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Local History

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DOI: 10.1057/9780230238992_6

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 Chapter 7

Local History

Maura Cronin

Local history is the history of place, but, though place is central to its

meaning, it is much more than this. Local historical research, in the first place,

teases out the interplay of landscape, economy, culture and population to

explain the shaping of the local community over time. Secondly, by asking ‘big

questions about small places’, it prompts the reassessment of assumptions

about developments over a wider spatial canvas. 1 Thus, local history is about

both people and place, and it provides a lens through which to view the

evolution of both the micro world of the locality and the wider world composed

of many such localities.

Modern Irish local history has been in the making since the mid-

eighteenth century, the first significant landmark in its development being the

work of the Physico-Historical Society. Established to investigate the roots of

contemporary economic development and to combat Ireland’s image as a

barbaric country, this society initiated a series of county studies, only four of

which were published. 2 Though primarily economic in focus, these surveys

into ‘the ancient and present state’ of the counties in question effectively linked

past with present, and prefigured the interdisciplinary approach of two

centuries later by combining elements of geographical, economic, historical

and political enquiry. 3 Similar researches were continued by the nineteenth

century’s dedicated amateur historian-antiquarians, and from the 1850s

 Maura Cronin

onwards Kilkenny, Wexford, and Limerick saw the publication of local studies

– all primarily genealogical, historical, scenic and antiquarian in focus. 4 It was

during this period, too, that there came into existence a number of long-lived

periodical publications: the Ulster Journal of Archaeology, established in 1853,

was one of the first, with the Ossory Archaeological Journal following in the

mid-1870s, and the Kildare Archaeological Journal, the Journal of the

Waterford and South East of Ireland Archaeological Society and the Journal of

the Cork Historical and Archaeological Society in the1890s. 5 While most of

these works focussed on the county or a wider region, other contemporary

studies like Lenihan’s Limerick: its history and antiquities or Gibson’s History

of the County and City of Cork celebrated the history of a particular urban

centre in its broader regional setting. 6

For Lenihan, Gibson and the other dedicated men of letters in the

eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, there was little difficulty in defining ‘local’

and in deciding the spatial unit on which to base their studies. Their primary

unit of investigation and celebration was the county, diocese and/or city, and

the focus of attention was on ‘great men’ and ‘great events’, and the stress

was on gathering and listing information rather than on posing and answering

questions regarding the nature and dynamics of local communities. Gibson’s

work was dedicated to Lord Fermoy and Lenihan’s to the Earl of Dunraven,

while their chapters concentrated on leading figures of the past like the Earl of

Desmond, Florence McCarthy and Daniel O’Connell, and on chronological

‘landmarks’ like the Battle of Kinsale, the 1798 rebellion and Catholic

Emancipation. 7 This pattern continued into the twentieth century, virtually

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Local History

untouched by the Annales school of the 1920s, which emphasised the need to

explore historical themes through the multiple lens of a wide range of

disciplines. Rev. John Begley’s monumental Diocese of Limerick is

characteristic of the ‘old style’. This work was complied over a thirty-year

period but the approach remained essentially antiquarian, the third volume

(published in 1938), just like the first, being divided into chapters determined

by century, and dedicated to the bishop and the diocese. 8

The real turning point in the approach to Irish local history can be dated to

the 1970s, and it was influenced by three parallel developments. The first

such development was the increasing popular interest in local history,

culminating in the founding in 1981 of the Federation of Local History Societies

whose purpose was to encourage research in history, archaeology and

folklore and to provide a forum for those so involved. 9 During this period, too,

there was an awakening consciousness of the potential of local history to act

as an influence of reconciliation in divided communities. The Ulster Scots

Historical Foundation, originally set up in 1956, changed its title in 1975 to the

Ulster Historical Foundation, still stressing its unique regional identity but in a

less exclusive manner than heretofore. Two decades later, parallel to

attempted solutions to Northern Ireland’s complex political situation, the

Border Counties Historical Collective was set up to ‘reconcile identities, create

relationship and celebrate unique ways of life and cultural tradition’. 10 The

second formative influence on the development of local history in late

twentieth century Ireland was that of the University of Leicester’s Local History

Department, founded in 1948 and, by the 1970s making its mark on the work

3
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of Irish local historians. The Leicester school stressed an analytical and

quantitative approach, emphasising the broader contextualisation of regional

experience, and shifting the focus from elites to the broader local community.

The third influence was the emerging revisionist trend within both geographical

and historical scholarship, and the parallel increase in emphasis on Irish

social, economic and labour history. 11 Though the main emphasis remained

more on re-examining the grand narrative through concentration on local

variations and aberrations than on analysing the local community per se, these

three influences accelerated the growth-rate of locally based studies on issues

including urban growth, popular politicisation and regional agrarian change,

using the regional experience to cast new light on broader historical

developments in the island as a whole. 12

In the 1980s the approach to local historical research was further

sharpened and refined by the increasing prominence of historical geographers

in the area, a development prompting among historians a more open attitude

to the interdisciplinary nature of local history and a greater awareness of the

importance of examing the locale in its own right. This was reflected in

Geography Publications’ launching of the ground-breaking History and Society

series, interdisciplinary studies which sought to ‘explore at county level the

dynamics of economic, cultural and social change.’ 13 The emerging pre-

eminence of the ‘new’ local history was also made manifest in the

establishment in the 1990s of local history degree and certificate courses at

the National University of Ireland Maynooth, the University of Limerick, and

University College Cork. 14 Stressing the interdisciplinary nature of local

4
Local History

history, and influenced especially by the Leicester school, these courses

fostered co-operation between university-based and ‘amateur’ local historians,

posed questions regarding the interpretation of terms like ‘local’ and

‘community’, and promoted research at micro-level, concentrating on smaller

communities and territorial divisions than those of county, diocese or city.

From the 1970s onwards, therefore, Irish local history has been opened up

to explore a broad range of issues which both elucidate the local and regional

experience, and prompt reassessment of island-wide developments: the

evolution of the local landscape; the process of landscape change and shifting

boundaries; the contact between the local and the wider world; and the

dynamics of intergenerational conflict, all traceable through topography, the

evolution of settlement patterns and the development of the local cultivated

and built environment. The study of this ‘living landscape’, shaped by the

confluence of environmental conditions and economic processes, has been

possible only through the interdisciplinary approach, the contribution of

geographers, anthropologists, sociologists and archaeologists being equal in

importance to that of economic and social historians. 15

Archaeological research, in particular, has greatly advanced the

understanding of early Irish urban and settlement in its regional and wider

setting. New questions have been posed regarding pre-Viking agricultural and

exchange systems by excavations on Ulster ring-forts by McCormick, while

work by Bradley, Hurley and others, has been used in conjunction with

documentary sources ranging from Giraldus Cambrensis’ Expugnatio

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 Maura Cronin

Hibernica to The Song of Dermot and the Earl to reconsider the pre-Viking,

Viking and Norman genesis of centres like Waterford, Cork, and Dublin. 16

Archaeological research, especially that by Orser in the context of Co.

