Irish Agricultural History: Recent Research*

By CORMAC O GR~IDA

ROBABLY the best-known message of Irish 1 16oo-18oo p agrarian historiography of the last few decades The output of research into seventeenth- and eight- has been that 'the landlords are not central to eenth-century has been growing, is Irish history' (Cullen, I981: 253). The result has been still small. Raymond Gillespie's chronology of harvest increasing attention to the business of farming, and failures in the early seventeenth century (I984) shows to techniques, output, and prices. It has been shown, one reason why: the thinness of the raw material surely to the satisfaction of everybody by now, that make this a frustrating and difficult period to explore. traditional historiography had been misled by - Gillespie manages to show that despite the received nationalist propaganda in its depiction of the typical view of a mainly pastoral agriculture, poor landlord as cruel and neglectful. The revisions have harvests could lead to dearth and even famine. At the come in different flavours, though: some betraying same time, his contribution is a good guide to the shades of nostalgia for polite landed society (Roebuck, sparseness of contemporary written records sources: I98 la, b), some holding in unsentimental fashion that 'it is impossible to make a full assessment' of the crisis tough landlords were necessary for agricultural of 16Ol; 'evidence for the second decade is sketchy', efficiency (Crotty, 1966). while 'the evidence for the remainder of the 163os is In terms of efficiency, simple economic theory sparse' (Gillespie, 1984: 8, 9, I0, 12). The continuous suggests that there is little to choose between a system price data so readily available elsewhere in this period of rent-paying tenants and proprietorship, are apparently lacking for . The raw state of since in either case the farmer retains the marginal the historiography of seventeenth-century agriculture return on extra effort. For this outcome to hold, is also plain from the recent debate between Gillespie, of course landlords and tenants must be surplus Nicholas Canny, and M Perceval-Maxwell on the maximizers: the efficient landlord must eschew short- implications of an unusual source for agricultural term predatory behaviour but must evict the lazy and history, the depositions presented by landholders the incompetent tenant, just as the leisurely owner- claiming compensation for property lost during the occupier must be willing to sell to his more energetic rebellion of 1641. The accompanying inventories peer at a price reflecting the land's productive potential resemble the probate and sale data used by (Crotty, 1966; Solow, I971; Mokyr, 1983; 1985: English economic historians. Canny, who equates Ch 4). In effect, most recent research into the Irish modernization with the Irish adoption of imported tenure system reaches conclusions that better fit these techniques (compare Bell and Watson, 1987; Bell, theoretical presumptions. 1987), infers substantial progress in the south from The literature reviewed here includes no grand the depositions, finding that anywhere English survey of Irish agriculture such as the multi-authored planters settled, farming 'compared favourably with Histoire de la France Rurale, or van Zanten's impressive the best in Europe'. Gillespie and Perceval-Maxwell 'Economische ontwikkeling van de Nederlanse land- deny the randomness of the depositions, and Gillespie bouw'.' Most of it has appeared in Irish journals or in the implicit claim that the immigrants had nothing to Irish-oriented conibrence orfestschrifi volumes. learn from native techniques, drawing attention to Much of it is necessarily tentative and unsystematic. how Ulster planters copied the native method of Still, it reflects the flowering of Irish economic- ploughing by the tail (1986: 93)! The non-specialist historical and historical-geographical research in the may find something incongruous about inferring last few decades, and its quality and scale is striking regional differences from such thin sources. McCar- compared to, say, that of the previous half-century. thy-Morrogh's study of the government-sponsored Munster of the 158os is relevant here too. • I wish to thank David Dickson, Arnold Homerand Sarah Maza Though intended to promote tillage, that plantation's for theirhelpful comments on an earlierdraft. benefits (as revealed through trade figures) were ' Histoire de la France n~rale, under the directionof Georges Duhy and Armand Wallon, Paris, x976;J L van Zanden, 'Economische concentrated on and wool, and on limited ontwikkeling van de Nederlandse landbouw in de n.~gentiende changes to field boundaries (McCarthy-Morrogh, eeuw', AAG Bijdragen, vo125. 1986:225).

