History Commons^™

Review: Mary Kenny, The Way We Were: Catholic Ireland Since 1922, Eamon Maher

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Book review: Mary Kenny, The Way We Were: Catholic Ireland Since 1922 (Dublin: Columba Books, 2022), 450 pages.

Minding The Gap: Computing Ethics And The Political Economy Of Big Tech, Ioannis Stavrakakis, Damian Gordon, Paul John Gibson, Dympna O'Sullivan, Anna Becevel

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In 1988 Michael Mahoney wrote that “[w]hat is truly revolutionary about the computer will become clear only when computing acquires a proper history, one that ties it to other technologies and thus uncovers the precedents that make its innovations significant” (Mahoney, 1988). Today, over thirty years after this quote was written, we are living right in the middle of the information age and computing technology is constantly transforming modern living in revolutionary ways and in such a high degree that is giving rise to many ethical considerations, dilemmas, and social disruption. To explore the myriad of issues associated with the …

“800 Years We Have Been Down”: Rebel Songs And The Retrospective Reach Of The Irish Republican Narrative, Seán Ó Cadhla

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From the glamorous, cross-dressing “Rebel, Rebel” of David Bowie, to the righteous Trenchtown “Soul Rebel” of Bob Marley and The Wailers, both varied and various musical articulations of cultural and socio-political rebellion have long enjoyed a ubiquitous presence across multiple soundscapes. As a musicological delineator in Ireland, however, ‘rebel’ conveys a specifically political dynamic due to its consistent deployment as an all-encompassing descriptor for songs detailing events and personalities from the Irish national struggle. This paper sets out to examine the specific musical delineator of “rebel song” from both musicological and politico-ideological perspectives with a view to interrogating its appropriateness …

(Re)Visions Of The Outre-Mer: Looking At The Male Gaze In Jacques Feyder’S Le Grand Jeu (1934), Barry Nevin

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Cinéma colonial is regarded by certain scholars as a highly conventionalised and commercialised film practice that grants spectators a sense of control over the potentially threatening colonial Other, and Belgian director Jacques Feyder has been subject to particularly harsh criticism in this regard. This article argues that Feyder’s Le Grand Jeu (1934), which depicts a young legionnaire’s relationship with a cabaret singer who bears an uncanny resemblance to a previous lover who jilted him in Paris, challenges dominant tendencies in portrayals of gender and colonialism in French cinema of the 1930s. Drawing on the relationship between Laura Mulvey’s theorisation of …

#Thisisirishfood - The Flavour Of Ireland's West Coast, Anke Klitzing

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In the West of Ireland, a new awareness for quality ingredients and indigenous flavours are drawing out the potential of local produce and craftsmanship.

The Bullet In The Brick: The Materiality Of Conflict In Museum Objects, Siobhan Doyle

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Tangible traces of conflict in visual artefacts can take viewers uncomfortably close to the realities of war—violence, destruction and fatalities. This article questions the evidential force of objects associated with conflict and their eventual display in exhibitions. Through a study of the display of a brick in which is embedded a bullet that is said to have passed through the body of Francis Sheehy Skeffington when he was executed by firing squad during the Easter Rising in Dublin in 1916, this article explores the historical configuration of the brick and analyses its public display in the National Museum of Ireland …

From Maggie To May: Forty Years Of (De)Industrial Strategy, James Silverwood, Richard Woodward

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Upon becoming Prime Minister, Theresa May installed industrial strategy as one of the principal planks of her economic policy. May's embrace of industrial strategy, with its tacit acceptance of a positive role for the state in steering and coordinating economic activity, initially appears to be a decisive break with an era dating back to Margaret Thatcher, in which government intervention was regarded as heresy. Whilst there are doubtless novel features, this article argues that continuity is the overriding theme of May's industrial strategy. First, despite the reluctance to confess it, like every UK government over the past forty years, May …

James Connolly's Bloodstained Vest: Mediating Death And Violence In Commemorative Exhibitions, Siobhan Doyle

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The actions surrounding the display of images and artefacts in museums – collection, conservation, research and exhibition – are bound up with how the past is presented and remembered. These conditions and decisions relating to exhibitions are largely invisible to viewers who are confronted with the apparent completeness of an exhibition display. By conducting a historical and visual analysis of the bloodstained vest of political leader James Connolly, this article uncovers how this artefact has become a relic of historical violence due to the way in which particular aspects of its configuration, form and trajectory have been manipulated in order …

Uk Governance: From Overloading To Freeloading, Richard Woodward

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The UK's ongoing political turbulence has prompted a reprise of debates from the 1970s when many concluded the country was ungovernable. Then, the most influential diagnosis conceptualised the UK's governance problem as one of ‘overloading’ caused by the electorate's excessive expectations. This article argues that these accounts overlooked another phenomenon besieging UK governance during this period. This phenomenon was freeloading: the withering of government capacity deriving from the ability of actors to enjoy the benefits of citizenship without altogether contributing to the cost. In the interim, these problems have become endemic, not least because of the unspoken but discernible policy …

Gastro-Topogrophy: Exploring Food-Related Placenames In Ireland, Máirtín Mac Con Iomaire

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Most Irish people likely have little or no knowledge of the richness and variety of their ancestor’s diet before the arrival of the potato. For generations, food was considered far too common to be considered a field of study. Considering the primacy of food in people’s lives generally throughout history, it is logical that food be reflected in toponymic references to environment and landscape. This article taps into a wide range of material including poetry, prose, travellers’ reports, mythology, folklore, letters, shipping records, and archaeological evidence, both to contextualize the food-related placenames of Ireland, and to explore what Irish placenames …

Public Dining In Dublin: The History And Evolution Of Gastronomy And Commercial Dining 1700-1900, Máirtín Mac Con Iomaire

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Purpose: This paper provides an overview of the changing food culture ofIreland focusing particularly on the evolution of commercial public dining inDublin 1700-1900, from taverns, coffeehouses and clubs to the proliferation of hotels and restaurants particularly during the latter half of the nineteenth century.

Methods: Using a historical research approach, the paper draws principally on documentary and archival sources, but also uses material culture. Data is analysed using a combination of hermeneutics (Denzin and Lincoln, 2000, O'Gorman, 2010) and textual analysis (Howell and Prevenier, 2001).

Findings: The paper traces the various locations of public dining inDublin 1700-1900 and reveals thatDublin …

Sheridan's Promising Tale Is Half Told, Ian Kilroy

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Review of 'Break a Leg', the memoir by Irish theatre artist Peter Sheridan. First published in the Sunday Business Post Magazine.

Re-Theorizing The “Structure–Agency” Relationship: Figurational Theory, Organizational Change And The Gaelic Athletic Association, John Connolly, Paddy Dolan

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This article illustrates how the figurational sociology associated with Norbert Elias provides an alternative theoretical framework for explaining the relationship between, ‘individualorganization- society’ and organizational change, and in so doing transverses what is conceived as a false dichotomy between structure and agency. Through an historical case study of the Gaelic Athletic Association in Ireland, the ‘individual-organization-society’ relationship is conceptualized as overlapping figurations and organizational change is explained as figurational dynamics—the shifting social interdependencies between the individuals and groups comprising an organization, between that organization and other organizations, between social groups on a higher level of integration and competition. In tandem …

Exposing England For Famine Wrongs, Ian Kilroy

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A critical review of The Famine Plot by Tim Pat Coogan. Coogan blames English government policy for the Irish Famline.

Irish Culinary Manuscripts And Printed Books: A Discussion, Máirtín Mac Con Iomaire, Dorothy Cashman

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This paper provides a discussion of Irish Culinary Manuscripts and Printed Cookbooks. It covers Gaelic hospitality and aristocratic hospitality, setting the background for the Anglo-Irish households from which many manuscripts emerge. It charts the growing sources of information on Irish culinary history. It outlines Barbara Wheaton's framework for reading historic cookbooks and discusses the growing manuscript cookbook collection in the National Library of Ireland.

The Changing Geography And Fortunes Of Dublin Haute Cuisine Restaurants, 1958-2008, Máirtín Mac Con Iomaire

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This paper considers the changing geography and fortunes of Dublin’s haute cuisine restaurants over the last half century, placing them within both a national and international context. Ireland’s place within the global story of food is discussed, and the paper illustrates links between Dublin and European and global trends. The paper points out that Dublin in the 1950s could be seen as the gastronomic capital of the British Isles. The leading restaurateurs are briefly profiled, and the decline, stagnation, and gradual re-birth of Dublin’s haute cuisine restaurants over the 1958-2008 period is charted and discussed. The paper combines data from …

Fifty More Years? Reform And Modernisation Of The Oecd, Richard Woodward

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The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development is a vital, if frequently unnoticed, cog in the machine of global governance. On the organisation's 50th anniversary, Richard Woodward assesses whether the OECD's reform programme can secure its future in a changing world.