Roscommon, has also begun to contribute to our understanding of the material

culture of pre-famine clachan settlements, while industrial archaeology has

added immeasurably to our understanding of the development of the

eighteenth and nineteenth century city. 17

A similar interdisciplinarity, this time between history and geography, is

evident in recent research into settlement patterns over time. Geographers’

and historian’s exploration of the history of the names of fields, townlands and

streets has facilitated the tandem tracing of socio-economic and

landscape/streetscape change from the seventeenth to the nineteenth

century. 18 Similarly, history and geography combined have helped to trace the

ebb and flow of settlement from the seventeenth century onwards, not only in

the more intensively planted Ulster region, but through the island generally. 19

Smyth’s examination of ‘property, patronage and population’ in mid-

seventeenth century Tipperary traces the long-term effects of the Cromwellian

conquest and the growth of a new landowning elite, while O’Dowd’s study of

Sligo in the same period reveals the complexities of Gaelic society, the

progress of settlement in an area outside the main locus of government-

sponsored plantation, and the effects of such plantation on the subsequent

character of the county. 20 The nature of plantation and its effects are

analysed in David Dickson’s monumental work on Cork as ‘Old World Colony’

which, like Jacqueline Hill’s study of Dublin Protestantism, reaches forward

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Local History

into the early nineteenth century to trace the undermining of ‘ascendancy’ and

the parallel acceleration of social and demographic research which would

have been impossible without the local and regional focus, again owes much

to the geographers who by mapping population clusters and surname

distribution, tracing the rise and decline of high- and medium-status families,

and examining the distribution and shape of villages and the nature of

parochial structures, have traced patterns of population expansion and

contraction, land reclamation and abandonment over a span of some four

centuries. 21 Parallel to this, historical and anthropological researches into the

means of production, such as Bell’s study of farming methods in nineteenth

century County Derry and Cohen’s examination of linen production in Down,

allow the examination of contemporary social gradations and entrepreneurial

attitudes through the lens of ‘improved’ and ‘traditional’ farming. 22

Fundamental to place-centred research is an ever-growing awareness of

the centrality of mapping – no surprise to geographers, admittedly, but

underplayed by most Irish historians before the 1980s. This stress on the

spatial aspect of local history, epitomised in the ongoing Irish Historic Towns

Atlas project 23, has resulted in the emergence of two types of map-related

research over the past two decades: (1) studies identifying and discussing

contemporary motives for surveying and mapping and (2) those using maps as

the primary lens through which to examine local and regional developments.

J. H. Andrew’s study of map-making in Wexford, for instance, highlights the

role of the 1798 rebellion as a major incentive to mapping, while Patrick

Power’s examination of Wicklow maps in the early modern period throws light

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 Maura Cronin

not only on the development of surveying, but also on parallel changes in both

the landscape and in the complex political structures of the time. 24 Two

invaluable map-centred works examining both rural an Durban evolution over

time have been published in the recent past. The Atlas of the Irish Rural

Landscape,(1997) though not a local study, uses local and regional case

studies to explore issues of settlement, production and communication, while

the Atlas of Cork City (2006) takes a more deliberately local vantage point. 25

Perhaps the most assiduous recent use (and deconstruction) of maps in

researching local socio-economic change is by Jacinta Prunty, whose Dublin

Slums 1800-1925 (1998) discusses and maps living conditions, industrial

location and the relationship between property valuation and social position. 26

Other studies fit, like Prunty’s, into the rapidly developing area of Irish urban

history. Particularly revealing are Clarkson’s examination of late eighteenth

century Armagh and King’s study of Carlow in its transition from manor to town

over the course of the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. 27

Anngret Simms’ Irish Country Towns and More Irish Country Towns (1995)

and Howard Hughes’ Irish Cities, by bringing together studies on thirty-seven

individual urban centres ranging in size from Downpatrick to Dublin, and from

Carrickmacross to Cork, have provided both an overview of, and an agenda

for Irish urban history. 28 Originally broadcast in the Thomas Davis Lectures on

Radio Teilifís Eireann between 1991 and 1995, these particularly accessible

urban studies explore not only the spatial and socio-economic development of

the centres in question, but also the more elusive matter of the local character

and sense of place.

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Local History

The precise delineation of ‘place’ remains the primary question facing

every potential researcher in the field of local history. The administrative unit of

the county, so beloved of the earlier antiquarians, still continues to provide a

vital focus for local studies. Now, however, its study moves far beyond the

recording-listing function to that of re-assessing the grand narrative. Dickson’s

work on Cork and O’Dowd’s on Sligo, for instance, explore not only the forces

defining ‘region’, but also the nature and impact of colonisation and settlement

over a broader geographical canvas, while Jordan’s Land and Popular Politics

in Ireland (1994) traces the economic transition from subsistence to agrarian

capitalism from the vantage point of County Mayo, discussing the varieties of

economic region and experience initially masked by arbitrary county divisions

– a theme also captured in the aptly named Various country: essays in Mayo

history (1987) edited by Gillespie and Moran. 29 The county-centred study has

also contributed hugely to our understanding of the background to, and

dynamics of, nationalist politics and militancy in the period 1910-1923,

beginning with David Fitzpatrick’s ground-breaking study of Clare, and now

extending to the various, yet linked, experiences of the War of Independence

in several parts of the island, especially Tipperary, Cork, Derry and

Longford. 30 While taking the county as their primary focus, these works

continue, like those centred on earlier land-related themes, to highlight the

varieties of experience within each county, Derry’s nationalism, for instance,

being more radical in the city and the eastern portion of the county than in the

more westerly areas. 31 The History and Society series, too, stresses the

parallel cohesion and diversity within counties by combining the county focus

with that on smaller spatial units, each of the sixteen county volumes so far

9
 Maura Cronin

published comprising a number of thematic chapters which together build up

not only a profile of the dynamics of long-term economic, cultural and social

change but also stress the combined cohesion and diversity of county

experience.

The smaller spatial units upon which the more recent studies are

focussed range downwards in size from the Poor Law Union to the townland.

The Poor Law Union, in existence since the late 1830s and early 1840s, was

an important public administrative unit over a span of more than eighty years,

and the survival of impressive (if incomplete) runs of minute books and

registers ensures that the unions provide a useful lens through which to study

the regional experience. 32 Landed estates, too, for which a variety of records

survive in both private hands and in public repositories, have provided a focus

for the historian of local social and community networks. Donnelly’s seminal

study of Cork landed estates has been followed by another on the Kerry

Kenmare estates, by Lyne’s examination of the Lansdowne Estate in the same

county, and by Connell’s examination of agrarian changes in Meath in the

century preceding the famine. 33 Similarly, the diocese and parish – widely

used as the unit of investigation by clerical local historians in the nineteenth

century – still provide a useful focus, while at micro-level, village and townland

open windows into the locale. 34 Though the townland (the smallest territorial

division in the Irish context) can prove difficult to research, lying as it does

beyond the reach of many sources, it has been successfully unearthed by the

interdisciplinary approach, with the emphasis not only on topography and

archaeology, but also, like Scally’s work on the county Roscommon townland

10
Local History

of Ballykilcline and Carr’s study of Portavo in county Down, on tracing the

inward and outward movement of influences and families over time. 35 Villages

too, have proved a useful keyhole into the broader society: the last ten years

have seen published O’Flanagan’s work on Co. Cork villages, those by Hunt

on the Co. Waterford industrial village of Portlaw and Lawlor on Dunlavin, and

two collections of seminal essays exploring individual villages shaped by

forces ranging from topography and monastic and manorial settlement, to the

economics of fairs, markets and fishing. 36 The parish, too, as ‘a place of

neighbours, kin, marriage alliances and community solidarity’, has provided a

useful lens through which to view the dynamics of local communities. 37 Work

on Catholic parishes in Counties Dublin, Longford and Leitrim considers the

interlinked issues of religious observance, parish loyalty and attitudes to

economic change, while Eoin Devereux’s piece on ‘negotiating community’ in

the Limerick urban parish of St. Mary’s explores the role of local development

groups and parish-based activists in the later twentieth century. 38 Moffit’s and

Crawford’s studies of Church of Ireland Parishes in Connaught and Dublin

respectively explore the experience of communities within broader

communities – a theme also explored at city and county level by D’Alton in

relation to Cork and Tunney in reference to Donegal. 39

This focus on the local experience has also enabled a deeper exploration

of the issue of place beyond place – i.e. the complex interdependence

between family and locality on the one hand, and Ireland abroad on the other.

