Jean Drèze
- Published in print:
- 1991
- Published Online:
- January 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780198286363
- eISBN:
- 9780191718458
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198286363.003.0002
- Subject:
- Economics and Finance, Development, Growth, and Environmental
Though one may mistakenly attribute India's impressive recent record of famine prevention to a steady improvement in food production or to the overall evolution of the economy, this chapter argues ...
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Though one may mistakenly attribute India's impressive recent record of famine prevention to a steady improvement in food production or to the overall evolution of the economy, this chapter argues that it is the relief system that played the crucial role in averting large-scale famine. The two components of a reliable famine prevention system are: an intelligent and well-planned interventionist procedure and a mechanism ensuring an early step by the authorities. For India, both were appreciably influenced first by the emergence of Famine Codes and then by the country's attainment of independence. Providing case studies, the chapter underscores the urgency of recreating the lost entitlements through relief and wage-based employment, and spotlights the roles of public pressure, cash relief, and public works.Less
Though one may mistakenly attribute India's impressive recent record of famine prevention to a steady improvement in food production or to the overall evolution of the economy, this chapter argues that it is the relief system that played the crucial role in averting large-scale famine. The two components of a reliable famine prevention system are: an intelligent and well-planned interventionist procedure and a mechanism ensuring an early step by the authorities. For India, both were appreciably influenced first by the emergence of Famine Codes and then by the country's attainment of independence. Providing case studies, the chapter underscores the urgency of recreating the lost entitlements through relief and wage-based employment, and spotlights the roles of public pressure, cash relief, and public works.
Carl J. Griffin
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- September 2020
- ISBN:
- 9781526145628
- eISBN:
- 9781526152022
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Manchester University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7765/9781526145635
- Subject:
- History, Social History
In the age of Malthus and the workhouse when the threat of famine and absolute biological want had supposedly been lifted from the peoples of England, hunger remained a potent political force – and ...
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In the age of Malthus and the workhouse when the threat of famine and absolute biological want had supposedly been lifted from the peoples of England, hunger remained a potent political force – and problem. Yet hunger has been marginalized as an object of study by scholars of late eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century England, studies either framed through famine or left to historians of early modern England. The politics of hunger represents the first systematic attempt to think through the ways in which hunger persisted as something both feared and felt, as vital to public policy innovations, and as central to the emergence of new techniques of governing and disciplining populations. Beyond analysing the languages of hunger that informed food riots, other popular protests and popular politics, the study goes on to consider how hunger was made and measured in Speenhamland-style ‘hunger’ payments and workhouse dietaries, and used in the making and disciplining of the poor as racial subjects. Conceptually rich yet empirically grounded, the study draws together work on popular protest, popular politics, the old and new poor laws, Malthus and theories of population, race, biopolitics and the colonial making of famine, as well as reframing debates in social and economic history, historical geography and famine studies more generally. Complex and yet written in an accessible style, The politics of hunger will be of interest to anyone with an interest in the histories of protest, poverty and policy: specialists, students and general readers alike.Less
In the age of Malthus and the workhouse when the threat of famine and absolute biological want had supposedly been lifted from the peoples of England, hunger remained a potent political force – and problem. Yet hunger has been marginalized as an object of study by scholars of late eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century England, studies either framed through famine or left to historians of early modern England. The politics of hunger represents the first systematic attempt to think through the ways in which hunger persisted as something both feared and felt, as vital to public policy innovations, and as central to the emergence of new techniques of governing and disciplining populations. Beyond analysing the languages of hunger that informed food riots, other popular protests and popular politics, the study goes on to consider how hunger was made and measured in Speenhamland-style ‘hunger’ payments and workhouse dietaries, and used in the making and disciplining of the poor as racial subjects. Conceptually rich yet empirically grounded, the study draws together work on popular protest, popular politics, the old and new poor laws, Malthus and theories of population, race, biopolitics and the colonial making of famine, as well as reframing debates in social and economic history, historical geography and famine studies more generally. Complex and yet written in an accessible style, The politics of hunger will be of interest to anyone with an interest in the histories of protest, poverty and policy: specialists, students and general readers alike.
Matthew Kelly (ed.)
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- May 2020
- ISBN:
- 9781789620320
- eISBN:
- 9781789629958
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Liverpool University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3828/liverpool/9781789620320.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Early Modern History
The environmental humanities are one of the most exciting and rapidly expanding areas of interdisciplinary study, and this collection of essays is a pioneering attempt to apply these approaches to ...
