Political Economy and Colonial Ireland

Political Economy and Colonial Ireland

Author: Thomas Boylan

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2005-08-08

Total Pages: 219

ISBN-13: 1134920407

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In a bitterly divided 19th century Ireland, consensus was sought in the new discipline of political economy which claimed to transcend all divisions. This book explores the failure of that mission in the wake of the great famine of 1846-7.


Was Ireland a Colony?

Was Ireland a Colony?

Author: Terrence McDonough

Publisher:

Published: 2005

Total Pages: 384

ISBN-13:

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The nineteenth-century history of Irish economics, politics and culture cannot be properly understood without examining Ireland's colonial condition. Recent political developments and economic success have revived interest in the study of the colonial relationship between Britain and Ireland that is more nuanced than the traditional nationalist or academic revisionist view of Irish history. This new approach has arisen in several fields of historical investigation, notably culture, economics and political history.


Political Economy and Colonial Ireland

Political Economy and Colonial Ireland

Author: Thomas A. Boylan

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 1992

Total Pages: 208

ISBN-13: 9780415066280

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Through the first half of the nineteenth century there was a widespread notion that political economy was little known and not highly thought of in Ireland, and that the Irish and Roman Catholic 'character' was either 'non-economic' or 'anti-economic'. Such economic ignorance came to be seen as a major cause of Irish backwardness and social divisions. The educational system was identified as the chief non-coercive means of establishing hegemony over the Irish, with political economy playing a leading role in promoting the economically progressive virtues (seen as English and rational) of self-interest and individualism, the socially desirable objective of neutralising class antagonisms and, above all, the political objective of 'tranquillising' Ireland and assimilating it to English norms, the better to promote the integrity of Empire. In a country so spectacularly divided as Ireland ideological consensus was sought in that allegedly value-free and incontrovertible form of knowledge, political economy. But this book argues that political economy was partisan and defended the social, political and ideological status quo. The Great Famine of 1846-7 provoked an Irish outcry against political economy, and especially its constant companion laissez-faire. The validity and universality of its laws were impugned and it was subjected to unrelenting moral and political attacks. Although the establishment strenuously defended it, within ten years a moral critique of the discipline had seriously questioned its scientific status. Its basic tenets, such as individualism and self-interest, were challenged in the name of social and cooperative values and the family, rather than the individual, was seen as the basic unit of society. A political economy based on English experience and ideas was rejected and the notion was embraced that Ireland should be governed by 'Irish ideas'. This is the first history of the academic and non-academic propagation of the discipline in Ireland. It deals with the foundation and careers of university chairs, the role of the Statistical Society and the Barrington Trust, and the teaching of the subject to children in the national schools. In all of these areas the central role of Archbishop Richard Whately is emphasised.


An Irish Working Class

An Irish Working Class

Author: Marilyn Silverman

Publisher:

Published: 2001

Total Pages: 592

ISBN-13:

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In An Irish Working Class, Marilyn Silverman explores the dynamics of capitalism, colonialism, and state formation through an examination of the political economy and culture of those who contributed their labour. Stemming from the author's academic research on Ireland for over two decades, the book combines archival data, interviews, and participant observation to create a unique and intricate study of labourers' lives in Thomastown, County Kilkenny, between 1800 and 1950. Political anthropology, Gramscian approaches to hegemony, and the work of social historians on class experience all inform Silverman's perspective in this volume. Silverman explores the complex and changing consciousness, politics, and social relations of a cross-section of workers. These workers were employed in the mills, tanneries, artisanal shops, and retail outlets, and on the landed estates, farms, and public works projects which typified this highly differentiated locality. In constructing the social history of workers in a particular place over time, An Irish Working Class makes an important contribution to Irish Studies, European historical ethnography, and the anthropology of working-class life.