Studies by Edward T. McCarron and John Mannion on prosperous Offaly and

Wexford farming and milling families’ move to New England and

11
 Maura Cronin

Newfoundland in the eighteenth century explore their relations with their peers

at home, their marriage-cemented status, and their upward thrust in

economically liberating but politically constrained colonial societies. 40 Further

down the social scale, and echoing David Fitzpatrick’s Oceans of Consolation

(1994) in a more local context, O’Mahony and Thompson’s appropriately

named Poverty to Promise (1994) documents the experiences and emotions

of the assisted emigrants from the county Limerick Monteagle estate in the

immediate pre- and post-famine years. 41

It is at micro-level that the examination of the mechanisms of social and

economic control can best be carried out, and the internal competition for

power within local communities informs several recent studies, challenging

any simplistic view of individual or group power as entirely dependent on, or

proportionate to, social status. As indicated by several such studies from as far

apart as Waterford and Monaghan, landlords were not always in control, nor

were tenants without power. While improving landlords had a major role in

shaping the local landscape and economy through house-building, hedge

planting and clearing stones from fields, absentee landlords lost out on the

chance to improve and modernise their estates. In the proprietor’s absence,

consolidation and the elimination of the prevailing clachan and rundale system

were prevented, or at least inordinately delayed, as tenants seized ‘control of

the landscape’. 42 Local studies also enable the tracing of a social hierarchy

stretching from the strong farmer down to the labourer, Burtchael and Stout

making particularly astute use of Griffith’s Valuation to confirm the occupancy

of prime land and site by the strongest farmers, with smaller holders and

12
Local History

cottiers relegated to the margins. 43 Status exploration at local level has also

been painstakingly and convincingly analysed over the past two decades by

the work of anthropologists. Gulliver and Silverman’s studies on the

Thomastown neighbourhood of Co. Kilkenny, spanning a century and a half,

explore the complex issues of respectability and status through the lens of the

local labouring and shopkeeping classes, while Cohen’s work on the linen-

producing County Down parish of Tullylish casts much light on the varieties of

class formation, paternalism, neighbourliness, interdependence and gender

over a two-century span. 44

The study of powerful families and prominent individuals, part of local

history since the eighteenth century, maintains its attraction into the twenty-

first century. However, while the celebratory and adulatory emphasis

continues to dominate popular history, more serious studies effectively use the

family or individual focus to open a window on the local and wider society. 45

Land ownership and lordship changes – some sweeping, some faltering –

continue to be examined most effectively through the varied experiences of

powerful regional septs and families in Gaelic and Norman Ireland, as locally

based power was challenged first by ambitious families who set their sights on

a more centralised power, and later by the evolving administrative apparatus

accompanying Plantagenet and Tudor state building. 46

Centenaries and anniversaries have contributed their fair share of local

studies, the best of which have prompted a re-examination of wider issues.

The 1798 rebellion, itself generated by an uneasy mixture of national and

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international forces confused by local rivalries, prompted in its bicentenary

year a multiplicity of regional studies re-examining inter-generational political

transmission and the complexity of regional economic networks. A number of

these works concentrated on families or individuals involved in the disturbed

events of the 1790s, exploring the complexities of personal, family and

regional loyalties, particularly in Wexford and Wicklow. 47 The 150th

anniversary of the famine, too, produced its own crop of local studies revisiting

the nature of poverty and the difficulties experienced by both state and local

elite in dealing with the crisis, while the centenary of a very different event –

the 1899 reform of Irish local government – gave rise to a number of local

studies prompting a re-assessment of both political developments on the

threshold of the twentieth century and the evolution of Irish democracy. 48

Some of the most useful individual local histories of the past two decades

have centred on landlords in the context of their estates and wider society, an

area of research which will be greatly helped in the future by NUI Maynooth’s

setting up of the Database of Irish Country Houses and their Related Estates.

The study of the estate, its locale and its impact in the future will be helped

greatly. Robert French of Monivea, Ulick John de Burgh of Portumna, and

John Hamilton of Donegal are among those whose careers highlight the

dilemmas facing Irish landed proprietors in their role as brokers between

locality and metropolis, caught between the conflicting motives of

humanitarianism and economic survival in the eighteenth and nineteenth

century. 49 The complex relationships between landlord family, servants,

tenantry and community in a later period are confronted in Terence Dooley’s

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Local History

study of the ‘big house’ (concentrating largely on the Leslie estate in Co.

Monaghan) and that by Purdue on the MacGeough Bonds of Co. Armagh,

both teasing out the interwoven strands of deference, affection, paternalism

and resentment and the passing in the early twentieth century of a whole world

which had once seemed immutable. 50

Place-centred studies concentrating on individual businessmen and public

figures have also facilitated the exploration of the urban social and political

milieu. An analysis of the career of Thomas Synnott, a forgotten but significant

representative of Dublin’s emerging shopocracy in the 1840s, throws

considerable light on the civic, philanthropic and professional role of the

upwardly mobile Catholic middle class in an age of ferment, while further down

the social scale, the world of Cork city radicalism in a slightly earlier period has

been explored through the public life of Thomas Sheehan, newspaper editor

and political activist. 51 From a somewhat different but no less revealing

vantage point, Irish middle class social and intellectual life has been unveiled

in Nuala McAllister’s examination of music in nineteenth century Londonderry,

raising questions for further studies on leisure, status and the overlapping of

the public and private spheres. 52 Studies on individual singers and regional

musical styles outside the urban setting have also raised questions of local

cultural identity, Dáibhí Ó Cróinín’s study of Elizabeth Cronin and her songs

throwing light not only on musical issues, but also on local norms of humour,

status and hospitality. 53 On the politico-religious front, studies of individual

churchmen in their local-cum-national context have opened up the area of

ecclesiastical politics, McGrath’s study of James Doyle (the redoubtable

15
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J.K.L.), Bolster’s examination of William Delany of Cork, and Bane’s work on

John McEvilly of Galway all explore the higher ranks of the Irish Catholic

Church at diocesan and national levels, while the more populist aspects of

religion are discussed in regionally-based studies on Catholic pilgrimage and

Presbyterian revivalism. 54

The evolving ascendancy of the strong farmer in late nineteenth century

Ireland has attracted growing attention among researchers, and a number of

recent family-centred local studies focussing on the farming class have

contributed to our understanding not only of particular regions, but of broader

developments over time. Margaret Urwin’s research into the O’Hanlon-

Walshes discusses not only one Wexford family’s leading role in late

nineteenth century land agitation, but also touches on the issue of women as

agitators and the combined role of the priest as popular leader and as

representative of strong farming society. The private face of status building in

a similar farming milieu is explored in Rosaleen Fallon’s County Roscommon

Wedding 1892, (2004) which gives rare insights into a family’s marriage-

cemented attempts to ensure consolidation, prosperity and status for the next

generation. 55 Further down the social scale Kevin O’Neill’s invaluable

Killeshandra study reconstructs family and household structures in South

Cavan, raising questions regarding status, dependence and patronage. Based

on an in-depth analysis of the family census forms of 1841 – the only such set

to have survived intact in the Four Courts fire of 1922 – this study focuses on

population (both in its size and its socio-economic profile) as product and

shaper of place. The relevance of the study extends far beyond Killeshandra,

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Local History

raising questions regarding pre-famine society by challenging the picture of an

uncontrolled demographic explosion among the labouring classes, and

supporting the view of the precedence of market- over consumption-driven

forces in the pre-1840s economy. 56

Identification and analysis of power networks is one of the primary quests

of local history, particularly feasible in the area of public administration at local

level. The complexity of such networks is amply illustrated in Windrum’s

analysis of prison reform in County Down from the late eighteenth to the early

twentieth century. 57 Similarly, exploration of the experiences of different Poor

