Irish Historical Studies Publications Ltd

Wexford: History and Society: Interdisciplinary Essays on the History of an Irish County byKevin WhelanReview by: Liam IrwinIrish Historical Studies, Vol. 26, No. 104 (Nov., 1989), pp. 410-411Published by: Irish Historical Studies Publications LtdStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/30008698 .

Accessed: 12/06/2014 19:36

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

.JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range ofcontent in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new formsof scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.

.

Irish Historical Studies Publications Ltd is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access toIrish Historical Studies.

http://www.jstor.org

This content downloaded from 195.34.79.208 on Thu, 12 Jun 2014 19:36:28 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

410 Irish Historical Studies

Wexford: history and society: interdisciplinary essays on the history of an Irish county. Edited by Kevin Whelan, associate editor William Nolan. Pp xvi, 564. Dublin: Geography Publications. 1987. IR237.

This collection of essays on County Wexford is the second in a projected series of Irish county histories. The approach is an interdisciplinary one, utilising the expertise of academics, both national and international, and dedicated local enthusiasts. There is a balance between general survey articles and more specialised treatments of particular topics. Settlement patterns, landownership and religion are the dominant themes though emigration, family history and maritime matters are also covered.

Two articles in particular are of wider interest than the county itself and make an important contribution to our knowledge of the much discussed, but still far too little understood, rebellion of 1798. Kevin Whelan performs a valuable service in extracting from fragmentary and intractable source-material a profile of the catholic clergy in the county. He shows that in the 1790s they fell into two broad categories. Those who came from the older propertied families were conservative, discreet and deferential to the government. The younger clergy, from a predominandy middle-class background, favoured a more aggressive approach particularly in demanding an end to the remaining penal legislation. The patriot priest myth of later ballads and popular belief is convincingly demolished. At the outbreak of the rebellion 74 of the 85 priests in the diocese either remained uninvolved or were strongly loyalist. It is shown that the priests who joined the revolt were marginalised figures, still curates in their forties with a record of conflict with ecclesiastical authority, mental instability and serious drink problems. This unflattering portrayal of the rebel clergy seems to be well supported by the available source-material though the important testimony of Bishop Caulfield should perhaps be treated with greater caution.

Louis Cullen vigorously attacks the generally accepted view that the rebellion in Wexford lacked organisation, being simply the reaction of scared peasants who pressurised unwilling middle-class individuals into becoming their leaders. This interpretation has been bolstered by an over reliance on the Rebellion and State of the Country papers in the State Paper Office. The scarcity of information on Wexford in these sources has been used to argue that formal United Irish structures did not exist. Cullen demonstrates, on the contrary, that there is extensive evidence of organisation particularly, though not exclusively, in the north of the county. He detects a well defined pattern in which the units and their leaders emerged within a few days of the outbreak of the rebellion. The attribution of the revolt to popular agrarian secret societies, particularly the Defenders, is shown to have been the creation of later writers intent on diminishing United Irish organisation.

Emigration from Wexford to Canada in the first half of the nineteenth century had a clear sectarian division. The catholics from the south-west of the county went to Newfoundland and Nova Scotia. The pre-existing seasonal migration to the Newfoundland fisheries and the proximity of the port of Waterford readily explain this pattern. The protestants of north Wexford, on the other hand, settled in eastern Ontario. This migration is the subject of Bruce Elliott's paper in which the sectarian tensions after 1798, the post-1815 depression and encouraging reports from their kinsfolk already settled in the area are seen as the key factors in the movement. The Irish became the dominant ethnic group in nineteenth-century Ontario where the majority settled on farms rather than, as elsewhere, in urban ghettos.

Land ownership and settlement patterns receive generous treatment with articles ranging from the medieval period to the nineteenth century. In his examination of Anglo-Norman settlement Billy Colfer shows that it was the southern portion of the county which was more intensively settled due perhaps to its flat terrain and ease of access from Wales. By the end of the fifteenth century the colony was confined to Forth and Bargy, the pale of County Wexford. Richard Roche contributes an affectionate piece on these baronies stressing the uniqueness of the area and its people. The date given for the introduction

This content downloaded from 195.34.79.208 on Thu, 12 Jun 2014 19:36:28 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

Reviews and short notices 411

of farming to Ireland is an uncharacteristic slip for both author and editor. Land ownership in the barony of Scarawash in the period 1540-1640 is detailed by

Henry Goff. A mere one third of the 1540 proprietors was in possession a century later. This decline had affected both Gaelic and Old English equally. There was a dramatic decrease also in the number of landowners especially during the first two decades of the seventeenth century. This was particularly true of the minor Irish owners who had lost their lands less through forfeiture than by sale. Such sales were frequendy due to mortgage foreclosure by speculators or merchants from the towns. The Old English tended to borrow from each other and thus avoided such a fate.

The comprehensive nature of this work is underlined by further articles on the prehistory, historical geography, cartography and placenames of the county. There are detailed studies of individual families and discussion of the maritime dimension. Among the many interesting points made by Patrick J. Corish in his review of Catholicism in the diocese, 1570-1786, is that the tridentine reforms were well established there by the late eighteenth century.

No one can reasonably claim that Wexford has been neglected by historians. The relative abundance of documentary source-material available together with the county's frequendy central importance in major events has ensured that its historiography has been plentiful and diverse. This work can justifiably take its place in the top league of such works. One might question the claim in the introduction that Wexford offers a superb laboratory for in-depth analysis of national issues. Little attempt appears to have been made, fortunately, to implement such a questionable approach. The editor, Kevin Whelan, has maintained the high quality of the volume on Tipperary produced by Willie Nolan whose brainchild this whole series is. It is to be hoped that some of the lesser documented and analysed counties will be next on the list for this type of innovative and valuable project. This volume sets a standard which the others will do well to emulate.

Liam Irwin Department of History, Mary Immaculate College of Education, Limerick

A dictionary of the print trade in Ireland, 1550-1775. By Robert Munter. Pp x, 340. New York: Fordham University Press. 1988. S50.

Professor Robert Munter is well known to students of the eighteenth century for his valuable work on Irish newspapers, published more than twenty years ago. The present work, which obviously grew out of Professor Munter's earlier researches, consists of short entries (mosdy about 50 words in length) on over 950 printers or stationers active in Ireland between 1550 and 1775. Each entry includes the division of the trade followed, place and dates of business, partnerships, religious and political affiliation. The publishers claim that earlier listings of the Irish book trade have been augmented and corrected and that the names of many previously unlisted printers and stationers appear here for the first time.

There are certainly many unfamiliar names listed in this book and anyone interested in the minor figures of the eighteenth-century Irish book trade will need to check entries here: and it would be churlish not to welcome the author's inclusion of the members of the Guild of St Luke — though recent work on this guild seems unknown to Professor Munter. Problems really arise when one consults entries of the better-known figures. Here, it is hard to see any evidence of the impact of modem scholarship. Though David Foxon's English verse (1975) and the Eighteenth-century short-title catalogue are listed in Munter's bibliography, I have searched in vain for any evidence of their use. Furthermore, the important bibliographical work of M. Pollard, A.C. Elias and Richard Cargill Cole (to name only three scholars of recent years) seems to have escaped Professor

This content downloaded from 195.34.79.208 on Thu, 12 Jun 2014 19:36:28 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions