19thC municipal authority and the problems faced with a failing economy and rising population. The town as an entity evolved to embody much more than a market centre. Through administrative and institutional infrastructure, the state would take a much more hands on approach to the running of the country, to the distribution of services and the standardisation and modernisation of the Irish landscape.
However, with a generally and increasingly challenged population into the nineteenth century, particularly in the rundale areas, reliance grew on the cheapest and most easily grown food supply. The potato was key to the well-being of large swathes of the population and would see people healthy but growing increasingly poor. While the potato would continue to support the population, the arrival of blight that destroyed the crop in the mid-nineteenth century meant that there was an immediately impoverished population. The involvement of the state and landed estate system in dealing with this was gradual and varied as the famine years were unexpectedly continuing. For instance, the Corn Laws were repealed and workhouses would become an ever more prominent feature in the Irish landscape. The circumstances of famine would see the landed estate system practically collapse. Many estates already struggling in straitened economic conditions would go bankrupt and would precipitate a massive land transfer from the estate system to tenant owners through a series of land acts (beginning with the Encumbered Estates Act passed in 1849) during the latter half of the nineteenth century and into the twentieth century.
Hoppit, J. (ed.) (2003) Parliaments, Nations and Identities in Britain and Ireland: 1660-1850, Manchester: Manchester University Press.
Digitised Maps from the Bog Commission can be located here: http://www.heartland.ie/multimedia/maps-drawings
Ordnance Survey website: http://maps.osi.ie/publicviewer/#V1,588882,739883,0,10
For more information on the development of Dublin see: Brady, J & Simms A. eds (2001) Dublin Through Space and Time (c. 900 – 1900). Dublin: Four Courts Press
For further information on the rundale / clachan system see Aalen, F.H.A., Whelan, K. & Stout, M. (eds.) (2012) Atlas of the Irish Rural Landscape, Cork: Cork University Press.
o Lecture Ten File
o Wide Streets Commission- Map Collection URL
• Week Eleven
This week we considered the circumstances around the famine that ran from 1845-52 and the implications this had for the evolving landscape. If the landscape is fashioned at its most basic level by a relationship between people and land, then the dramatic change in population levels during these years would have a knock on effect on the nature of settlement and society. The years of famine particularly would see a breakdown in the, by now, traditional relationship of landlord and tenant. The landed elite were coming under increasing pressure from the growing political power of the popular classes. These circumstances were intensified by a growing gap between rich and poor. These changing circumstances with a root cause of changing market conditions saw a society and landscape that had grown up through the estate system begin to unravel as its capacity to support all classes of landlord and tenant came undone.
Though the general impression of Ireland into the nineteenth century is one of poverty, there are pockets of prosperity. As part of the Union, there was access to free markets and the legislative protection of the Corn Laws that off-set the economic damage caused by the conclusion of the Napoleonic Wars. There was demand for Irish agricultural produce and trading was continuing, though there was a certain precariousness about matters. This precariousness was brought about by a population distributed in such a way that the country seemed overpopulated. Estates which had thrived on the landlord-tenant relationship, now saw that relationship as a burden since market conditions had changed. Population growth was leading to a significant Catholic majority pushing for political change (e.g. Catholic Emancipation) but the numbers were becoming problematic with this abject poverty becoming increasingly common since holdings, particularly in rundale areas were growing smaller and smaller as the population grew larger and larger. This would be seen in terms of societal organisation with tenements and rundale settlements where this growth could be most obviously seen. This system harked back to an earlier Gaelic age that was increasingly out of touch with the modern state system.
Rundale could take the pressure of population growth but it could only do so through over reliance on the potato crop. This over reliance would have devastating consequences later when the crop would fail.The idea of tenement housing gathers momentum in the cities and this means that though the state is becoming more involved and informed, truly effective reform to alleviate abject poverty is quite difficult to achieve in areas with such poor settlement distribution. The Poor Law Unions (derived from the administrative unit of the Civil Parish) and workhouses in theory are effective ideas but the agenda for local property paying for local poverty is one that hampers practical assistance. Essentially the general population is falling between the stools of landed estate and government at this time. The marketplace had a role in this too as the benefits of Corn Laws meant that a good deal of agricultural produce was leaving Ireland for more than local populations could afford, so the potato as an easy and plentiful crop that also, by way of its cheap value, made it possible for rents to be paid, came to support a huge swathe of the population giving a false impression of the country’s welfare more generally.