Law Unions has facilitated a reassessment of not only local living conditions

and the administration of poor relief, particularly in times of crisis, but also the

interweaving of politico-denominational with welfare issues, as well as the

complex relationships between relief recipients, local elite and central

authorities. 58 Such contact and conflict between the regional and the central

have also been successfully explored in several studies of events that, at first

sight, appeared purely local in their impact. Tensions between community

values and beliefs on the one hand and the apparatus of the modern state on

the other underlie Angela Bourke’s study of the burning of Bridget Cleary in

South Tipperary in 1895, an incident sparked off by a combination of inter-

personal tensions and a common, if imprecise, belief in fairies. Similarly, the

murder of Connor Boyle in North-West Donegal in 1898 explores the intrusion

of the state apparatus into a small remote community whose Gaelic culture

was in retreat. 59 Nor are such studies of central-peripheral conflict confined to

the nineteenth century: more recent conflicts such as that concerning the

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status of Magee College in Derry have opened the way for further exploration

of how faulty communication between central powers, civil service and locality

can complicate already smouldering political and sectional rivalries in a divided

society. 60

Conclusion

Irish local historical research has changed considerably since the Physio-

Historical society set about investigating the past-shaped situation of Irish

counties in the late eighteenth century, and since the committed antiquarians

of the nineteenth century framed their county studies to fit the grand narrative

of history. The break with these founding fathers is not, of course, total. The

county still remains a primary focus for local historians in the early twenty-first

century, but the focus stresses ‘micro’ rather than ‘macro’, and the

concentration is less on prominent individuals and families than on those (of

both high and low status) who provide a historical lens through which the

community’s past can be examined. The contribution of Irish universities,

publishers and local historical societies to this maturing of Irish local historical

study is considerable, and pride of place must surely go to NUI Maynooth, the

Institute of Irish Studies and Geography Publications, not only in terms of

published research, but in relation to the production of research guides

compiled by experts in the field, which point the way forward for both

seasoned and apprentice researchers. 61

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One suggested way forward, building on all that has been researched and

written since the 1970s, involves a more in-depth exploration of the elusive

nature of local identity which, despite its tangibility, has been given only

cursory attention up to now. There can be no doubting the role of the county

as a prime shaper of regional identity, as borne out by the avowed objectives

of historical societies, the names of local heritage groups, and the incidental

comments of academic historians. 62 While the county’s vital role as identity

shaper is generally attributed to the influence of the Gaelic Athletic Association

from the 1880s onwards, there is some evidence, well worth further

investigation, that county-centred loyalties stretch back at least as far as the

1830s when O’Connell’s public speeches took care to play on the perceived

superiority of his audience’s native county. 63 And what of that parish and

locality identity which has generated shelves full of popular histories of

sporting clubs, musical bands and – in one region, at least – Orange lodges? 64

Local identity within the urban setting has been subjected to more analysis,

and identifying labels (partly stereotypical, partly well-grounded) have changed

very little over time. A pre-famine visitor described Cork character as ‘rather

sharp. They like to make themselves merry at other people’s expense… and

are merciless in the use of their keen but cutting sarcasms.’65 A century and a

half later, John A. Murphy noted much the same qualities in Corkonians: ‘cute

(in the Irish rather than the American usage) if not wily and cunning,

opinionated, self-satisfied and self-confident, sometimes to the point of hubris’,

even their county brothers being excluded from ‘the plenitude of Corkiness, so

19
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to speak, being merely “Kerrymen with shoes”, to quote a contemporary Cork

comedian.’ 66

Researchers and writers outside the ranks of the historians have also

contributed to the discussion on identity. A number of largely literary

anthologies representing the principal urban centres have appeared since the

early 1990s, all evoking landmarks, events, characters and attitudes capturing

the essential ‘character’ of place. 67 The celebration of local identity has also

taken the form of a multiplicity of personal memoirs, some literary, some

popular, on life in Dublin, Cork, and Limerick. The most well-known, the

controversial Angela’s Ashes, centred on Limerick City in the 1930s, provoked

reactions underlining just how alive passions are, even in the early twenty-first

century, regarding the portrayal and reputation of localities. 68 Oral testimony,

too, now used increasingly in local studies, deserves more considered

analysis. Flynn’s groundbreaking study on Dundalk, combining oral and

documentary evidence, has paved the way for similar work, including

McGrath’s study of social life and identity in the Limerick City parish of St.

Mary’s in the early twentieth century, while Grace’s work on a Tipperary parish

is an exemplar of accessible historical scholarship, combining exhaustive

documentary evidence with local knowledge and personal memory. 69

Similar attention might be given to the local sense of community generated on

those landed estates whose world ended sometime between the two world

wars, and the combined fragility and solidity of whose identity is expressed in

two separate but related anecdotes. The first, noted by Dooley in his Decline

of the Big House, (2001) sums up the bewilderment of the ‘big house’

20
Local History

occupants who, following the burning of the house, found all the doors in the

village closed to them: ‘No one would take us in. I knew every one of them,

their fathers and mothers, their grandparents, all their children, and I thought

they were my friends’. 70 The second anecdote centres on the recent

experience of an undergraduate student who wished to interview an elderly

friend who had worked as head stable hand in a South Leinster ‘big house’.

The friend was very willing to be interviewed on his memories of working on

the estate, but as the interviewer got his recorder ready, his potential

interviewee faltered, then baulked. ‘I can’t bring myself to do it’, he said, ‘I

can’t let them down. It wouldn’t be right’. His personal loyalties to his former

employer and the world he represented were too strong to discuss with an

outsider – a tenacious, yet seldom recognised, sense of local identity which

has transcended the changes wrought by time. 71

Notes:

1
Lawrence J. Taylor, Easton, Pennsylvania, in lecture at University College,

Cork, 3 July 1992; Raymond Gillespie and Myrtle Hill (eds.), Doing Local

History, Pursuit and Practice (Belfast, Institute of Irish Studies, Queen’s

University, 1998), p. 16.

2
Eoin Magennis, ‘“A land of milk and honey”, the Physico-Historical Society,

improvement and the surveys of mid-eighteenth-century Ireland’, Proceedings

of the Royal Irish Academy 102C (6) 2002, p. 199-217.