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The environmental humanities are one of the most exciting and rapidly expanding areas of interdisciplinary study, and this collection of essays is a pioneering attempt to apply these approaches to the study of nineteenth-century Ireland. By bringing together historians, geographers, and literary scholars, new insights are offered into familiar subjects and unfamiliar subjects are brought out into the light. Essays re-considering O’Connellism, Lord Palmerston, and Isaac Butt rub shoulders with examinations of agricultural improvement, Dublin’s animal geographies, and Ireland’s healing places. Literary writers like Emily Lawless and Seumas O’Sullivan are looked at anew, encouraging us to re-think Darwinian influences in Ireland and the history of the Irish literary revival, and transnational perspectives are brought to bear on Ireland’s national park history and the dynamics of Irish natural history. Much modern Irish history is concerned with access to natural resources, whether this reflects the catastrophic effect of the Great Famine or the conflicts associated with agrarian politics, but historical and literary analyses are rarely framed explicitly in these terms. The collection responds to the ‘material turn’ in the humanities and contemporary concern about the environment by re-imagining Ireland’s nineteenth century in fresh and original ways.Less
The environmental humanities are one of the most exciting and rapidly expanding areas of interdisciplinary study, and this collection of essays is a pioneering attempt to apply these approaches to the study of nineteenth-century Ireland. By bringing together historians, geographers, and literary scholars, new insights are offered into familiar subjects and unfamiliar subjects are brought out into the light. Essays re-considering O’Connellism, Lord Palmerston, and Isaac Butt rub shoulders with examinations of agricultural improvement, Dublin’s animal geographies, and Ireland’s healing places. Literary writers like Emily Lawless and Seumas O’Sullivan are looked at anew, encouraging us to re-think Darwinian influences in Ireland and the history of the Irish literary revival, and transnational perspectives are brought to bear on Ireland’s national park history and the dynamics of Irish natural history. Much modern Irish history is concerned with access to natural resources, whether this reflects the catastrophic effect of the Great Famine or the conflicts associated with agrarian politics, but historical and literary analyses are rarely framed explicitly in these terms. The collection responds to the ‘material turn’ in the humanities and contemporary concern about the environment by re-imagining Ireland’s nineteenth century in fresh and original ways.
Alan H. Lockwood, M.D.
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- May 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780262034876
- eISBN:
- 9780262335737
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- The MIT Press
- DOI:
- 10.7551/mitpress/9780262034876.001.0001
- Subject:
- Public Health and Epidemiology, Public Health
In Heat Advisory I examine climate change from a broad public health perspective, where health includes mental and social well-being in addition to climate-related changes in diseases. I begin from ...
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In Heat Advisory I examine climate change from a broad public health perspective, where health includes mental and social well-being in addition to climate-related changes in diseases. I begin from baselines defined by worldwide selected causes of death and risk factors for disease as seen partially through the lens of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals to discuss how climate change will affect health. I draw primarily on a broad cross-section of the peer-reviewed literature and governmental reports. In addition to heat-related illnesses, I discuss infectious diseases including dengue, malaria, and Zika; effects on agriculture and the potential for famine; rising sea level, severe weather, and environmental refugees; anticipated effects of climate change on air quality with a focus on ozone and asthma; the influence of climate on violence, conflict, and societal disruption; and, finally economic considerations related to health. Following fundamental public health and medical practices, I discuss, primary prevention in terms of mitigation of climate change by reducing greenhouse gas emissions, and secondary prevention, by adapting to climate change. Health professionals have a professional responsibility to affect political will and foster the extensive stakeholder involvement required to tackle climate change, the “greatest public health opportunity” of this century.Less
In Heat Advisory I examine climate change from a broad public health perspective, where health includes mental and social well-being in addition to climate-related changes in diseases. I begin from baselines defined by worldwide selected causes of death and risk factors for disease as seen partially through the lens of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals to discuss how climate change will affect health. I draw primarily on a broad cross-section of the peer-reviewed literature and governmental reports. In addition to heat-related illnesses, I discuss infectious diseases including dengue, malaria, and Zika; effects on agriculture and the potential for famine; rising sea level, severe weather, and environmental refugees; anticipated effects of climate change on air quality with a focus on ozone and asthma; the influence of climate on violence, conflict, and societal disruption; and, finally economic considerations related to health. Following fundamental public health and medical practices, I discuss, primary prevention in terms of mitigation of climate change by reducing greenhouse gas emissions, and secondary prevention, by adapting to climate change. Health professionals have a professional responsibility to affect political will and foster the extensive stakeholder involvement required to tackle climate change, the “greatest public health opportunity” of this century.