AgHistRev, 38, II, pp [65-73 I65 ii 166 THE AGRICULTURAL HISTORY REVIEW GiUespie also invokes Sir William Petty's stood still. Though livestock provided the main link ratios, presumably based on Perry's own observations with markets, farming remained mixed, with the i in Munster in the I66OS, to criticize Canny's cheerful substituting for fallow and winning an :i picture of farming in that province (Gillespie, 1986: i, increasing share in tillage output. An appreciation of 93). Alas the wide ranges cited by Petty are enough the limited role of head landlords in engineering these to back either case: changes has earned a more important role for those 'middlemen' wedged between proprietor and farmer Yield Ratio (Dickson, 1979). Crawford (1975; also Gillespie, 4 to 9 1988) has charted the course of Ulster 'tenant right' 5 to IO over the eighteenth century from merely a tenant's - 3.3 to 8 claim of priority when his lease came up for renewal 2.67 to 5.33 to a right to payment (in the words of one astounded Barley 5 to io observer) 'where no lease exists and where no 3 to 4.5 improvement has been made. Andrews has pointed Source: C H Hull, The Economic Writings of Sir William to the humbler victories won by some squatters on Petty, 1899, vol I, p 176. the public commons; he tells with relish the story of one John Doyle of Broadleas Common, a long-time "Petty's lower-bound estimates seem positively squatter, whose registration as a freeholder was medieval, but his upper-bounds are quite impressive: upheld in court in 1836 (Andrews, 1987: 2o). A in England a century later the ratios for wheat, oats common theme in the literature is that by the late and barley were about ten, eight and nine. In Ireland, eighteenth century, when proprietors began to such high yields, if at all common, must have reflected remove middlemen and take direct control of the rather than intensive labour input, since running of their estates, rural population was too the island was rather sparsely populated in the great for direct management to have much effect seventeenth century. But Petty typically leaves no (Roebuck, I98Ia, 1988; Maguire, 1972; Homer, clue as what 'representative' yields were. Of course, I981). since seventeenth-century Irish farming was pastoral In terms of thoroughness, detail, and methodology, in orientation, reliable data on milk yields and carcass the work of Arthur Young marks a weights would be more revealing. over Petty. Though Young was reviled by many The Canny-Gillespie-Maxwell exchange is a contemporary agronomists, a re-examination of his reminder of how little we really know still about research methods is a reminder of how ambitious and agricultural productivity in early modern Ireland. original his project was. Allen and (3 Grfida (1988) Research on land tenure and settlement patterns is on argue that while Young was opinionated and wrong- firmer ground. While O'Dowd (1988) has been able headed on many issues, his methods of enquiry were to show that the power of Gaelic landlords persisted conscientious enough. Young was inclined to consider longer than previously thought, work on the pattern Irish farming methods silly and backward, but his established by the brutal expropriations and settle- data belie his harshest criticisms. A detailed analysis ments of the seventeenth century highlights regional of the English, Irish and French yield data collected variation. In south Ulster, that pattern held broadly on his various tours shows that Irish yields were until the nineteenth century, but in south Munster it respectable, far higher than French and emulating was disturbed by substantial land sales in the interim, English levels. However, for Young (and this recalls particularly by non-resident landlords (Duffy, 1981, Gillespie's criticism of Canny) the only way forward 1988; Dickson, 1982; Smyth, I988a). was through the diffusion of English methods, and Agricultural progress in the post-Restoration period their failure to spread in Ireland upset him. In truth, is indicated by very rapid growth in both external such methods were inappropriate or superfluous in and internal trade. The latter is captured by export data (a sevenfold rise between the I66OS and the Irish context in several respects. The potato reduced I79OS), the former proxied by the proliferation of the appeal of diffusion, and the abundance of fairs throughout the country. The number of fairs natural grasses in Ireland obviated the need for held almost doubled between 1684 and the I77OS, the artificial varieties (Bell and Watson, 1987; 6 Gr~ida, rise being greatest outside Leinster, and 1988: Ch 2). 'Improvement'-oriented contemporaries everywhere increasingly turning their operations castigated the Irish for 'archaic' practices such as towards the market (Dickson, 1988: 96-1Ol; see too paring and burning, spade-tillage, and small fields, Gillespie, 1987; Crawford, 1987; Smyth, I988b). but modern historians are more inclined to give Irish This was a period of rapid population growth by cultivators the benefit of the doubt (eg Lucas, 196o; contemporary European standards and of urbaniz- Lucas and O Danachair in Gailey and Fenton, I97O). ation too, indirect evidence that agriculture hardly If anything, they tend towards the other extreme, IRISH AGRICULTURAL HISTORY: RECENT RESEARCH I67 applying the 'survivor principle' to farming tech- paints an extremely gloomy picture of an agricultural niques: a technique's perseverance is evidence of its economy grinding to a stationary state, while 'efficiency'. Andrews (I982) has pointed to the limited prospects for further land reclamation on the eve of the famine. Turner's comparison of livestock numbers in county e 18oo-185o Down in I8O3, 184I , and 1847 seens to point the same way, ruling out much increase in livestock output in The critical period between the Union and the Great that atypical county. The data used by Turner are Famine has been a magnet for some of the best probably too weak for strong inferences, however research in Irish economic history, and particularly (Turner, 1984). The shortcomings of the I84I censual the history of agriculture. Contemporary sources, data are familiar (Bourke, I965b), but the 1847 figures both printed and manuscript, are much richer than - the first in an annual series of Irish agricultural for any earlier period, and they have now been statistics - are also probably too low. I suspect that intensively quarried. Boucke (1965, 1978), Crotty the steady and substantial rise in nearly all the series, (I966), Solar (I987), Mokyr (I985), and Turner livestock and crop acreages, between I847 and 1853 (I984) have performed the essential spadework for a or 1854 (see table below) may be in large part due to quantitative history of prefamine agriculture. improving coverage in the early years of official data On the eve of the famine output per male worker gathering. Certainly the massive rise during those was about half the British level (Solar, I987; 6 Gr~da, years was never to be equalled again during the I988; Ch 2). Now that historians no longer believe nineteenth century, and is difficult to square with the that the gap was due to laziness or some other Irish modest rises in live , beef, pigmeat, and butter character defect (Bell and Watson, 1987; Bell, I987; exports (Solar, I987: IIO, 159, 16o, I89). Solar, I983; 6 Gr~da, 1988, Ch z), they highlight instead the paucity of resources at the disposal of the Year Cattle Horses average Irish farm labourer and farmer. And, though I803 96286 25164 36698 41597 this comparison with Britain hardly flatters Irish I847 II54II 30644 44530 22475 agriculture, the half-century before the famine was I854 130974 31483 64159 57262 one of progress in many respects. Yields per acre, already high in Arthur Young's time, continued to Source: Turner, I984:3 I; Agricultural Statistics rise. In the early I84OS, potato yields were twice the French level, and grain yields not much less than the Most of the literature on pre-famine agriculture English (Allen and O Grada, 1988). The prefamine remains Malthusian, at least implicitly. A predictable decades now emerge as an era of technological controversy broke out, therefore, over Joel Mokyr's diffusion: historians have unearthed from farming finding that the land-labour ratio is a poor predictor manuals, trade data, and farm accounts a story of of average income or wages in Irish counties in the 'improvement' in terms of varieties, livestock early 184os (Mokyr, I985: ch 3). Cogently argued strains, and new equipment such as Scottish with newly-marshalled data, the result prompted its and lighter carriage vehicles (Bell and Watson, I987; author to engage in a fascinating quest for other 6 Gr~ida, I988: Ch 2). Modernization was most reasons 'why Ireland starved'. Criticism of Mokyr's marked on larger but certainly not confined to anti-Malthusian finding has focused on the assumption them. It encompassed the humble donkey, almost oflow economic integration across counties (necessary unknown in Young's time, and the 'lumper' potato, for the econometric exercise) and the specification of notorious in the wake of Phythophthera infestans, but land