3
Walter Harris, The ancient and present state of the county of Down (Dublin,

1744); Charles Smith, The ancient and present state of the county of Cork

(Dublin, 1750), The ancient and present state of the county and city of

21
 Maura Cronin

Waterford (Dublin, 1746), The ancient and present state of the county of Kerry

(Dublin, 1756).
4
‘Printing at Trim’, Irish Book Lover 1, 77; vi, p. 103; Thomas Shannon,

Antiquities and Scenery of the County Kilkenny (Kilkenny, Robertson, 1851);

Revd William Healy, History and Antiquities of Kilkenny (Kilkenny, Egan,

1893); George Griffiths, Chronicles of the County Wexford, being a record of

memorable incidents, disasters, social occurrences and crimes, also

biographies of eminent persons, brought down to the year 1877 (Enniscorthy,

Watchman Office, 1878); Revd James O’Dowd, Round about the County of

Limerick (Limerick, McKern, 1896), Irish Book Lover vi, 194-195; xxi, p.31.
5
Linenhall Library Belfast, on-line catalogue, March 2004, 313124; Irish Book

Lover xviii, p. 25; Transactions of the Ossory Archaeological Society (Kilkenny,

Journal Office, 1879); Journal of the Waterford and South East of Ireland

Archaeological Society (Waterford, Harvey, 1894), Journal of the Cork

Historical and Archaeological Society (Cork, Guy, 1895). The Cork publication

first appeared in 1892, but was discontinued briefly and resumed publication in

1895.
6
Maurice Lenihan, Limerick, its history and antiquities, ecclesiastical, civil and

military (Dublin, Hodges and Smith, 1866); Rev. C. B. Gibson, The History of

the County and City of Cork, 2 Vols. (London, Thomas Newby, 1861); Michael

Comerford, Collection relating to the diocese of Kildare and Leighlin (Dublin, J.

Duffy, 1886); John Davis Whyte, History of the Family of White (Cashel,

Whyte, 1887); Cashel of the Kings (Clonmel, Chronicle Office,1863; Cashel,

Whyte, 1866); Guide to the Rock of Cashel (Cashel, Whyte, 1877, 1888);

Revd James O’Dowd, Limerick and its Sieges (Limerick, McKern, 1890);

22
Local History

7
Gibson, History of Cork, Vol. 1, p. v, vii-viii; Lenihan, Limerick, p. 396-397, p.

481-482.
8
Rev. John Begley, The Diocese of Limerick (3 Vols.) (Dublin, Browne and

Nolan, 1906, 1927, 1938).

9
Federation of Local History Societies, http,//homepage.eircom.net/~localhist

17 October 2005. Other historical societies founded in this period were the

Ormond Historical Society (1977)

10
http,//homepage.eircom.net/~historycollective/projectoffice.html, 17 October

2005.
11
The pioneering work of John Andrews in archival map research was

particularly influential. See Kevin Whelan, ‘Beyond a paper landscape, John

Andrews and Irish historical geography’ in F. A. A. Aalen and Kevin Whelan

(eds.) Dublin City and County, from Prehistory to Present (Dublin, Geography

Publications, 1992), p. 181-228.

12
Mary Daly, Dublin, the deposed capital (Cork, Cork University Press, 1984);

Maura Murphy, Repeal and Young Ireland in Cork City and County

(unpublished M.A. thesis, University College Cork, 1975); James S. Donnelly

Jr, The Land and People of Nineteenth Century Cork (London, Routledge and

Kegan Paul, 1975)

13
Kevin Whelan, Wexford, History and Society (Dublin, Geography

Publications, 1992), p. v.
14
The History Department and the Department of Adult and Continuing

Education, University College Cork, and the Department of Modern History,

National University of Ireland Maynooth, offer certificate and primary degree

courses as well as taught and research higher degrees in local history and

23
 Maura Cronin

regional studies. The University of Limerick and Mary Immaculate College

Limerick run a joint taught MA course and supervise research towards higher

degrees in local history.

15
Frank Mitchell and Michael Ryan, Reading the Irish Landscape (Dublin,

Townhouse, 2001, first published 1986.

16
Finbar McCormick, ‘Early secular settlement in County Fermanagh’ in E. E.

Murphy and w. J. roulston, Fermanagh, History and Society (Dublin,

Geography Publications), p 57-75; ‘Economic and agricultural change in Early

Medieval Ireland’, paper delivered at the Economic and Social History Society

of Ireland Annual Conference, 11 November 2005; Michael Moore and Peter

Woodman, ‘The Prehistory of County Waterford’; Maurice Hurley, ‘Late Viking

Age Settlement in Waterford City’; John Bradley and Andrew Halpin, ‘The

topographical Development of Scandinavian and Anglo-Norman Waterford

City’ in William Nolan and Thomas P. Power, Waterford, History and Society

(Dublin, Geography Publications, 19920, p. 1-26, 49-72, p. 105-130; John

Bradley and Andrew Halpin, ‘The topographical Development of Scandinavian

and Anglo-Norman Cork’, in Patrick O’Flanagan and Cornelius Buttimer, Cork,

History and Society (Dublin, Geography Publications, 1994), p. 15-44; John

Bradley, ‘The Topographical Development of Scandinavian Dublin’ in Aalen

and Whelan, Dublin City and County, p. 43-56.

17
Colin Rynne, The Archaeology of Cork City from the Earliest Times to

Industrialisation (Cork, Collins Press, 1993); John Crowley, Robert Devoy,

Denis Linehan, Patrick O’Flanagan and Michael Murphy, Atlas of Cork City

(Cork, Cork University Press, 2005).

24
Local History

18
Patrick O’Flanagan and S. Ó Catháin The Living Landscape, Kilgalligan, Co.

Mayo (Dublin, Comhairle Béaloideas Éireann,1975); T. Jones Hugues, ‘Town

and Baile in Irish placenames’ in Nicholas Stephens and Robert

Glascock(eds) Irish Geographical Studies (Belfast, Queen’s University,1970),

p. 244-258; F. H. A. Aalen, Kevin Whelan and Matthew Stout (eds) Atlas of the

Irish Rural Landscape (Cork, Cork University Press, 1997). Maura Cronin,

‘From the “flat o’ the city” to the top of the hill’, Cork since 1700’ in Howard

Clarke (ed.) Irish Cities (Cork, Mercier, 1995) p. 55-68.

19
Robert J. Hunter, ‘The Plantation in Donegal’, in William Nolan, Liam

Ronayne, Mairéad Dunleavy (eds.), Donegal, History and Society (Dublin,

Geography Publications, 1995), p 283-324; Monica Brennan, ‘The Changing

Composition of Kilkenny’s Landowners’, in William Nolan and Kevin Whelan

(eds.) Kilkenny, History and Society (Dublin, Geography Publications, 1990),

p. 161-197.
20
Mary O’Dowd, Power, Politics and Land, Early Modern Sligo 1568-1688

(Belfast, Institute of Irish Studies Queen’s University, 1991)

21
Jack Burtchaell, ‘A Typology of Settlement and Society in County Waterford

c. 1850’ in Nolan and Power, Waterford, History and Society, p 541-578;

William Nolan, ‘Patterns of Living in Tipperary 1750-1850’; T. Hughes Jones,

‘Landholding and Settlement in County Tipperary in the nineteenth century’ in

William Nolan and Thomas G. McGrath, Tipperary, History and Society

(Dublin, Geography Publications, 1985), p. 288-325, p. 339-367; O’Flanagan,

Patrick, ‘Three Hundred Years of Urban Life, Villages and Towns in county

Cork. C. 1600-1901’ in O’Flanagan and Buttimer, Cork, History and Society, p

25
 Maura Cronin

391-468; William Nolan, ‘Society and Settlement in the Valley of Glenasmole

c. 1750-1950’ in Allen and Whelan (eds.), Dublin City and County, p 181-228.
22
Jonathon Bell, ‘Changing Farming Methods in County Derry’ in Gerard

O’Brien (ed.), Derry and Londonderry, History and Society (Dublin, Geography

Publications, 1999), p. 405-414; Marilyn Cohen, Linen, Family and Community

in Tullylish, Co. Down 1690-1941 (Dublin, Four Courts, 1997).