DAVID FITZPATRICK
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199583744
- eISBN:
- 9780191702365
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199583744.003.0021
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Modern History
This chapter focuses on the history of emigration in Ireland during the period from 1871 to 1921. It explains that Irish emigration was triggered by the Great Famine, and by 1880 had become a ...
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This chapter focuses on the history of emigration in Ireland during the period from 1871 to 1921. It explains that Irish emigration was triggered by the Great Famine, and by 1880 had become a structural element of the post-famine social order. There were only two periods when hopes were aroused that the emigration flow might be halted: during the time of severe recession in North America in the 1870s and the wartime economic boom in Ireland during the 1910s. The chapter contains charts and tables showing statistics on Irish emigration during this period.Less
This chapter focuses on the history of emigration in Ireland during the period from 1871 to 1921. It explains that Irish emigration was triggered by the Great Famine, and by 1880 had become a structural element of the post-famine social order. There were only two periods when hopes were aroused that the emigration flow might be halted: during the time of severe recession in North America in the 1870s and the wartime economic boom in Ireland during the 1910s. The chapter contains charts and tables showing statistics on Irish emigration during this period.
DAVID NOEL DOYLE
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199583744
- eISBN:
- 9780191702365
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199583744.003.0024
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Modern History
This chapter examines the history of Irish immigration to America during the period from 1845 to 1880, the pattern of which was, during this period, influenced by four major events. These include the ...
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This chapter examines the history of Irish immigration to America during the period from 1845 to 1880, the pattern of which was, during this period, influenced by four major events. These include the Great Famine, which led the more than a million Irish to migrate to America; the reduction in the protestant element in Irish America; the triumph of Irish nationalist ideology, which created an ethos of distinctiveness and techniques of group advancement; and America's rapid industrialisation, which provided new form and concentration to the expanded Irish migration.Less
This chapter examines the history of Irish immigration to America during the period from 1845 to 1880, the pattern of which was, during this period, influenced by four major events. These include the Great Famine, which led the more than a million Irish to migrate to America; the reduction in the protestant element in Irish America; the triumph of Irish nationalist ideology, which created an ethos of distinctiveness and techniques of group advancement; and America's rapid industrialisation, which provided new form and concentration to the expanded Irish migration.
Jonny Geber
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- May 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780813061177
- eISBN:
- 9780813051475
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Florida
- DOI:
- 10.5744/florida/9780813061177.003.0006
- Subject:
- Archaeology, Historical Archaeology
The unique opportunity to explore the experience of the Great Irish Famine through a bioarchaeological analysis of the skeletal remains of its victims has provided insights not only into the how this ...
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The unique opportunity to explore the experience of the Great Irish Famine through a bioarchaeological analysis of the skeletal remains of its victims has provided insights not only into the how this period was experienced by people, but also the experience of poverty in mid-nineteenth century Ireland. The skeletal population from the Kilkenny Union Workhouse mass burials revealed insights into past lives full of hardship and suffering of disease, which culminated in death during the height of one of the worst subsistence crises in human history. The reburial of these remains in 2010 provided a last and final respectful treatment in death to these people, who originally were buried in haste in unconsecrated mass burial pits.Less
The unique opportunity to explore the experience of the Great Irish Famine through a bioarchaeological analysis of the skeletal remains of its victims has provided insights not only into the how this period was experienced by people, but also the experience of poverty in mid-nineteenth century Ireland. The skeletal population from the Kilkenny Union Workhouse mass burials revealed insights into past lives full of hardship and suffering of disease, which culminated in death during the height of one of the worst subsistence crises in human history. The reburial of these remains in 2010 provided a last and final respectful treatment in death to these people, who originally were buried in haste in unconsecrated mass burial pits.
Christopher Morash
- Published in print:
- 1995
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198182795
- eISBN:
- 9780191673887
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198182795.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, 19th-century and Victorian Literature
In the late 1840s, more than one million Irish men and women died of starvation and disease, and a further two million emigrated in one of the worst European sustenance crises of modern times. Yet a ...