These impressions would be disastrously exposed with the Great Famine. The main parties involved were the state, the landed estate and the general population or, (very generally) “the Catholic majority”. The state infrastructure which had appeared to be able to cope could suddenly no longer deal with the circumstances of poverty and starvation – workhouses and public relief work schemes were insufficient. An archaic mode of settlement in the shape of rundale coupled with a modern state infrastructure and ideology would lead to a disconnect. The burden of responsibility too, was generally placed in the hands of local property (ie. landlords). Landlords responses varied greatly – some were charitable while others were less so or simply not in a position to be so. The system of a landlord – tenant relationship was coming under increasing strain and the estate system as a concept was falling short. The market demands were shifting away from this relationship upon which society had grown dependent.
As the famine continued, towns and cities, already under pressure though not as reliant on the potato, would suffer with disease owing to population growth and poor sanitary conditions. With this unexpected continuity of famine, the state was playing catch-up with service provision in the shape of the workhouse mainly but also soup kitchens with the Soup Kitchen Act of 1847, Indian meal and otherwise, public works designed to generate income as opposed to direct charity. As a country though, the effects of the Famine on Ireland were varied. Generally, in the west where the rundale system continued the severity of famine was most intense and ‘lazy-bed’ landscapes are a legacy of this era. In areas of better land where estates were more effectively managed, the severity of famine was less intense. The effects of Famine on the population would expose the failings of the landed estate system, most pointedly in the case of rundale. The population ‘clearances’ would lead to a change in territorial organisation that would reconfigure society and settlement.
Though the British government had taken a more active role in implementing a state infrastructure following the Act of Union some fifty years before, the system in place struggled to deal with the conditions of famine. This was mainly due, at various points, to a lack of will to provide charity or social welfare with local property paying for its poverty, a lack of foresight and, underestimating the potential for the continuing severity of famine in Ireland. The role of government post-famine would be one of administrator and facilitator in the transfer of land ownership. The seeds for this would be sown with the Encumbered Estates Act that sought to come to terms with an entity that was by now ill-equipped to cope in changed social, political, cultural and economic circumstances. The events of the famine would cast a long shadow, leaving the fabric of society utterly undone. Mistrust and contempt featured prominently in the relationship between state and individual. Expressed politically, calls for repeal of the Act of Union and a general push toward independence were growing more significant. With the estate system in tatters, facilitating transferal of landownership from landlord to tenant through successive land acts would see a fundamental altering of society and settlement in Ireland. ‘Lazy-bed’ and Rundale would be gradually replaced with larger, more consolidated holdings while tenements would ultimately be replaced with social housing projects and initiatives that would look at reforming settlement structure and distribution nationwide.
Crossman, V. (1994) Local Government in nineteenth century Ireland, Belfast: Institute of Irish Studies. (941.5081)
Cullen, L.M. (1990) The Emergence of Modern Ireland: 1600-1900, New York: Holmes & Meier. (941.5)
Maguire, W.A. (1972) The Downshire Estates in Ireland, 1801-1845: The Management of Irish Landed Estates in the Early Nineteenth Century, Oxford: Clarendon Press. (333.323)
o Lecture Eleven File
o “Union reduced Dublin to provincial slum” – Irish Times URL
o Acts of Union: The creation of the United Kingdom URL
This is a more general piece, but worth a read for putting the Irish Act of Union in broader context.
o Taylor and Skinner road maps URL
From a 1777 survey, these maps from Taylor and Skinner and digitised by TCD, document the road network and symbolise the developing infrastructure of the time. This infrastructure would have a part to play in the “tale of two countries” later in the nineteenth century where abject poverty resides alongside prosperity.
o Rees – “The Fitzwilliam Estate Clearances – Coolattin 1847-1856” URL
o O’ Grada – “Ireland’s Great Famine” URL
o ‘The Widow’s Mite’: private relief during the Great Famine – History Ireland URL
o Poor and Getting Poorer: Living Standards in Ireland Before the Famine File
o Hunt- “Estate Management at Powerscourt 1847 – 1857” URL
o Bank Building in 19thC Ireland File
o Irish Times – Maps (Parishes, Poor Law Unions) URL
This is a handy resource for genealogy and ancestry for local Poor Law Unions, that you may be interested in checking out.