quality (Kennedy, 1983). reputed safe and high-yielding before then. Just before However, the revisions of recent research must not the famine, there were over ninety thousand donkeys obscure the problems facing Irish agriculture. Mokyr on Irish farms (three-fifths of them on holdings of (I983) and Hoffman and Mokyr (1983) are reminders ten acres or less, compared to one-fifth of the horses). of the drawbacks of over-reliance on the potato. A The size distribution of farms must be borne in mind long-term perspective suggests too that there was in evaluating the extent of 'improvement'. It was something 'unnatural' about Ireland's reliance on enough for a minority of farmers to be 'improvers' grain, given that it 'is by nature counted a great soil for the bulk of the landed area and agricultural of pasture' (Edmund Spenser quoted by McCarthy- labourers to be affected (compare Jones Hughes, Morrogh, I984: I58). I982). The period has also been considered one of Yet both optimists and pessimists now agree that estate 'improvement', as head landlords removed there was nothing inevitable about the crisis that 'middlemen' and assumed a more active role in struck Irish agriculture in I846. Neither the history management (Donnelly, I973; Maguire, 1972). ofpre-famine famines (O Grfida, 1984, 1989) nor the Still, the extent of progress remains a matter of variability ofpre-blight potato yields indicate that the debate. Solar's brilliant dissertation (Solar, I987) potato was unduly risky, particularly given how poor 168 THE AGRICULTURAL HISTORY REVIEW Ireland was by contemporary standards (Solar, 1988; muddied by the series of extremely bad harvests in I989a,b). If evidence in contemporary Irish provincial 1839-44. In England these were the years of the newspapers enables Solar to argue that 'the potato 'hungry forties'; in Ireland an unknown proportion does not seem to have been noticeably more likely to of output was diverted from exports to domestic fail than other crops in the southeast' (Solar, I989b), consumption (Donnelly, I973: 32-5). Thus it would what of areas further west where root crops had a be premature to infer the beckoning of a stationary comparative advantage for climatic reasons? Perhaps state from trade data alone. Besides, some slackening further research along the lines pursued by Solar can is to be expected from the decline in labour input tell. Pre-famine Ireland was in terms of material growth, most serious in the east where marginal consumption the poorest place in , productivity oflabourwas highest. but its poor were generally well fed and relatively Rural violence and protest, a fashionable field of healthy, and they lived relatively long lives (Clarkson inquiry further afield, have also attracted the attention and Crawford, I988; Solar, 1987; 353; O Gr~da, of Irish specialists. The 'low politics' of local peasant 1988). These meagre comforts were due to the potato. societies have been traditionally ignored by Irish Between the Union and the famine, the Corn Laws political historians, but social historians have shown benefited Irish landlords and farmers, and encouraged how important they were (Clark and Donnelly, 1983; tillage. The proportion of output due to grain and Fitzpatrick, 1985). Connolly (1987) and Donnelly (eg potatoes was probably as high in 184o-3 as it ever 1978) have studied eighteenth-century movements, had been. Some historians nevertheless point to 1815 though most recent work has been on the post-ISOO as the high-water mark for tillage in Ireland, claiming period. Aims, causes and results have been debated. that the famine accentuated rather than initiated There is fertile ground here for competing hypotheses: consolidation and the drift towards pasture (Crotty, tenants versus landlords (Beames, I983; Mokyr, 1966; Foster, 1988:318; Goldstrom, 1981). Two ways I985); labourers versus tenants (Lee, 198o); intrafamil- of answering the question have been attempted. The ial and interfamilial squabbling (Fitzpatrick, I982). only effort so far at obtaining a direct aggregate Roberts (I983) has proposed a class model of faction impression of consolidation has produced conflicting fights, Fitzpatrick a familial one for what was earlier evidence. Some 165 of 317 witnesses (mostly farmers seen as class-inspired (Fitzpatrick, I982). Donnelly and land agents) interviewed by the Devon Com- (1985: I66-7) clearly thinks that there is no simple missioners in the early I84OS declared it 'prevalent', answer. but only 63 of 15o2 witnesses questioned by the Poor Nor has the extent of the unrest been decided. Law