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In the late 1840s, more than one million Irish men and women died of starvation and disease, and a further two million emigrated in one of the worst European sustenance crises of modern times. Yet a general feeling persists that the Irish Famine eluded satisfactory representation. This book examines literary texts by writers such as William Carleton, Anthony Trollope, James Clarence Mangan, John Mitchel, and Samuel Ferguson, and reveals how they interact with histories, sermons, economic treatises to construct a narrative of the most important and elusive events in Irish history. This book explores the concept of the famine as a moment of absence. It argues that the event constitutes an unspeakable moment in attempts to write the past — a point at which the great Victorian metanarratives of historical change collapse. Aligning itself with new historical literary criticism, the book examines the attempts of a wide range of 19th-century writing to ensure the memorialisation of an event which seems to resist representation.Less
In the late 1840s, more than one million Irish men and women died of starvation and disease, and a further two million emigrated in one of the worst European sustenance crises of modern times. Yet a general feeling persists that the Irish Famine eluded satisfactory representation. This book examines literary texts by writers such as William Carleton, Anthony Trollope, James Clarence Mangan, John Mitchel, and Samuel Ferguson, and reveals how they interact with histories, sermons, economic treatises to construct a narrative of the most important and elusive events in Irish history. This book explores the concept of the famine as a moment of absence. It argues that the event constitutes an unspeakable moment in attempts to write the past — a point at which the great Victorian metanarratives of historical change collapse. Aligning itself with new historical literary criticism, the book examines the attempts of a wide range of 19th-century writing to ensure the memorialisation of an event which seems to resist representation.
Amartya Sen
- Published in print:
- 1983
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780198284635
- eISBN:
- 9780191596902
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0198284632.003.0006
- Subject:
- Economics and Finance, Development, Growth, and Environmental
A case study of the Great Bengal Famine of 1943, which had a reported death toll of about 1.5 million. An explanation for the famine is analysed in terms of the most common approach used—food ...
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A case study of the Great Bengal Famine of 1943, which had a reported death toll of about 1.5 million. An explanation for the famine is analysed in terms of the most common approach used—food availability decline (FAD), and this is rejected for various reasons. Analyses are next made in terms of exchange entitlements and the causes of the sharp movements of these, and of the class basis of the destitution. The last part of the chapter discusses the role of theory in the failure of the official policy for tackling the famine.Less
A case study of the Great Bengal Famine of 1943, which had a reported death toll of about 1.5 million. An explanation for the famine is analysed in terms of the most common approach used—food availability decline (FAD), and this is rejected for various reasons. Analyses are next made in terms of exchange entitlements and the causes of the sharp movements of these, and of the class basis of the destitution. The last part of the chapter discusses the role of theory in the failure of the official policy for tackling the famine.
CHRISTOPHER MORASH
- Published in print:
- 1995
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198182795
- eISBN:
- 9780191673887
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198182795.003.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, 19th-century and Victorian Literature
How was the Great Irish Famine represented in 19th-century literature? The question is less simple than it might appear, for the more we look for a stable historical reality against which to compare ...
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How was the Great Irish Famine represented in 19th-century literature? The question is less simple than it might appear, for the more we look for a stable historical reality against which to compare a literary representation, the less stable that reality becomes. The starvation, the emigration, and the disease epidemics of the late 1840s have become ‘the Famine’ because it was possible to inscribe those disparate, but interrelated events in a relatively cohesive narrative. To write the Famine is, in the first instance, to write about death on a massive, almost unimaginable scale. Indeed, the Famine's hold on our imaginations remains unaffected by the running debate over the numbers of the dead. We must tread carefully as we enter into the textual world of Famine Ireland. If we are to echo Stephen Greenblatt's ‘desire to speak with the dead’, we must learn to listen for the key words in the 19th-century writing of the Famine; we must attune ourselves to its narrative conventions, and become familiar with its allusive vocabulary.Less
How was the Great Irish Famine represented in 19th-century literature? The question is less simple than it might appear, for the more we look for a stable historical reality against which to compare a literary representation, the less stable that reality becomes. The starvation, the emigration, and the disease epidemics of the late 1840s have become ‘the Famine’ because it was possible to inscribe those disparate, but interrelated events in a relatively cohesive narrative. To write the Famine is, in the first instance, to write about death on a massive, almost unimaginable scale. Indeed, the Famine's hold on our imaginations remains unaffected by the running debate over the numbers of the dead. We must tread carefully as we enter into the textual world of Famine Ireland. If we are to echo Stephen Greenblatt's ‘desire to speak with the dead’, we must learn to listen for the key words in the 19th-century writing of the Famine; we must attune ourselves to its narrative conventions, and become familiar with its allusive vocabulary.