Royal Pomp: Viceregal Celebrations And Hospitaity In Georgian Dublin, Máirtín Mac Con Iomaire, Tara Kellaghan

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During the successive reigns of the Hanoverian kings in England (1714-1830), a total of thirty-seven different viceroys were sent to Ireland as representatives of the British Crown (Table 1). The position of viceroy (also referred to as lord-lieutenant) was awarded as a matter of political exigency, but the viceroy’s role was one of social as much as political significance. The viceroy and his vicereine played the roles of the British monarchs in absentia, and the Protestant minority ruling class, often referred to as the Ascendancy, expected the viceregal court at Dublin Castle to not merely mirror, but to outshine that …

Irish Corned Beef: A Culinary History, Máirtín Mac Con Iomaire, Pádraic Óg Gallagher

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This article proposes that a better knowledge of culinary history enriches all culinary stakeholders. The article will discuss the origins and history of corned beef in Irish cuisine and culture. It outlines how cattle have been central to the ancient Irish way of life for centuries, but were cherished more for their milk than their meat. In the early modern period, with the decline in the power of the Gaelic lords, cattle became and economic commodity that was exported to England. The Cattle Acts of 1663 and 1667 affected the export trade of live cattle and led to a growing …

Organizational Centralization As Figurational Dynamics: Movements And Counter-Movements In The Gaelic Athletic Association, John Connolly, Paddy Dolan

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In this paper we develop aspects of Elias’s figurational approach within organisational studies by using some of the core theoretical constructs as a model to explain organi­sational change through an empirical investigation of the dynamics of centralisation–decentralisation processes in an Irish sports organisation. Based on historical analysis, the paper documents the expanding interdependencies, figurational dynamics and shifting power balances which led to a gradual, non-linear movement towards greater integration and centralisation within the organisation.

Edmund Burke’S Aims In Publishing Reflections On The Revolution In France (1790), Stephen Carruthers

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In this paper, I examine three critical aspects of Burke's beliefs, principles, and political judgment at the time of the outbreak of the French Revolution and examine how they assist in explaining different and less public strands in his motivation to publish the Reflections on the Revolution in France (1790): his views on religion and in particular his attitude to Dissenters; the state of his political career and inf1uence in 1789 as a semi-detached member of the Foxite Whigs; and finally how he saw the publication of the ideas and arguments in the Reflections as a necessary step to maintain …

The Move From Protectionism To Outward-Looking Industrial Development: A Critical Juncture In Irish Industrial Policy?, Paul Donnelly, John Hogan

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This paper utilises a new framework for examining critical junctures to help us understand whether the changes to Irish industrial policy at the end of the 1950s constituted a critical juncture, breaking cleanly with what came before, or were a continuation of policy pathways previously established. The framework is made up of three elements, which must be identified in sequence, for us to be able to declare a critical juncture. Irish industrial policy is examined here, as it constitutes a core tenet of wider economic policy.

The Life Of Mary Wollstonecroft And The Principles Of Conduct Put Forward In "A Vindication Of The Rights Of Woman", Stephen Carruthers

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This paper examines the life of Mary Wollstonecraft (1759-1797), the wife of the philosopher William Goodwin and mother of Mary Shelley author of Frankenstein, through the prism of the principles of conduct set out in A Vindication of the Rights of Woman that Mary Wollstonecraft wrote over the period 1790 to 1792. In particular the paper focuses on the role of reason, virtue, and knowledge developed in A Vindication in establishing principles of conduct and the extent to which Mary’s own conduct can be reconciled with the precepts she advocated.

The Civilizing Of Hurling In Ireland, Paddy Dolan, John Connolly

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This essay examines the sport of hurling in Ireland through the theoretical framework of sport and leisure developed by Elias and Dunning. Through an analysis of newspaper reports of games, of rulebooks and codes of play, as well as historical data on increasing social differentiation and integration, we argue that hurling has undergone sportization and civilizing processes. However, due to the unevenness of wider figurational shifts these processes have been non-linear and fragile. Gradually, we see increasing numbers of rules, as well as increasing severity of punishment for the breaking of specific rules relating to violent play. The level and …

1911 Census Facility On Edwardian Restaurant Workers In Dublin, Máirtín Mac Con Iomaire

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This article takes a look at the use of the on-line 1911 census facility in identifying Restaurant Workers in Edwardian Dublin.

The Concept Of The General Will In The Writings Of Rousseau, Sièyes, And Robespierre, Stephen Carruthers

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This paper outlines the views on the General Will of Rousseau, as set out in The Social Contract, and compares them to the views developed by Sieyès in Qu'est-ce que le Tiers état? and by Robespierre, most notably in his speeches delivered during the ‘Reign of Terror’ from the establishment of the Committee of Public Safety on 6 April 1793 to his death on 28 July 1794

Searching For Chefs, Waiters And Restaurateurs In Edwardian Dublin: A Culinary Historian's Experience Of The 1911 Dublin Census Online, Máirtín Mac Con Iomaire

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No abstract provided.

Will Not Be Heard Of Again: A Proposal To Combine The Resources Of The National Library And Trinity College Library, Brendan Grimes

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A proposal to combine the resources of the National Library of Ireland and Trinity College Library Dublin was considered by the Irish government in 1960 but rejected on the advice of the Roman Catholic hierarchy. This article recounts the story.