After the Famine: Irish Agriculture, 1850–1914

by Michael Turner

• ISBN13: 9780521890946
• ISBN10: 0521890942
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2002-04-11
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

After the Famine examines the recovery in Irish agriculture in the wake of the disastrous potato famine of the 1840s, and presents an annual agricultural output series for Ireland from 1850 to 1914. Michael Turner's detailed study is in three parts: he analyses the changing structure of agriculture in terms of land use and peasant occupancy; he presents estimates of the annual value of Irish output between 1850 and 1914; and he assesses Irish agricultural performance in terms of several measures of productivity. These analyses are placed in the context of British and European agricultural development, and suggest that, contrary to prevailing orthodoxies, landlords rather than tenants were the main beneficiaries in the period leading up to the land reforms. After the Famine is an important contribution to an extremely controversial area of Irish social and economic history.

Table of Contents

List of figures	ix
List of tables	x
Preface and acknowledgements	xiii
Introduction: Ireland and Irish agricultural history in context	1	(14)
Agricultural change	15	(50)
The occupation of the land	65	(30)
The product of the land: output	95	(31)
The performance of agriculture	126	(35)
Labour and the working of the land	161	(35)
Conclusion -- structure, output and performance, and the distribution of the spoils	196	(21)
Appendixes: A note on the origin of the data	217	(77)
Appendix 1 Annual agricultural statistics, 1847--1914	227	(17)
Appendix 2 Crop yields in Ireland, 1847--1914	244	(4)
Appendix 3 Landholding and land occupancy distribution, 1847--1914	248	(7)
Appendix 4 Irish agricultural prices	255	(13)
Appendix 5 Weighting procedures adopted in estimating agricultural output	268	(13)
Appendix 6 Richard Barrington of Fassaroe, County Wicklow	281	(13)
Bibliography	294	(11)
Index	305