CHRISTOPHER MORASH
- Published in print:
- 1995
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198182795
- eISBN:
- 9780191673887
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198182795.003.0002
- Subject:
- Literature, 19th-century and Victorian Literature
The sanctification of the idea of progress in the mid-19th century has a direct bearing on the writing of the Irish Famine. In Ireland the situation was very different. Famine Ireland was decidedly ...
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The sanctification of the idea of progress in the mid-19th century has a direct bearing on the writing of the Irish Famine. In Ireland the situation was very different. Famine Ireland was decidedly an ‘enemy’ of progress, and was therefore to be treated as such. The assault on the idea of progress which the Famine constituted is registered in the texts of those who considered themselves to be on the side of progress. With the disappearance of the visible signifiers of material progress — railways, sanitation, the rituals of civil society — the idea of progress itself begins to unravel and with it the progressive linearity of time and history. As these images suggest, the violence on an idea is real violence. ‘In order to advance to the city of the future’, writes John Bagnell in The Idea of Progress, ‘we must have a force and a lever. Man is the force, and the lever is the idea of Progress’.Less
The sanctification of the idea of progress in the mid-19th century has a direct bearing on the writing of the Irish Famine. In Ireland the situation was very different. Famine Ireland was decidedly an ‘enemy’ of progress, and was therefore to be treated as such. The assault on the idea of progress which the Famine constituted is registered in the texts of those who considered themselves to be on the side of progress. With the disappearance of the visible signifiers of material progress — railways, sanitation, the rituals of civil society — the idea of progress itself begins to unravel and with it the progressive linearity of time and history. As these images suggest, the violence on an idea is real violence. ‘In order to advance to the city of the future’, writes John Bagnell in The Idea of Progress, ‘we must have a force and a lever. Man is the force, and the lever is the idea of Progress’.
CHRISTOPHER MORASH
- Published in print:
- 1995
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198182795
- eISBN:
- 9780191673887
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198182795.003.0003
- Subject:
- Literature, 19th-century and Victorian Literature
Far from being distracting pieces of narrative machinery which obscure the ‘real’ representation of the Irish Famine, the conventional elements of Victorian fiction give the Famine form and hence ...
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Far from being distracting pieces of narrative machinery which obscure the ‘real’ representation of the Irish Famine, the conventional elements of Victorian fiction give the Famine form and hence meaning, constructing ethical subjects in the midst of atrocity. As always, even when he is not mentioned by name, Thomas Malthus stands behind this process, ghostwriting the shape of narrative. While it might be argued that the linear form of the realist novel has a tendency to write all history as progress, three novels in particular inscribe the Famine in narratives of social improvement: Anthony Trollope's Castle Richmond; Annie Keary's Castle Daly; and Margaret Brew's The Chronicles of Castle Cloyne. It is this Malthusian metanarrative of class change, with its Darwinian overtones, which one sees acted out in the novels of Annie Keary, Margaret Brew, and Anthony Trollope in the decades after the Famine.Less
Far from being distracting pieces of narrative machinery which obscure the ‘real’ representation of the Irish Famine, the conventional elements of Victorian fiction give the Famine form and hence meaning, constructing ethical subjects in the midst of atrocity. As always, even when he is not mentioned by name, Thomas Malthus stands behind this process, ghostwriting the shape of narrative. While it might be argued that the linear form of the realist novel has a tendency to write all history as progress, three novels in particular inscribe the Famine in narratives of social improvement: Anthony Trollope's Castle Richmond; Annie Keary's Castle Daly; and Margaret Brew's The Chronicles of Castle Cloyne. It is this Malthusian metanarrative of class change, with its Darwinian overtones, which one sees acted out in the novels of Annie Keary, Margaret Brew, and Anthony Trollope in the decades after the Famine.
CHRISTOPHER MORASH
- Published in print:
- 1995
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198182795
- eISBN:
- 9780191673887
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198182795.003.0004
- Subject:
- Literature, 19th-century and Victorian Literature
‘The torture of Tantalus’ was how William Drennan described the view of ‘the world's progressive lot’ from Famine Ireland: close enough to see the parade of progress, but not close enough to join the ...
