Cultures of Resistance in Pre-Famine Ireland A thesis submitted by Terence Martin Dunne In fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy The National University of Ireland, Maynooth Department of Sociology, October 2014. Head of Department: Prof Mary Corcoran. Supervisor: Dr Laurence Cox. Table of Contents Acknowledgements ................................................................................................................................. 6 Summary of contents .............................................................................................................................. 9 Introduction .......................................................................................................................................... 11 Thesis outline .................................................................................................................................... 16 A threatening letter .......................................................................................................................... 20 An ontological note ........................................................................................................................... 23 Part I: Context and Method ................................................................................................................. 29 Chapter One: Understanding the Whiteboy Tradition ....................................................................... 32 The Whitefeet in Leinster in the early 1830s .................................................................................... 36 Whiteboyism as a repertoire of contention ..................................................................................... 40 Whiteboys and the everyday ............................................................................................................ 44 Agricultural change and rural conflict ............................................................................................... 47 Culture in the historiography of whiteboyism .................................................................................. 59 Conclusion ......................................................................................................................................... 66 Chapter Two: Capitalist and Feudal Modes of Production in Leinster and East Munster ................. 68 Geography of east Munster and Leinster ......................................................................................... 71 The landed estate ............................................................................................................................. 75 The Poor Law inquiry ........................................................................................................................ 79 Labour relations in the Poor Law inquiry .......................................................................................... 83 Agricultural production in the Poor Law inquiry .............................................................................. 89 The small-holding peasantry ............................................................................................................. 94 Clearance .......................................................................................................................................... 97 The agrarian economy in its colonial context ................................................................................. 100 Price movements ............................................................................................................................ 105 Conclusion ....................................................................................................................................... 108 2 Chapter Three: Primitive Accumulation, Clearance and Resistance ................................................ 111 Clearance in the poor law inquiry report ........................................................................................ 111 The Leinster colliery district ............................................................................................................ 116 Michael Hackett .............................................................................................................................. 120 Thomas Gregory .............................................................................................................................. 123 Newtown colliery and John Edge .................................................................................................... 125 Conclusion ....................................................................................................................................... 128 Chapter Four: Methodology............................................................................................................... 131 Epistemology and documentary evidence ...................................................................................... 131 Methodology ................................................................................................................................... 137 Threatening letters: The primary data ............................................................................................ 138 Threatening letters as a source....................................................................................................... 144 Leinster 1832 threatening letters collection ................................................................................... 153 Coding examples ............................................................................................................................. 161 Part II: Coercive Regulation, the Law of Captain Rock ...................................................................... 173 Chapter Five: The Boys, Discursive Genre of Charivari ..................................................................... 177 Mayboys .......................................................................................................................................... 181 Strawboys ........................................................................................................................................ 183 An Irish charivari? ........................................................................................................................... 187 Eighteenth-century evidence from secondary literature ............................................................... 188 Post-Famine evidence: Strawboys and horning.............................................................................. 192 Whiteboy involvement in sexuality/marriage related disputes ..................................................... 195 British and French historiography on relationships between folk practice and protest ................ 198 The captain as bandit hero ............................................................................................................. 200 Conclusion ....................................................................................................................................... 205 Chapter Six: The Law, Discursive Genre of Sovereignty.................................................................... 207 The law of Captain Rock .................................................................................................................. 209 3 The law as a symbol of power ......................................................................................................... 223 The ritual of public execution ......................................................................................................... 225 Courthouses and assizes ................................................................................................................. 229 Giving notice ................................................................................................................................... 231 The notice and anonymity .............................................................................................................. 232 The notice as a symbol of power .................................................................................................... 235 Appropriation of the notice ............................................................................................................ 237 The law and popular culture ........................................................................................................... 240 Popular familiarity with the legal system: Folklore ........................................................................ 242 The courts of petty sessions ........................................................................................................... 245 Class and the petty sessions ........................................................................................................... 248 Conclusion ....................................................................................................................................... 250 Chapter Seven: The Marks of Hegemony and the Struggle over Signs ............................................ 252 Gramsci and hegemony .................................................................................................................. 254 Historical context of Gramsci’s development of the concept of hegemony .................................. 260 Historical specificity