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This book looks at Ireland's love affair with claret, which began in earnest with the establishment of Irish families in the wine trade in Bordeaux in the early eighteenth century. So much red wine from Bordeaux was being consumed by Ireland's nobility and gentry that Jonathan Swift referred to it as 'Irish wine,' in the full knowledge that his correspondent would understand that he meant claret. One writer observed that 'drinking had become so fashionable, that gentlemen competed eagerly to have the largest cellar and spend the most on hogsheads of wine every year', and claret was the wine of choice. At Dublin Castle the amount of wine consumed was prodigious: it was acknowledged by all that balls, dinners and the contents of the Castle's cellars played a major part in the popularity of the lord lieutenant and indeed resulted in the premature death of one. Not surprisingly, gout - referred to as 'the Irish hospitality' by one observer - was rampant and some of the rather bizarre 'cures' suggested are discussed. The book deals with questions such as how was the domestic wine cellar planned and used? When did connoisseurship in wine commence? What was the role of the merchant, apart from providing the wine? On the domestic front, to what lengths did men go in purchasing the many fashionable wine accoutrements used in the traditionally 'male' dining room? Why did 'toasts' figure so prominently, not just at dinner parties in mixed company, but particularly among male groups in clubs and associations? The 'Irish Wine' trade fostered not only a reputation for excessive conviviality, but created a healthy profit for its merchant importer

Political culture is not an idea that many historians of Ireland have engaged with, preferring more straightforward ways of thinking about the distribution of political power through institutions such as the vice regal court, parliament, or the law. The essays in this volume take an organic approach to the way in which power is made manifest and distributed across the social world, considering such diverse themes as the role of political life in identity formation and maintenance, civic unity and the problem of urban poverty in Dublin, the role of money in the exercise of authority by Dublin Corporation, public ritual and ceremony in political culture, rumour and rancour in provincial Ireland, the public and the growth of Dublin city, and the Belfast/Bordeaux merchant, John Black III's vision of Belfast society in the era of improvement. By focusing on the idea of political cultures and how they intersected with more formal political structures, these essays reveal new and unexpected disjunctions that contemporaries were well aware of, and carefully managed, but which have been marginalized by historians. This volume resituates power where it was exercised on a daily basis and in doing so opens fascinating windows into past worlds in pre-modern Ireland.

This volume of essays explores a range of country house collections in Ireland, the UK, the US, and Europe. It examines how collections were built up over time, how they were dispersed or destroyed, and how they have been interpreted and valued. Among the topics considered are the impact of exhibitions, auctions, and tax systems, private versus institutional collectors, the range of audiences who appreciate art, and how collections are made to tell national stories.

On 21 June 1798, 20,000 men, women, and children found themselves trapped on a hill outside Enniscorthy, Co. Wexford, facing a Crown force of some 15,000 troops led by no less than four generals and 16 general officers. It was the dying days of a rebellion that had shaken British rule in Ireland to its core. The army that now surrounded the hill was determined that none should escape. Now a multi-disciplinary research programme involving archaeologists, historians, folklorists, architectural historians, and military specialists provides startling new insight into what actually happened at Vinegar Hill on that fateful day in June 1798. Using cutting-edge technology and traditional research, the sequence of the battle jumps sharply into focus, beginning with the 'shock-and awe' bombardment at dawn, the attack on Enniscorthy and the hill, and the critical defence of the bridge across the Slaney that allowed so many of the defenders on the hill to escape.

The publication of this book in 1999 provided the first detailed examination of the many Irish men and women, all volunteers, who served in the Second World War. It led the way for further study and the author has continued to research the subject, especially the numbers of Irish who served. In this updated edition, new sources and careful examination show the numbers of Irish in the UK forces--at over 133,000--to be higher than hitherto believed. That figure includes over 66,000 personnel from Éire and some 64,000 from Northern Ireland. They served in every service and every theatre of war as their stories show. Irish soldiers fought in France and Norway in 1940, in the Middle East and Burma, in Italy and in the campaign to liberate Europe. Irish sailors hunted the Graf Spee and Bismarck and protected convoys from U-boats while Irish airmen protected the UK in 1940 and took the war to the skies over Europe, the Middle East, and Far East. Irish women served in roles critical to the success of the fighting services. Richard Doherty tells their stories using a wide array of sources including personal interviews, contemporary documents, citations for gallantry awards (among them the Victoria Cross), published accounts, and memoirs. The first edition of Irish Men and Women in the Second World War was the first of three volumes on the subject by the author. Eighty years on from the early days of the war, the book is again available with its most important elements updated.

Formed in 1795, the Orange Order had grown into a formidable popular organisation in its first forty years of existence. However, against a background of major social, political, and economic change, the Grand Orange Lodge of Ireland made the forced decision to disband the Order in 1836 in the face of mounting government pressure. In spite of this, the extremely widespread Protestant association could not simply disappear and continued to thrive at local level. By 1845 it had been officially revived amidst fears of renewed Catholic agitation. Within the next four years the Order eventually returned to its previous popular standing. This journey was far from straightforward and many obstacles needed negotiation. This book will explore many factors such as the failed Young Ireland Rebellion of 1848 and the notorious and fatal clash with Catholics at Dolly's Brae in 1849, and trace the uneven and difficult path undertaken by Orangemen through this pivotal time in Irish history.

This is the first operational account of the Irish House of Commons in the early Stuart period, a time of immense change in early modern Ireland, when the parliament's structures and operations were established in a manner that would endure until the Act of Union. This book describes the structures, powers, personnel, culture, and operations of the lower house of the Irish parliament, including electoral practice, the legislative process, economics of parliaments, including costs, taxation, and MPs' wages, MPs' individual and collective relationships with government, the House of Lords and their own constituents, the crown, and the English parliament. It also explores how the parliament, its personnel, and work changed during the government of lord deputies Arthur Chichester and Thomas Wentworth and during the period of the Confederation of Kilkenny.

The Gaelic Finn tradition encompasses literature and lore centered on the figure of Finn Mac Cumaill. The essays in this volume cover, as with those in the earlier volume, The Gaelic Finn tradition (2012), numerous aspects of this tradition, including texts both medieval and modern, collectors and collections of oral Finn material, the landscapes of Finn Mac Cumaill, and the reception of the Finn Cycle outside the Gaelic world.