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‘The torture of Tantalus’ was how William Drennan described the view of ‘the world's progressive lot’ from Famine Ireland: close enough to see the parade of progress, but not close enough to join the march. For those Irish men and women who were attempting to formulate a coherent definition of Irish nationality and culture during the middle years of the 19th century, this tantalised posture led to some excruciating ideological gymnastics. In the case of John Mitchel, it was to produce a group of texts which have been among the most important in shaping subsequent understandings of the Irish Famine, and which, at the same time, bear a strange affinity with that textual constellation which includes Friedrich Nietzsche and Michel Foucault. It is in the concept of individual freedom, necessary to all shades of nationalist ideology, that the textual strategies of John Mitchel took shape. What made Mitchel different from so many of his contemporaries is that he refused Enlightenment.Less
‘The torture of Tantalus’ was how William Drennan described the view of ‘the world's progressive lot’ from Famine Ireland: close enough to see the parade of progress, but not close enough to join the march. For those Irish men and women who were attempting to formulate a coherent definition of Irish nationality and culture during the middle years of the 19th century, this tantalised posture led to some excruciating ideological gymnastics. In the case of John Mitchel, it was to produce a group of texts which have been among the most important in shaping subsequent understandings of the Irish Famine, and which, at the same time, bear a strange affinity with that textual constellation which includes Friedrich Nietzsche and Michel Foucault. It is in the concept of individual freedom, necessary to all shades of nationalist ideology, that the textual strategies of John Mitchel took shape. What made Mitchel different from so many of his contemporaries is that he refused Enlightenment.
CHRISTOPHER MORASH
- Published in print:
- 1995
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198182795
- eISBN:
- 9780191673887
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198182795.003.0007
- Subject:
- Literature, 19th-century and Victorian Literature
In the writing of Irish nationalism, the apocalyptic moment of the Irish Famine constitutes the unspeakable apotheosis of the revolutionary dream, the moment when all history and all law are ...
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In the writing of Irish nationalism, the apocalyptic moment of the Irish Famine constitutes the unspeakable apotheosis of the revolutionary dream, the moment when all history and all law are overturned and the indelible stain of national sin is magically transferred from the colonised to the coloniser. As law and history are unwritten, so too is the ethical subject of ideology which it is the project of cultural nationalism to construct. Hence, as the Nation increasingly became the organ of the Tenant Association in the 1850s, millenarian poetry begins to disappear from the pages, to be replaced in the discourse of nationalism by forms of writing which consolidate the unimpeachable virtue which is the antithetical residue of the doctrine of national sin.Less
In the writing of Irish nationalism, the apocalyptic moment of the Irish Famine constitutes the unspeakable apotheosis of the revolutionary dream, the moment when all history and all law are overturned and the indelible stain of national sin is magically transferred from the colonised to the coloniser. As law and history are unwritten, so too is the ethical subject of ideology which it is the project of cultural nationalism to construct. Hence, as the Nation increasingly became the organ of the Tenant Association in the 1850s, millenarian poetry begins to disappear from the pages, to be replaced in the discourse of nationalism by forms of writing which consolidate the unimpeachable virtue which is the antithetical residue of the doctrine of national sin.
CHRISTOPHER MORASH
- Published in print:
- 1995
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198182795
- eISBN:
- 9780191673887
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198182795.003.0008
- Subject:
- Literature, 19th-century and Victorian Literature
This chapter shows the troubled space occupied by William Carleton's writing in 19th-century Ireland. On one hand, there is mistrust and the fear of the heterodox; on the other, Carleton offers a ...
More
This chapter shows the troubled space occupied by William Carleton's writing in 19th-century Ireland. On one hand, there is mistrust and the fear of the heterodox; on the other, Carleton offers a textual ‘reality’ which answers the need, so urgent in the 1840s, for authentic, ‘truthful’ representations of ‘Country Life’ which the Irish Famine was transforming out of all recognition. He was in a unique position to provide these authentic representations: and yet, in his life and in his writing, he is curiously resistant to ideological appropriation. As a young man he had considered a career in the priesthood, his earliest accounts of the Irish peasantry were in the virulently anti-Catholic style of the Christian Examiner in which they were published. He also contributed poems and journalism to the Nation, and wrote three didactic novels for ‘Library of Ireland’.Less
This chapter shows the troubled space occupied by William Carleton's writing in 19th-century Ireland. On one hand, there is mistrust and the fear of the heterodox; on the other, Carleton offers a textual ‘reality’ which answers the need, so urgent in the 1840s, for authentic, ‘truthful’ representations of ‘Country Life’ which the Irish Famine was transforming out of all recognition. He was in a unique position to provide these authentic representations: and yet, in his life and in his writing, he is curiously resistant to ideological appropriation. As a young man he had considered a career in the priesthood, his earliest accounts of the Irish peasantry were in the virulently anti-Catholic style of the Christian Examiner in which they were published. He also contributed poems and journalism to the Nation, and wrote three didactic novels for ‘Library of Ireland’.