23
Anngret Simms, H. B. Clarke, Raymond Gillespie, J. H. Andrews, Sarah

Grearty (eds.) Irish Historic Towns Atlas (Dublin, Royal Irish Academy, 1981-)

This project, part of the wider European scheme of the European Atlases of

Historic Towns, was established in 1981, with the aim of recording the

topographical development of a selection of Irish towns. Fourteen atlases

have been published by 2005, and a number of others are under

consideration.
24
John Andrews, ‘Landmarks in early Wexford cartography’ in Whelan,

Wexford, History and Society (Dublin, Geography Publications, 1992), p 447-

466; Patrick Power, ‘A Survey, some Wicklow maps 1500-1800’ in Ken

Hannigan and William Nolan (eds.) Wicklow, History and Society (Dublin,

Geography Publications, 1994), p. 723-760.

25
Aalen, Whelan and Stout, Atlas of the Irish Rural Landscape; (Cork, Cork

University Press, 1997); Crowley, Devoy et al., Atlas of Cork City.(Cork, Cork

University Press, 2006).

26
Jacinta Prunty Dublin Slums 1800-1925, A Study in Urban Geography

(Dublin, Four Courts Press, 1997)

27
Leslie Clarkson, ‘Portrait of an urban community, Armagh 1770’ in David

Harkness and mary O’Dowd (eds.) The town in Ireland, Historical Studies, xiii

26
Local History

(Belfast, Appletree Press, 1981), p. 81-102; Leslie Clarkson, ‘Doing local

history, Armagh in the late eighteenth century’ in Gillespie and Hill, Doing Irish

Local History, p 81-96; Bob King, Carlow, the Manor and Town, Maynooth

Studies in Local History (Dublin, Irish Academic Press, 1997).

28
Anngret Simms, Irish Country Towns (Cork, Mercier, 1994); More Irish

Country Towns (Cork, Mercier, 1995); Howard Hughes, Irish Cities (Cork,

Mercier, 1995).
29
David Dickson, Old World Colony; Mary O’Dowd, Power, Politics and Land;

Donald Jordan, Jr, Land and Popular Politics in Ireland, County Mayo from the

Plantation to the Land War (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1994);

Raymond Gillespie and Gerard Moran (eds.) A Various County, Essays in

Mayo History1500-1900 (Westport, Foilseacháin Nisiunta Teo Mayo, 1987).

30
David Fitzpatrick, Politics and Irish life, 1913-1921, provincial experience of

war and revolution (Dublin, Irish Academic Press, 1996); Joost Augusteijn,

From public defiance to guerrilla warfare, the experience of ordinary

volunteers (Dublin, Irish Academic Press, 1006); Peter Hart, The IRA and its

enemies, violence and community in Cork 1916-1923 (Oxford, Clarendon,

1998); Maria Coleman, County Longford and the Irish revolution, 1910-1923

(Dublin, Irish Academic Press, 2003)

31
Ronan Gallagher, Violence and nationalist politics in Derry city, 1920-1923

Maynooth Studies in Local History (Dublin, Four Courts Press, 2003); Joost

Auguusteijn, ‘Radical and nationalist activities in County Derry 1900-1921’ in

O’Brien (ed.) Derry and Londonderry, History and Society, p. 573-600.

32
James Grant, ‘The Great Famine in County Down’ in Leslie Proudfoot (ed.)

Down, History and Society (Dublin, Geography Publications, 1997), p 353-382;

27
 Maura Cronin

Eva O Catháin, ‘The Poor Law in County Wicklow’, in Hannigan and Whelan

(ed.) Wicklow, History and Society, p. 503-580.

33
Donnelly, Land and People of Nineteenth Century Cork; ‘The Kenmare

Estates during the nineteenth century’ in Kerry Historical and Archaeological

Journal no. 21, 1988, p. 1-41; 22, 1989, p. 96-7; 23, 1990, p. 5-43; Gerard J.

Lyne, The Lansdowne Estate in Kerry under the agency of William Steuart

Trench 1849-72 (Dublin, Geography Publications, 2001); Peter Connell, The

land and people of County Meath, 1750-1850 (Dublin, Four Courts Press,

2004).
34
Donal McCartney, ‘Canon O’Hanlon, Historian of the Queen’s County’ in

Timothy P. O’Neill and William Nolan (eds.), Offaly, History and Society

(Dublin, Geography Publications, 1998), pp…; Henry A Jeffrries and Ciarán

Devlin (eds.) History of the Diocese of Derry from earliest times (Dublin, Four

Courts Press, 2000); James Kelly and Dáire Keogh, History of the Catholic

Diocese of Dublin (Dublin, Four Courts Press, 2000).

35
Gabriel O’Connor, ‘Clonfush, county Galway, a self-contained townland

adjacent to the town of Tuam’ in Brian Ó Dálaigh, D. A. Cronin, and P. Connell

(eds.) Irish Townlands (Dublin, Four Courts Press, 1998), Peter Carr, Portavo,

an Irish townland and its peoples, Earliest times to 1844 (Belfast, White Row

Press, 2003).
36
Patrick O’Flanagan, ‘Three Hundred Years of Urban Life, Villages and

Towns in County Cork, c. 1600-1901’ in Flanagan and Buttimer, Cork, History

and Society, p. 391-469; Karina Holton, Liam Clare and Brian Ó Dálaigh (eds.)

Irish Villages, Studies in Local History (Dublin, Four Courts Press, 2004); D. A.

Cronin, J. Gilligan and K. Holton, Irish Fairs and Markets (Dublin, Four Courts

28
Local History

Press, 2001); Tom Hunt, Portlaw, County Waterford 1825-76, portrait of an

industrial village Maynooth Studies in Local History (Dublin, Irish Academic

Press, 2000); Chris Lawlor, Canon Frederick Donovan’s Dunlavin 1884-1896

Maynooth Studies in Local History (Dublin, Irish Academic Press, 2000).

37
P. J. Duffy, ‘Locality and Changing Landscape, Geography and local history’

in Gillespie and Hill, Doing Irish Local History, p. 34.

38
Elizabeth Cronin, Fr Michael Dungan’s Blanchardstown 1836-1868

Maynooth Studies in Local History (Dublin, Four Courts, 2002); Francis Kelly,

St. Mary’s Parish, Granard, Co. Longford 1933-68 Maynooth Studies in Local

History (Dublin, Irish Academic Press, 1996); Liam Kelly, Kiltubrid. County

Leitrim, Snapshots of a parish in the 1890s Maynooth Studies in Local History

(Dublin, Four Courts, 2005); Eoin Devereux, ‘Negotiating Community, the case

of a Limerick community development group’ in Chris Curtin (ed.), Irish Urban

Cultures (Belfast, Institute of Irish Studies, Queen’s University, 1993).