subcommissioners in I835 declared it 'very 'Nothing could have been further from the peaceful widespread' or 'prevalent', and 8oo of them did not society of some anthropological folklore' (Clark, bother to answer (Mokyr, I985: 13o-1). Dramatic 1979: 66) than rural Ireland before the famine. Peaks examples of a shift to pasture might be cited. The such as the Rockite uprising of 182o--2 in Munster or distinguishing of the great Terry Alt rebellion the Terry Alt unrest of 183o-I in Clare involved very of 183o-1 was the sight of substantial crowds of farm large numbers of people, and truly terrified the landed labourers engaged in digging up large dike. The perception from Dublin, London and recently converted to grass, and turning cattle free to further afield was of endemic violence. And yet there roam on the roads. = But such evidence is no proof of are grounds for supposing that the agrarian crime rate overall trends. The alternative route is a macro-level was probably falling before the famine, and the police analysis of the composition of output before the ability to cope improving (Broeker, I97o). 3 famine and the trend in agricultural exports between The highlighted the uniqueness of the Union and the famine makes a significant switch Irish agriculture (Daly, 1986; O Grfida, I989). Recent to tillage very unlikely (O Gr~da, 1988: Ch 2: estimates of output on the 'national farm' just before Solar, 1987: 4o7-12). The famine quickly convinced the famine (Solar, 1987; 6 Gr~ida, I988) show that proprietors and farmers that the days of tillage were the potato accounted for less than one-quarter of the over. Both Corn Law repeal and the rise in real wages total. Nevertheless, it was the dominant food of three in the wake of the famine forced a switch away from million out of Ireland's 8.5 million people, and an grain. important element in the diet of the remainder The growth of agricultural output was undoubtedly (Bourke, I965a; Mokyr, 1981; Cullen, 198I). More- slackening before the famine. The extent and cause over, the low wages associated with the 'potato of the deceleration are a matter for debate. Solar standard' underpinned the huge tillage acreage that (1987: 3o-5) has inferred what amounts to a Ricardian made Ireland to some extent Britain's '' (O stationary state from the failure of agricultural exports Gr~ida, 1984; Solar, I989a). When it failed, the poor to rise in the pre-famine decade, but the trend is

3A good local exampleis providedby Miche~il6 C{os~iin,Cnoc an ~James s Donnelly,'The TerryAlts', unpublished, 1986. Oir, Maynooth, I988, p 137. IRISH AGRICULTURAL HISTORY: RECENT RESEARCH I69 may well have been willing to offer work for less alacrity (Solow, I97I; Vaughan, I985; 6 Grfida, than a subsistence wage, but the 'efficiency wage' that I988). The role of landlords in this improvement has farmers must pay rose (McGregor, I984; Mokyr, not been measured, yet it is unlikely to have counted I983: 223-6). for much. Their investment in tenant farming, much In medieval Europe a crop shortfall of 5o per cent of it for show and of doubtful eonomic value, never was typically enough to produce a 'dearth': in Finland exceeded more than a few per cent of output (for a in I867/8 a shortfall of less, in a depressed economic good recent case-study, see Proudfoot, I986). It is environment, was enough to trigger a famine. The hardly surprising therefore that the decline in landlord failure in Ireland in the late 184os, a halving or more investment during the Land War had little impact on of the potato harvest for several years in succession, farming. Solow's gloomy image of Irish agriculture was of a different order by historical standards. during the Land War, neglected by agitating tenants Indeed, the harvest of I845/6, down by nearly one- and alienated landlords alike, must be weighed against half, resulted in privation, but in little if any excess evidence that living standards and productivity mortality. continued during the Land War (Solow, I97I; It was frequently claimed during the famine that 6 Grfida, I988). Nor is the post-I88o stagnation Irish agriculture continued to produce enough food claimed by Crotty (I966) borne out by subsequent for everybody. The point, echoed in populist historical work either: modest changes in output masked accounts, anticipates Sen's entitlements approach significant productivity increases. The 'ageing' of to famine mortality (Sen, I98I). Crude political Irish farmers which Crotty (I966: Io4-7) attributed arithmetic lends it some support (O Gr:ida, I988: to the demise of an active market