CHRISTOPHER MORASH
- Published in print:
- 1995
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198182795
- eISBN:
- 9780191673887
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198182795.003.0009
- Subject:
- Literature, 19th-century and Victorian Literature
William Carleton's ‘Far Gurtha’ can stand as an icon for the whole body of 19th-century literature on the Irish Famine, the haunting projection of the absent Famine dead. Read in this way, ‘Far ...
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William Carleton's ‘Far Gurtha’ can stand as an icon for the whole body of 19th-century literature on the Irish Famine, the haunting projection of the absent Famine dead. Read in this way, ‘Far Gurtha’ brings one to the paradox which is at the heart of Famine literature: although that which is represented is by definition is absent, through representation it becomes a textual presence. If one therefore says that the landscape of Famine literature is peopled by figures of hunger, ‘hunger’ should be read as an absence whose ‘figures’ are its necessary, but necessarily inadequate, supplements. For those writers such as the poets of the Nation and Aubrey De Vere, for whom the Famine can be written as an apocalyptic moment, the project of presenting absence finds both its paradigmatic model and its a priori justification in metanarrative in which not only the past but the future is textually encoded.Less
William Carleton's ‘Far Gurtha’ can stand as an icon for the whole body of 19th-century literature on the Irish Famine, the haunting projection of the absent Famine dead. Read in this way, ‘Far Gurtha’ brings one to the paradox which is at the heart of Famine literature: although that which is represented is by definition is absent, through representation it becomes a textual presence. If one therefore says that the landscape of Famine literature is peopled by figures of hunger, ‘hunger’ should be read as an absence whose ‘figures’ are its necessary, but necessarily inadequate, supplements. For those writers such as the poets of the Nation and Aubrey De Vere, for whom the Famine can be written as an apocalyptic moment, the project of presenting absence finds both its paradigmatic model and its a priori justification in metanarrative in which not only the past but the future is textually encoded.
Donal A. Kerr
- Published in print:
- 1998
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198207375
- eISBN:
- 9780191677649
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198207375.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Modern History
This is the first full account of the role of the Irish Catholic Church in the Great Famine of 1846 and its aftermath. The author shows how the Famine and the subsequent evictions led to rural ...
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This is the first full account of the role of the Irish Catholic Church in the Great Famine of 1846 and its aftermath. The author shows how the Famine and the subsequent evictions led to rural violence and a spate of assassinations culminating in the murder of Major Mahon, which the local parish priest was accused of inciting. Savage denunciations followed in press and parliament. In conjunction with the belief that Pope Pius IX had blessed the struggle of oppressed nationalities, many priests became involved in the run-up to the Young Ireland Rebellion. These years also saw a sharpening of religious tension as Protestant Evangelicals made an all-out effort to Protestantine Ireland. The author has charted how the Famine and the violence soured relations between the Church and State and ultimately destroyed Lord John Russell’s dream of bringing a golden age to Ireland.Less
This is the first full account of the role of the Irish Catholic Church in the Great Famine of 1846 and its aftermath. The author shows how the Famine and the subsequent evictions led to rural violence and a spate of assassinations culminating in the murder of Major Mahon, which the local parish priest was accused of inciting. Savage denunciations followed in press and parliament. In conjunction with the belief that Pope Pius IX had blessed the struggle of oppressed nationalities, many priests became involved in the run-up to the Young Ireland Rebellion. These years also saw a sharpening of religious tension as Protestant Evangelicals made an all-out effort to Protestantine Ireland. The author has charted how the Famine and the violence soured relations between the Church and State and ultimately destroyed Lord John Russell’s dream of bringing a golden age to Ireland.
DONAL A. KERR
- Published in print:
- 1998
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198207375
- eISBN:
- 9780191677649
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198207375.003.0002
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Modern History
The total failure of the potato resulted in death on a massive scale through hunger, disease, and exposure during the winter of 1847. Although by the standards of the time, there had been a major ...