o Scally (1995) The End of Hidden Ireland: Rebellion, Famine and Emigration (ebook) URL
• Week Twelve
Land acts introduced into Ireland from 1870 onward were primarily designed to prevent civil unrest which had been building up following the circumstances of famine particularly which had seen the breakdown of the relationship between landlord and tenant, and a mistrust of the state by the population at large. Aiding tenant farmers through this succession of land acts would hopefully mollify a society scarred by the events of famine. The implications these land acts had was to change the type of farm holding around the country. The estate system would be dismantled and its pieces sold off. The terms of the land act would grant the means and opportunity for tenants to buy the farms they had up to now been leasing and successive acts would see these terms grow progressively more favourable. This would see a transfer of land ownership from landed elites to a class of peasant proprietors or “tenant owners”.
Political means were important in furthering this cause. In 1878 the Land League was formed to protect the rights of tenant farmers and advocate the Three F’s – fair rent, free sale and fixity of tenure. In particular the land league would force the second Land Act of 1881, whereby the Three F’s were introduced under law. By the 1885 Ashbourne Act, the terms of engagement were much more favourable.The idea of ownership was much more affordable than in the case of the loan or mortgage offered by the first act, and many tenant farmers took up the offer. The Land Purchase (Ireland) Act of 1903, known as the Wyndham Act, provided compulsory purchase of tenant holdings from Landlords and essentially ended their control over rents.
At this point we’re moving into the twentieth century and the progressive effects of this enfranchisement had been seen at work in the issue of land transfers but it was also at work more generally in the push for national independence. The influence of the state that had been so marked in the nineteenth century following the Act of Union, carried into the establishment of an Irish free state and an independent Republic of Ireland. With the estate system now consigned to memory, the task of redistributing society and settlement and reconfiguring the landscape continued through processing bodies such as the Land Commission (continuing the earlier work of the Congested Districts Board in this respect) and social housing initiatives in rural and urban areas. The relics of rundale and tenement were gradually being worked out of the system of settlement in the Irish landscape. The growth of the Irish political system fed into planning and landscape management, creating a new urban and rural landscape that would come to terms with the poorly distributed, and thus overpopulated, landscapes of old.
The main feature of Ireland’s history in the twentieth century was the establishment of Ireland as an independent state. Firstly as the Irish Free State and secondly a republic, Ireland’s level of independence meant making administrative decisions on the future direction of political, economic and cultural landscapes. Economically, Ireland saw a transition from an economy that was quite closed and insular to one that was, and is, quite a bit more open and interconnected with broader regional and global markets and economies. This modernisation of economic policy became current in the late 1950’s and into the 1960’s and had a number of effects. In terms of landscape change Ireland developed along the lines of this transition from an economy dominated by agriculture in the main to one that included more secondary and tertiary sectors (i.e. manufacturing and services). The most immediate effect of this in the landscape was the emergence of industrial estates (later business parks). This in turn influenced employment patterns, for instance influencing a commuting culture which altered the rural landscape in the shape of one-off housing and the creation of a settlement pattern that generally reflected a changing relationship between Irish people and land as rural and urban living standards and livelihoods change over time.
Membership of the EU has had a direct bearing on this transition with features such as the common market and in more rural areas the implementation of the Common Agricultural Policy. Investment and funding has changed over time during Ireland’s membership of the EU. Initially supporting production in greater quantities, into the 1980’s and 90’s support steered from beyond the point of over production to measures more akin to preservation and conservation of the landscape and environment. With the emergence of the Celtic Tiger in more recent decades, this unsustainable method of production and ultimate over-production found its way to the Irish housing market, creating an economic bubble based on speculative property development. This was followed since 2008 with the most severe economic collapse experienced in the history of the State. The hallmark of over-production in this case can be found in ‘Ghost Estates’ which would become a feature of the Irish landscape and an indication of the influence of markets and economies on landscape evolution and management and perhaps arguably too on decision makers at the political level.
o Lecture 12 File
o The Limits to Land Reform: The Land Acts in Ireland URL
o Brandenburg(1932) – Progress of Land Transfer in the Irish Free State File
o Cosgrove – The sale of the Leinster estate under the Wyndham Land Act, 1903. URL
o Dooley – Estate ownership and management in nineteenth and early twentieth-century Ireland URL
o Breathnach – Inward investment in Peripheral Regions URL
o Outline of Irish Housing System URL