in land turns out to ch 3; Solar, I989; see too Bourke, I978), but the be largely a fiction based on farmer mendacity calculations ignore the dynamic effects of requisition- prompted by the Old Age Pension Act of I9o8. ing or redistribution in a context of repeated crop Vaughan's micro-study of the farm accounts of failure. The best defence of the entitlements argument Meath grazier Edward Delany implies stasis - at least entails analysing the famine in a United Kingdom insofar as land productivity is concerned - on one context: even if Ireland's own food supply was hard substantial Meath holding. On Delany's original stretched, there was certainly enough in Sen's sense holding at Woodtown (not far from Dublin), beef in the United Kingdom, of which Ireland was a full output fluctuated around 230 cwt annually between partner, to prevent starvation. The populist search I85I and I899 (Vaughan, I982: 68n). However, for scapegoats had identified groups who gained from output per worker seems to have expanded impres- the famine: moneylenders, resilient landowners, sively enough, since Delany increased his income, shopkeepers, farmers. Hard evidence is lacking, but not by cultivating more intensively but by buying up there are theoretical grounds for doubting that any of neighbouring farms. Yet, however enlightening, this these groups really benefited much. The crisis ruined is but a sample of one, difficult to square with macro many landlords and reduced the rent-rolls of most; evidence: in County Meath as a whole the number of the drop in land prices hardly compensated most cattle almost doubled in the same period. 4 farmers for the big increase in money wages; and If the gist of Solow's influential study (Solow, I97I) traders were hurt by reduced agricultural demand (O is that the Land War of I879-I9O3 was unnecessary, G:~da, I988). The most likely gainers were lawyers, Vaughan's lively survey of the Land War literature waxing fat on property transfers, probate and considers its outbreak a fluke, and its outcome at best bankruptcy business - their numbers outside Dublin a draw from the tenants' standpoint (Vaughan, I985); rose by almost half between 1841 and I85I - and landlord exploitation cannot explain its origins, nor farmers specializing heavily in cattle-raising. can it be proven that the tenants won the battles of 188o-2 or I887-9o. The tenant struggles of the I88os and I89os, far from putting an end to evictions, only provoked more of them, and failed to reduce rents 3 185o-19eo significantly. In the short run at least, the hard-fought This period has been the main target of the 'new' Plan of Campaign (I886-91) was at best a draw history of tenurial relations. Here the statistics are from the tenants' standpoint (Geary, I986). The relatively good. What happened to agriculture? Solar deromanticization oflandlordism's more violent foes (1983), in a sparkling paper, carries out total factor has been carried to extremes by Foster ('activity... productivity calculation which shows Irish agriculture linked to machismo and sexual frustration') and Murray on a par with Scottish in the I85OS. The bleak picture ('a form of rural gangsterism') (Foster, I988: 4o8; painted by nineteenth-century propagandists of post- famine Irish farming has been thoroughly revised in the last two decades or so. Despite some bad years, agricultural output per worker certainly rose, and 4 Department of and Commerce, Agricultural Statistics some new techniques seem to have been adopted with 1847-19z6 (Dublin, 193o), pp 76-7. q r7o THE AGRICULTURAL HISTORY REVIEW Murray, I986: 72). Recent work in this anti- higher in the South than in six-county Northern b deterministic vein credits the genius of Parnell and Ireland before 193o, and that the gap widened between Davitt (see the excellent biographies by Bew, I98O 1912 and the mid-I92OS (O'Connor and Guiomard, and Moody, I98I) with converting an agrarian I985). Following an established tradition, several downturn no worse than another earlier one in authors have recently compared agricultural perform- I859-64 (Donnelly, 1976) into a revolutionary situ- ance North and South (Attwood, 1966; 1983-4; ation (Donnelly, I976; Moody, I98I; Vaughan, I985): Sheehy et al., 1981; Stainer, I987; Cuddy and without them there would have been no Land War. Doherty, 1984). By taking a long-term perspective the Relentless in pursuit of populist myths, the recent comparison may be used to shed some light on the literature has been rather indulgent towards landlord- effect of public policy on output and productivity. ism, stressing