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The total failure of the potato resulted in death on a massive scale through hunger, disease, and exposure during the winter of 1847. Although by the standards of the time, there had been a major outlay of public money, the relief schemes were overwhelmed by the scale of the disaster. The soup kitchens, Russell’s tardy but most effective measure, were not in operation until the end of March or later. During that long and bitter winter, hundreds of thousands of peasants died. A world was disappearing as a whole class of people perished or emigrated, and what was once one of the most densely populated areas in Europe saw farms, hamlets, and villages abandoned. An important reason why the bishops took no collective action was that they were themselves disunited. Their annual meetings, long a source of unity and strength, had become the occasion for enervating wrangling.Less
The total failure of the potato resulted in death on a massive scale through hunger, disease, and exposure during the winter of 1847. Although by the standards of the time, there had been a major outlay of public money, the relief schemes were overwhelmed by the scale of the disaster. The soup kitchens, Russell’s tardy but most effective measure, were not in operation until the end of March or later. During that long and bitter winter, hundreds of thousands of peasants died. A world was disappearing as a whole class of people perished or emigrated, and what was once one of the most densely populated areas in Europe saw farms, hamlets, and villages abandoned. An important reason why the bishops took no collective action was that they were themselves disunited. Their annual meetings, long a source of unity and strength, had become the occasion for enervating wrangling.
DONAL A. KERR
- Published in print:
- 1998
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198207375
- eISBN:
- 9780191677649
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198207375.003.0003
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Modern History
By May 1847, the second and most disastrous year of the Famine, with its horrendous death-toll, was over. The failure and death of Daniel O'Connell and the feeling of helplessness in the country when ...
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By May 1847, the second and most disastrous year of the Famine, with its horrendous death-toll, was over. The failure and death of Daniel O'Connell and the feeling of helplessness in the country when faced with a disaster on the scale of the Famine, had convinced many of the clergy of the futility of the campaign for repeal. Notwithstanding Clarendon’s complaints, it was unrealistic to expect the priests to view elections through the eyes of an English Whig. The Famine and its horrors constituted the backdrop to the election while, politically, the struggle was between those who were loyal to the memory of O'Connell and his constitutional movement and those who were not. In an extraordinary memorial, the bishops went beyond the strict bounds of religion to criticize the existing social order, condemn government policy, and express principles of social justice.Less
By May 1847, the second and most disastrous year of the Famine, with its horrendous death-toll, was over. The failure and death of Daniel O'Connell and the feeling of helplessness in the country when faced with a disaster on the scale of the Famine, had convinced many of the clergy of the futility of the campaign for repeal. Notwithstanding Clarendon’s complaints, it was unrealistic to expect the priests to view elections through the eyes of an English Whig. The Famine and its horrors constituted the backdrop to the election while, politically, the struggle was between those who were loyal to the memory of O'Connell and his constitutional movement and those who were not. In an extraordinary memorial, the bishops went beyond the strict bounds of religion to criticize the existing social order, condemn government policy, and express principles of social justice.
Cormac Ó Gráda
- Published in print:
- 1995
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198205982
- eISBN:
- 9780191676895
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198205982.003.0001
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Modern History, Economic History
Both before and after the Great Famine of the 1840s, Ireland has offered a particularly vivid case study for historians regarding the link between population and economy. Before the famine, the fear ...
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Both before and after the Great Famine of the 1840s, Ireland has offered a particularly vivid case study for historians regarding the link between population and economy. Before the famine, the fear was of population outstripping what the soil could yield in food; later it was of the link between a declining population and poor economic performance that historians looked towards. Pre-famine demographic patterns seemed to imply that poverty prompted people to marry sooner, but the popular historiographical image of the post-famine Irish is of a people traumatized into becoming the most marriage-shy in Europe. This chapter examines the ideas of the great English economist Thomas Malthus, discusses the living standards in Ireland between 1780 and 1815, and assesses the argument that Irish poverty during this period was mitigated by a plentiful supply of healthy food (potatoes) and fuel (turf).Less
Both before and after the Great Famine of the 1840s, Ireland has offered a particularly vivid case study for historians regarding the link between population and economy. Before the famine, the fear was of population outstripping what the soil could yield in food; later it was of the link between a declining population and poor economic performance that historians looked towards. Pre-famine demographic patterns seemed to imply that poverty prompted people to marry sooner, but the popular historiographical image of the post-famine Irish is of a people traumatized into becoming the most marriage-shy in Europe. This chapter examines the ideas of the great English economist Thomas Malthus, discusses the living standards in Ireland between 1780 and 1815, and assesses the argument that Irish poverty during this period was mitigated by a plentiful supply of healthy food (potatoes) and fuel (turf).
