Did the Great Irish Famine Matter?

1991 ◽  
Vol 51 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-22 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kevin O' Rourke
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Economic History ◽  
Structural Break ◽  
Labor Demand ◽  
Commodity Markets ◽  
Agricultural Labor ◽  
Price Shocks ◽  
International Commodity ◽  
Irish Famine ◽  
Great Irish Famine

This article tests the hypothesis that price shocks in international commodity markets would by themselves have led to a fall in agricultural labor demand in rural Ireland in the absence of the Famine. This hypothesis has been used by revisionist historians to argue that the Famine was not a structural break between two distinct eras in Irish economic history. In refuting the hypothesis, this article joins a more recent cliometric tradition that has sought to restore the Famine to its rightful place as a major watershed in nineteenth-century Ireland.

Youth, Generations, and Collective Action in Nineteenth-Century Ireland and Italy

2014 ◽  
Vol 56 (4) ◽  
pp. 934-966 ◽  
Author(s):  
Niall Whelehan
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Young People ◽  
Collective Action ◽  
Political Agency ◽  
Or Education ◽  
Social Unrest ◽  
Irish Famine ◽  
Great Irish Famine ◽  
Adult Status ◽  
Generational Consciousness

AbstractThis article examines concepts of youth, maturity, and generations in nineteenth-century Ireland and Italy and perceived connections between young people and political and social unrest. I demonstrate that, rather than being consistent, the involvement of younger generations in radicalism was uneven, and varied significantly with historical contexts. I argue that the authorities frequently exaggerated associations between young people and radicalism as a subtle strategy of exclusion, as a means of downgrading the significance of collective action and portraying it as a criminal, emotional, or even recreational matter rather than a political one, a tendency that has often been reinforced in the historiography. Descriptions of youth and maturity should not be understood as merely reflections of age. They were not value-free, and served as indicators of individuals' social standing and political agency or lack thereof. Yet fighting in a rebellion offered an alternative to marriage, owning property, or education for the achievement of “manhood,” or adult status and political agency. The article also investigates how the Great Irish Famine shaped generational consciousness in the second half of the nineteenth century through an analysis of the participants in nationalist and agrarian violence. In all, over four thousand participants in collective action in Ireland and Italy are examined.

Did the Great Irish Famine increase schizophrenia?

2012 ◽  
Vol 29 (1) ◽  
pp. 7-15 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dermot Walsh
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Annual Reports ◽  
Subsequent Increase ◽  
Irish Famine ◽  
Admission Rates ◽  
Diagnostic Labels ◽  
Increased Risk ◽  
Great Irish Famine ◽  
Period Data ◽  
First Admission

AbstractBackground: Evidence from regions where there have been severe dietary restriction suggests that individuals in utero during periods of starvation may subsequently be at increased risk of schizophrenia. Because Ireland was the location of a major nineteenth century famine an attempt has been made to determine whether any such evidence for famine/schizophrenia association can be found.Method: The data used derive mainly from the Annual Reports on the District, Criminal and Private Lunatic Asylums supplied by the Inspectors of Lunacy in Ireland for the relevant years. Nineteenth century diagnostic labels have been adjusted to conform to schizophrenia as currently understood. Evidence relating to a possible schizophrenia increase in famine-related emigrants is examined.Results: There was an increase in first admission rates for schizophrenia of 85.7% from 1860 to 1875. Admissions for other disorders, chiefly melancholia, also increased. Similar admission increases were evident in other jurisdictions over the same period. Data relating to the mental health of famine – migrating Irish are sparse and of difficult interpretation.Conclusion: The evidence from available data sources attempting to link the Irish famines of the 1840s with a subsequent increase in the incidence of schizophrenia is equivocal and inconclusive.

scholarly journals Scarring and Selection in the Great Irish Famine

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthias Blum ◽  
Christopher L. Colvin ◽  
Eoin L. McLaughlin
Keyword(s):  
Economic History ◽  
Selection Effect ◽  
Health Impact ◽  
Jel Classification ◽  
Fetal Origins ◽  
Stunted Growth ◽  
Irish Famine ◽  
Great Irish Famine ◽  
Catastrophic Risks ◽  
Opposing Effects