its powerlessness in the face of The outcome is that the South's performance, overpopulation and economic crisis before I845, and measured in terms of output per worker, was abysmal the modest rent rises and eviction rates of the post- up to c 196o but much better since then, so that labour famine period. Only during the famine itself, when, productivity in both areas in the I98OS was similar in his eagerness to protect himself, the typical landlord (Kennedy et al., 1988). Other evaluations of recent 'cleared' without much scruple, is a less generous experience confirms a new southern dynamism, verdict warranted (Curtis, I98O; Malcolmson, 1974; particularly since accession to the EC (Boyle, I986, Maguire, 1972; Roebuck, I988; Solow, 1971; Don- I987; Stainer, 1987; Whittaker and Spencer, I986). nelly, I989). Yet a 'post-revisionist' verdict on the But why was the record of Southern farming so poor Land War might be that, as social revolutions go, its before I96O? Historians imply, admittedly without cost in terms of lost output was low. What seems much analysis, satisfaction with the I92OS. If farmers striking now is how easily the system introduced in looked back on that decade as a kind of golden age, it the seventeenth century was eliminated in the late was largely because after I931 the world depression, nineteenth and early twentieth (Jones Hughes, quoted a tariff regime compounded by an 'economic war' in Horner, 198I; Duffy, 1988). with the United Kingdom, and World War II A welcome variation on the heavy emphasis on conspired in turn to hurt them. Their plight is reflected landlord-tenant relations has been the attention in land price trends, usefully chronicled by Nunan focused by Bew and Jones on a different arena: the (I987). Though the De Valera administration elected conflict between landless labourers and smallholders in 1932 sought to aid the small farmer at the expense on the one hand, and graziers on the other. The very of the grazier by promoting tillage, its policies placed titles of the studies ofagricuhural labour byJ W Boyle nearly all farmers at a disadvantage. Smuggling could (I983) and Fitzpatrick (I98O) tell their own story. As help them only marginally (Johnson, 1979; compare predicted by Davitt, the outcome of the Land War Norton, I983). Post-war policy was a different traded one form of inequality for another, and gave matter, however. Not only was freer access gained rise to new tensions. These tensions found parallels to outside markets, but farmers gained increasingly elsewhere in Europe at this time. In Ireland they lay from transfers from consumers and taxpayers behind the creation of the Congested Districts Board, (Matthews in Drudy, I982). Since accession to the hut their ultimate resolution brought the landless and European Community, most of the transfer has come the western smallholder little joy (Jones, I983; Bew, from EC sources. I987; O Tuathaigh in Drudy, I982 ).

4 The Recordsince 19zo BIBLIOGRAPHY Crotty's claim that owner occupancy was 'bad' for Key Irish agriculture (Crotty, I966) is one of the most striking in the literature surveyed here. Surprisingly, IESH = h'ish Economic and Social History it has failed to attract the attention that it deserves from JSSISI = Journal of the Statistical and Social Inquiry historians (see, however, Lee, I969). Nevertheless, Society of Ireland twentieth-century agriculture has been extensively ESR = Economic and Social Review studied; the essays in Drudy (I982) are a good IJAERS = Irish Journal of Agricultural Economics introduction. and Rural Sociology Partition in I92I has lent a welcome comparative IHS = Irish Historical Studies focus to much of the work on the twentieth century. O'Connor and Guiomard's separation of the twenty- AttEN, ROBERTC and c 6 GR£DA(I988), 'On the Road six county Irish Free State area from the official Again With Arthur Young: English, Irish and estimate of alMreland farm output in I912 raises the French Agriculture During the Industrial Revolu- interesting implication that output per worker was tion',Journ Econ Hist 47(1) 1-24. IRISH AGRICULTURAL HISTORY: RECENT RESEARCH I7I ANDREWS, JOHN H (I982), 'Limits of Agricultural in R Mitchison and P Roebuck (eds), Economy and Settlement in Pre-Famine Ireland', In L M Cullen Society in Scotland and Ireland, Edinburgh. and F Furet (eds), Ireland and France 17th-zoth CONNOLLY, S J (I987), 'Violence and Order in the Centuries: Towards a Comparative Rural History, Eighteenth Century', in Patrick O'Flanagan et al., Paris. pp 42-6I. 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