39
John Crawford, St Catherine’s Parish, Dublin, portrait of a Church of Ireland

community Maynooth Studies in Local History (Dublin, Irish Academic Press,

1996); Miriam Moffit, The Church of Ireland community of Killala and Achonry

1870-1940 Maynooth Studies in Local History (Dublin, Irish Academic Press,

1999); Ian D’Alton, ‘Keeping Faith, an evocation of the Cork Protestant

character, 1820-1920’ in O’Flanagan and Buttimer, Cork, History and Society,

p. 755-793; John Tunney, ‘The Marquis, the Reverend. The Grand Master and

the Major, Protestant politics in Donegal 1868-1933’ in Nolan, Ronayne and

Dunleavy, Donegal, History and Society, p. 675-696.

40
Edward T. McCarron, ‘In pursuit of the “Maine” chance, the North family of

Offaly and New England 1700-76’ in O’Neill and Nolan (eds.) Offaly, History

29
 Maura Cronin

and Society, p. 332-70; John Mannion, ‘A transatlantic merchant fishery,

Richard Welsh of New Ross and the Sweetmans of Newbawn in

Newfoundland 1734-1862’, in Whelan, Wexford, History and Society, p. 373-

421. See also Cyril Byrne, ‘The Waterford Colony in Newfoundland’ in Nolan

and Power, Waterford, History and Society, p. 351-372.

41
Christopher O’Mahony and Valerie Thompson, Poverty to promise, the

Monteagle emigrants 1838-58 (Darlinghurst, New South Wales, Crossing

press, 1994); David Fitzpatrick, Oceans of Consolation (Cork, Cork University

Press, 1994).
42
Matthew Stout, ‘Historical Geography’ in Geary and Kelleher, Nineteenth

Century Ireland, a guide to recent research’, p. 91; Lindsay Proudfoot,

‘Landownership and Improvement ca. 1700 to 1845’ in Proudfoot, Down,

History and Society, p. 203-238.

43
Jack Burtchael, ‘A typology of settlement in County Waterford’, in Nolan and

Power, Waterford, History and Society, p. 541-578; Geraldine Stout,

Newgrange and the Bend of the Boyne (Cork, Cork University Press, 2002); P.

J. Duffy, Landscapes of South Ulster; a parish atlas of the diocese of Clogher

(Belfast, Institute of Irish Studies, Queen’s University, in conjunction with

Clogher Historical Society, 1993).

44
P. H. Gulliver and Marilyn Silverman, Merchants and Shopkeepers, An

historical anthropology of an Irish market town (Toronto, University of Toronto

Press, 1995); Marilyn Silverman, An Irish Working Class, explorations in

political economy and hegemony 1800-1950 (Toronto, University of Toronto

Press, 2001; Cohen, Linen, Family and Community in Tullylish..

30
Local History

45
Articles appearing in the Connaught Telegraph in the recent past include

‘Forgotten Man of History, James Daly, the Telegraph’s most famous editor’;

‘Michael Davitt, Mayo’s most famous son’; ‘Lord Frederick Cavendish,

champion of the oppressed’. http,//www.mayohistory.com/, 14 November

2005.
46
K. W. Nicholls, ‘The Development of Lordship in county Cork 1300-600’ in

O’Flanagan and Buttimer, Cork, History and Society, p. 157-212; Darren

MacEiteagáin, ‘The Renaissance Lordship of Tír Chonaill 1461-1555’ in Nolan,

Ronayne and Dunleavy, Donegal, History and Society, p. 203-228; David

Edwards, ‘The MacGiolla Padraigs of Upper Ossary 1532-1641’ in Padraig G.

Lane and William Nolan (eds.), Laois, History and Society (Dublin, Geography

Publications, 1999), p. 327-375; ‘The Lordship of O’Connor Faly 1520-1570’ in

Timothy P. O’Neill and William Nolan (eds.), Offaly, History and Society

(Dublin, Geography Publications, 1998),

47
L. M. Cullen, ‘The 1798 rebellion in Wexford, United Irishman organisation,

membership, leadership’ in Whelan, Wexford, History and Society, p 248-295;

Sean Cloney, ‘The Cloney families of county Wexford’ in Whelan, Wexford,

History and Society, p. 316-341; Conor O’Brien, ‘The Byrnes of Ballymanus’ in

Hannigan and Nolan (eds.) Wicklow, History and Society, p. 305-340; Ruan

O’Donnell, ‘The Rebellion of 1798 in County Wicklow’, in Hannigan and Nolan,

Wicklow, History and Society, p. 341-378; Thomas Bartlett, ‘“Masters of the

Mountain”, The Insurgent careers of Joseph Holt and Michael Dwyer in County

Wicklow 1798-1803’, in Hannigan and Nolan, Wicklow, History and Society, p.

379-410.

31
 Maura Cronin

48
Ciarán Ó Murchadha, Sable Wings over the Land, Ennis, County Clare and

its wider community during the Great Famine (Ennis, CLASP Press, 1998);

Daniel Grace, The great famine in Nenagh poor law union, Co. Tipperary

(Nenagh, Relay Books, 2000); Brian MacDonald, A Time of Desolation,

Clones Poor Law Union 1845-50 (Enniskillen, Clones Historical Society,

20010; James Grant, ‘The Great Famine in County Tyrone’ in Charles Dillon

and H. A. Jeffries (eds.) Tyrone, History and Society (Dublin, Geography

Publications, 2000), p. 587-615; Diarmaid Ferriter, Cuimhnigh ar Luimneach, a

history of Limerick County Council 1898-1998 (Limerick, Limerick County

Council, 1998); Edward J. Marnane, Cork County Council, the first hundred

years (Cork, Cork County Council, 1999).

49
Denis A. Cronin, A Galway gentleman in the age of improvement, Robert

French of Monivea Maynooth Studies in Local History (Dublin, Irish Academic

Press, 1995); John Joe Conwell, A Galway landlord and the Famine Maynooth

Studies in Local History (Dublin, Four Courts Press, 2003); Dermot James,

John Hamilton of Donegal 1800-1884, This Recklessly Generous Landlord

(Dublin, Woodfield Press, 1998)

50
Terence Dooley, The Decline of the Big House in Ireland. A Study of Irish

Landed Families 1860-1960 (Dublin, Woolfhound Press, 2001); Olwen

Purdue, The MacGeough Bonds of the Argory, An Ulster gentry family, 1880-

1950 Maynooth Studies in Local History (Dublin, Four Courts, 2005).

51
Bob Cullen, Thomas L. Synnott, The Career of a Dublin Catholic 1830-1870

Maynooth Studies in Local History (Dublin, Irish Academic Press, 1997);

Fintan Lane, In Search of Thomas Sheahan, Radical Politics in Cork 1824-

1836, Maynooth Studies in Local History (Dublin, Irish Academic Press, 2001)

32
Local History

52
Nuala McAllister, ‘Contradiction and diversity, the musical life of Derry in the

1830s’ in O’Brien (ed.), Derry and Londonderry, History and Society, p. 465-

495.
53
Damhnait Nic Suibhne, ‘Donegal Fiddling, the Donegal Fiddle Tradition’ and

Lillis Ó Laoire ‘An Ceol Dúchais i dTír Conaill’ in Nolan, Ronayne and

Dunleavy, Donegal, History and Society, p 758-838; Dáibhí Ó Cróinín (ed.),

The Songs of Elizabeth Cronin, Irish Traditional Singer (Dublin, Four Courts

Press, 2000).
54
Liam Bane, ‘John McEvilly and the Catholic Church in Galway, 1857-1902’

in Gerard Moran (ed.) Galway, History and Society (Dublin, Geography

Publications, 1996), p. 421-444; Thomas McGrath, Religious Renewal and

reform in the Pastoral Ministry of Bishop James Doyle of Kildare and Leighlin

1786-1834 (Dublin, Four Courts, 1999); Politics, Interdenominational Relations

and Education in the Publich ministry of Bishop James Doyle of Kildare and

Leighlin 1786-1834 (Dublin, Four Courts, 1999); Evelyn Bolster, History of the

Diocese of Cork (Ballincollig, Tower Books, 1993); James S. Donnelly, Jr,

‘Lough Derg, the making of the modern pilgrimage’ in Nolan, Ronayne and

Dunleavy, Donegal, History and Society, p. 491-508; David Hempton and

Myrtle Hill, Evangelical Protestantism in Ulster Society1740-1890 (London,

Routledge, 1992); Stewart J. Brown, ‘Presbyterian Communities, transatlantic

visions, and the Ulster Revival of 1859’ in J. P. Mackey (ed.) The Cultures of

Europe, the Irish contribution (Belfast, Institute of Irish Studies, Queen’s

University Belfast, 1994), p. 103-114.