What is the health impact of catastrophic risks on survivors? We use a population exposed to severe famine conditions during infancy to document two opposing effects. The first: exposure leads to poor health into adulthood, a scarring effect. The second: survivors do not themselves suffer health consequences, a selection effect. Anthropometric evidence on over 21,000 subjects born before, during and after the Great Irish Famine (1845-52), among modern history's most severe famines, suggests selection is strongest where mortality is highest. Individuals born in heavily-affected areas experienced no measurable stunted growth, while scarring was found among those born where excess mortality was low. Keywords: catastrophic risk, famine, fetal origins hypothesis, anthropometrics, economic history, Ireland. JEL Classification: I15, I32, J11, N33, Q54.

scholarly journals LORD PALMERSTON AND THE IRISH FAMINE EMIGRATION

2001 ◽  
Vol 44 (2) ◽  
pp. 441-469 ◽  
Author(s):  
TYLER ANBINDER
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Prime Minister ◽  
Slave Trade ◽  
Irish Famine ◽  
The Third ◽  
Great Irish Famine

The career of the third Viscount Palmerston as foreign secretary and prime minister has been thoroughly studied, but few are aware that he was one of the first Irish landlords to finance the emigration of starving tenants during the great Irish famine. Although the first boatloads of emigrants were well outfitted, by the end of 1847 Palmerston stood accused of cruelly mistreating his departing tenants. One Canadian official compared conditions on the vessels he chartered to those of the slave trade. Given the tremendous detail with which historians have scrutinized Palmerston's long career, it is surprising that no thorough account of either the management of his Irish estate or of his emigration scheme has ever been written. An examination of the programme under which 2,000 residents of Palmerston's Sligo estate fled to America in 1847 adds significantly to our understanding of the career of one of Britain's most important nineteenth-century statesmen, the complicated motives driving landlords to ‘shovel out’ their impoverished tenants, and an often-forgotten means by which thousands of the most destitute famine-era immigrants made their way to America.

Reviews: Legal Offaly: The County Courthouse at Tullamore and the Legal Profession in County Offaly from the 1820s to the Present Day, Revolutionary Lawyers: Sinn Féin and Crown Courts in Ireland and Britain, 1916–1923, Emergency Law in Independent Ireland, 1922–1948, De Courcy: Anglo-Normans in Ireland, England and France in the Eleventh and Twelfth Centuries, Pauper Limerick: The Register of the Limerick House of Industry 1774–1793, The Irish Church and the Tudor Reformations, Blarney Castle: An Irish Tower House, Precarious Childhood in Post-Independence Ireland, Ireland's Economic History: Crisis and Development in the North and South, The Book of Howth: The Elizabethan Re-Conquest of Ireland and the Old English, The Oxford History of the Irish Book, Volume 4: The Irish Book in English, 1800–1891, The Dublin Region in the Middle Ages: Settlement, Land-Use and Economy, Human Encumbrances: Political Violence and the Great Irish Famine, Fifty Years Have Flown: The History of Cork Airport, The Fishery of Arklow, 1800–1950, Collen: 200 Years of Building and Civil Engineering in Ireland. A History of the Collen Family Business, The Oxford History of Popular Print Culture, Volume 1: Cheap Print in Britain and Ireland to 1660

2012 ◽  
Vol 39 (1) ◽  
pp. 127-162
Author(s):  
Tim P. O'Neill ◽  
Colin Veach ◽  
Gaye Ashford ◽  
Brian MacCuarta ◽  
Henry A. Jefferies ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Political Violence ◽  
Middle Ages ◽  
Economic History ◽  
Culture Volume ◽  
Irish Famine ◽  
The North ◽  
Great Irish Famine ◽  
History Of ◽  
North And South ◽  
Cheap Print
Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document