Ireland

Ireland

Author: Gustave de Beaumont

Publisher: Harvard University Press

Published: 2009-07-01

Total Pages: 444

ISBN-13: 0674031113

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Paralleling his friend Alexis de Tocqueville's visit to America, Gustave de Beaumont traveled through Ireland in the mid-1830s to observe its people and society. In Ireland, he chronicles the history of the Irish and offers up a national portrait on the eve of the Great Famine. Published to acclaim in France, Ireland remained in print there until 1914. The English edition, translated by William Cooke Taylor and published in 1839, was not reprinted. In a devastating critique of British policy in Ireland, Beaumont questioned why a government with such enlightened institutions tolerated such oppression. He was scathing in his depiction of the ruinous state of Ireland, noting the desperation of the Catholics, the misery of repeated famines, the unfair landlord system, and the faults of the aristocracy. It was not surprising the Irish were seen as loafers, drunks, and brutes when they had been reduced to living like beasts. Yet Beaumont held out hope that British liberal reforms could heal Ireland's wounds. This rediscovered masterpiece, in a single volume for the first time, reproduces the nineteenth-century Taylor translation and includes an introduction on Beaumont and his world. This volume also presents Beaumont's impassioned preface to the 1863 French edition in which he portrays the appalling effects of the Great Famine. A classic of nineteenth-century political and social commentary, Beaumont's singular portrait offers the compelling immediacy of an eyewitness to history.


The Oxford Handbook of Modern Irish History

The Oxford Handbook of Modern Irish History

Author: Alvin Jackson

Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA

Published: 2014-03

Total Pages: 801

ISBN-13: 0199549346

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Draws from a wide range of disciplines to bring together 36 leading scholars writing about 400 years of modern Irish history


The Economic Thought of William Petty

The Economic Thought of William Petty

Author: Hugh Goodacre

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2018-05-11

Total Pages: 256

ISBN-13: 1351167588

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William Petty (1623-1687), long recognised as a founding father of English political economy, was actively involved in the military-colonial administration of Ireland following its invasion by Oliver Cromwell, and to the end of his days continued to devise schemes for securing England’s continued domination of that country. It was in that context that he elaborated his economic ideas, which consequently reflect the world of military-bureaucratic officialdom, neo-feudalism and colonialism he served. This book shows that much of the theory and methodology in use within the economics discipline of today has its roots in the writings of Petty and his contemporaries, rather than in the supposedly universalistic and enlightened ideals of Adam Smith a century later. Many of the fundamental ideas of today’s development economics, for example, are shown to have been deployed by Petty explicitly for the purpose of furthering England’s colonialist objectives, while his pioneering writings on fiscal issues and national accounting theory were equally explicitly directed towards the raising of funds for England’s predatory colonial and commercial wars. This book argues that exploring the historical roots of economic ideas and methods in this way is an essential aspect of assessing their appropriateness and analytical power today, and that this is more relevant than ever. It will be of interest to advanced students and researchers in the history of economic thought, early modern economic history, development economics and economic geography.


The Oxford Handbook of Irish Politics

The Oxford Handbook of Irish Politics

Author: David M. Farrell

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2021

Total Pages: 793

ISBN-13: 0198823835

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Ireland has enjoyed continuous democratic government for almost a century, an unusual experience among countries that gained their independence in the 20th century. But the way this works in practice has changed dramatically over time. Ireland's colonial past had an enduring influence over political life for much of the time since independence, enabling stable institutions of democratic accountability, while also shaping a dismal record of economic under-development and persistent emigration. More recently, membership of the EU has brought about far-reaching transformation across almost all aspects of Irish life. But if anything, the paradoxes have only intensified. Now one of the most open economies in the world, Ireland has experienced both rapid growth and one of the most severe crashes in the wake of the Great Recession. On some measures Ireland is among the most affluent countries in the world, yet this is not the lived experience for many of its citizens. Ireland is an unequivocally modern state, yet public life continues to be marked by formative ideas and values in which tradition and modernity are held in often uneasy embrace. It is a small state that has ambitions to leverage its distinctive place in the Atlantic and European worlds to carry more weight on the world stage. Ireland continues to be deeply connected to Britain through ties of culture and trade, now matters of deep concern in the context of Brexit. And the old fault-lines between North and South, between Ireland and Britain, which had been at the core of one of Europe's longest and bloodiest civil conflicts, risk being reopened by Britain's new hard-edged approach to national and European identities. These key issues are teased out in the 41 chapters of this book, making this the most comprehensive volume on Irish politics to date.