Cormac Ó Gráda The Lumper Indicted Several recent contributions to pre-famine Irish economic history have drawn attention to the apparent contrast between the abject poverty of the Irish masses and their relatively high nutritional status. Poverty, they argue, was mitigated by a potato-dominated diet which, while monotonous, was adequate in terms of calories and protein. … Read more
Thomas Bartlett Irish history without a Catholic question might seem as improbable as Irish history without the potato: all Irish history, at least from 1550 onward, can be regarded as an extended comment on the Catholic question. None the less, to contemporaries, British and Irish, the term the Catholic question had a precise meaning: it … Read more
Introduction These are the terms in which a near-contemporary described the Bruces’ invasions of Ireland (1315-18). Almost every subsequent commentator has remarked upon the unexpectedness and violence of this intrusion into Irish history. Accounting for the adventure has always been difficult, and a variety of explanations have been offered. The first is that the Bruces … Read more
One the tasks of the historian is to reconstruct how people in earlier societies understood the world they lived in. Their understanding of the world determined the limits of their ambitions. Take ourselves as a starting point – artefacts which reflect our understanding of the world are everywhere. We all have some sort of world … Read more