55
Margaret Urwin, A county Wexford family in the land war, the O’Hanlon-

Walshs of Knocktartan Maynooth Studies in Local History (Dublin, Four

33
 Maura Cronin

Courts, 2002); Rosaleen Fallon, A County Roscommon 1892, the marriage of

John Hughes and Mary Gavin Maynooth Studies in Local History (Dublin,

Four Courts, 2004).

56
Kevin O’Neill, Family and Farm in Pre-Famine Ireland (Wisconsin,

University of Wisconsin Press, 1984, republished 2003).

57
Caroline Windrum, ‘The provision and practice of Prison Reform in County

Down 1745-1894’ in Proudfoot, Down, History and Society, p. 327-352.

58
Patrick Durnan, ‘Aspects of Poor Law Administration and the Workhouse in

Derry 1838-1948’ in O’Brien, Derry and Londonderry, History and Society, p.

537-573; Sinéad Collins, Balrothery Poor Law Union, County Dublin, 1839-

1851 Maynooth Studies in Local History (Dublin, Four Courts Press, 2005);

Christine Kenealy, ‘The Workhouse System in County Waterford 1838-1923’ in

Nolan and Power, Waterford, History and Society, p. 579-596.

59
Angela Bourke, The Burning of Bridget Cleary, A True Story (London,

Pimlico, 1999); Frank Sweeney, The murder of Connell Boyle, county

Donegal, 1898 Maynooth Studies in Local History (Dublin, Four Courts Press,

2002)
60
Gerard O’Brien, ‘Our Magee Problem, Stormont and the Second University’

in O’Brien, Derry and Londonderry, History and Society, p. 647-679.

61
William Nolan, Tracing the Past (Dublin, Geography Publications, 1982);

William Nolan and Anngret Simms (eds.) Irish Towns, a Guide to Sources

(Dublin, Geography Publications, 1998); Peter Collins, Pathways to Ulster’s

Past (Belfast, Institute of Irish Studies, Queen’s University, 1998); Gillespie

and Hill, Doing Irish Local History; Terence Dooley, Sources for the history of

landed estates in Ireland (Dublin, Irish Academic Press, 2000); Raymond

34
Local History

Refaussé, Church of Ireland records (Dublin, Irish Academic Press, 2000);

Patrick J. Corish and David C. Sheehy, Records of the Irish Catholic Church

(Dublin, Irish Academic Press, 2001); Philomena Connolly, Medieval record

sources (Dublin, Four Courts Press, 20020; Brian Gurrin, Pre-census sources

for Irish demography (Dublin, four Courts Press, 2002); E. Margaret Crawford,

Counting the people, a survey of the Irish censuses, 1813-1911(Dublin, Four

Courts Press, 2003); Brian Hanley, a guide to Irish military heritage, 1813-

1911 (Dublin, Four Courts Press, 2004); Jacinta Prunty, Maps and map-

making in local history (Dublin, Four Courts Press, 20050; Brian Griffin,

Sources for the study of crime in Ireland (Dublin, Four Courts Press, 2005);

Toby Barnard, A guide to the sources for Irish material culture, 1500-2000

(Dublin, Four Courts Press, 2005)

62
The objectives of the Offaly Historical Society include ‘preserving, protecting

the history of our families, workplaces and communities’

(www.offalyhistory.com/), while the combination of past- and place-centred

identity is clear in the title chosen by the West Limerick Heritage Group based

in Newcastlewest - ‘As Dúchas Dóchas’ (Out of heritage [come] hope), and

Kevin Whelan’s sense of pride in County Wexford is unashamed in his

reference to ‘my native county’ in Wexford, History and Society, p. v.

63
Maura Cronin, ‘Of One Mind’? O’Connellite Crowds in the 1830s and 1840s’

in Peter Jupp and Eoin Magennis (eds.), Crowds in Ireland c. 1720-1920

(Basingstoke, Macmillan, 2000)

64
See, for example, John O’Connor, On Shannon’s Shore, a History of

Mungret Parish (Limerick, Pubblebrien Historical Society, 2003); Jack Mahon,

For Love of Town and Village (Dublin, Blackwater Press, 1997); Cathy

35
 Maura Cronin

Birmingham, The Cork Butter Exchange Band, a living tradition (Cork, Cork

Butter Exchange Band, 1996); Richard T Cooke, Cork’s Barrack Street silver

and Reed Band, Ireland’s oldest amateur musical institution (Cork, Cork

Barrack Street Band, 19920; ‘When brethren are met in their Order so grand’,

a brief history of Orangeism and Orange Lodges in Larne District (Larne,

Larne 1996 Committee, 1995).

65
J. G. Kohl, Travels in Ireland (London, Bruce and Wyld,1844), p. 95.
66
John A. Murphy, ‘Cork, Anatomy and Essence’ in O’Flanagan and Buttimer,

Cork, History and Society, p. 3

67
Sean Dunne (ed.) The Cork Anthology (Cork, Cork University Press, 1993);

Jim Kemmy (ed.) The Limerick Anthology (Dublin, Gill and Macmillan, 1996);

Patricia Craig (ed.) The Belfast Anthology (Belfast, Blackstaff, 1999).

68
Frank McCourt, Angela’s Ashes, a Memoir (London, Harper Collins, 1996);

Other Limerick memoirs include Cristóir Ó Floinn, There is an isle (Cork,

Mercier Press, 1998); Denis O’Shaughnessy, A Spot So Fair, Tales from St.

Mary’s (Limerick, Margo Press, 1998); Patrick Galvin, Song for a Poor Boy, a

Cork Childhood (Dublin, Raven Arts, 1990).

69
Charles Flynn, Dundalk 1900-1960, an oral history, unpublished Ph.D

Thesis, National University of Ireland, Maynooth, 2000; John McGrath, Social

and Economic Identity in St Mary’s Parish, Limerick, 1890-1960 (Unpublished

M.A. thesis, Mary Immaculate College , University of Limerick, 2006); Daniel

Grace, Portrait of a Parish, Monsea and Killodernan, Co. Tipperary (Nenagh,

Relay Books, 1996); Maura Cronin’s Country, Class or Craft, the politicisation

of the skilled artisan in nineteenth century Cork (Cork, Cork University Press,

36
 Local History

1994) explores Cork artisans’ multiple identity as Irishmen, craftsmen and

Corkonians.
70
Dooley, The Decline of the Big House in Ireland, p. 256.
71
Related to me by an undergraduate history student at Mary Immaculate

College, September 2005, regarding his attempted interview in March-April

2005.

37

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