Old World Colony

This work has been long in the making, its foundation having been laid thirty years ago with Professor Dickson's landmark doctoral thesis on the subject. But the wait has been well worthwhile, for the intervening period has allowed him to integrate the significant body of research accruing from the transformation in the study of Irish economic and social history since the 1970s, a movement in which he has been a key participant. Drawing on a formidable body of evidence, set out in a cogent but accessible writing style, Dickson reconstructs the social, economic, political, and cultural history of the South Munster region of Ireland, comprising all of County Cork, most of Kerry, and West Waterford, in a two-century span between 1630 and 1830. In such a panoramic vista, two overarching themes emerge, around which subsidiary topics coalesce to shape the survey. Firstly, he traces the erosion of political privilege established in the early seventeenth century by a colonial elite, through the rise of influential elements within the Catholic world. Confirming findings from other areas, he concludes that membership of the landed class broadened during the course of the eighteenth century from the narrow colonial élite that existed c.1630, a process that occurred partly because of estate-shedding by some of the larger, indebted landowners, and partly because of the rise of prosperous elements, including Catholics, into the ranks of the landed class. Central to this process were tenurial structures and relationships, which the author ably documents with reference to leasing conditions, improvement initiatives, and tenant selection. Yet, structurally, the proprietorial geography of the seventeenth century was still in place by the 1820s, for landownership was still the preserve of a select minority, however much the ranks of the landed class were eroded from within and infiltrated from without. The complexities of this structural framework are ably traced by the author in great detail. However, on the question of whether there was one defining event, circumstance, or development that marked the transition from colonial élite rule to a broader participation, or whether it was cumulative, Dickson is less definitive, though he implicitly points to an accumulation of circumstances

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• The Cambridge History of Ireland

  Open Access•Brendan Smith, Jane Ohlmeyer et al.•Cambridge History of Ireland•2018

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