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The First Irish Cities: An Eighteenth-Century Transformation
The untold story of a group of Irish cities and their remarkable development before the age of industrialization
A backward corner of Europe in 1600, Ireland was transformed during the following centuries. This was most evident in the rise of its cities, notably Dublin and Cork. David Dickson explores ten urban centers and their patterns of physical, social, and cultural evolution, relating this to the legacies of a violent past, and he reflects on their subsequent partial eclipse. Beautifully illustrated, this account reveals how the country’s cities were distinctive and—through the Irish diaspora—influential beyond Ireland’s shores.
A backward corner of Europe in 1600, Ireland was transformed during the following centuries. This was most evident in the rise of its cities, notably Dublin and Cork. David Dickson explores ten urban centers and their patterns of physical, social, and cultural evolution, relating this to the legacies of a violent past, and he reflects on their subsequent partial eclipse. Beautifully illustrated, this account reveals how the country’s cities were distinctive and—through the Irish diaspora—influential beyond Ireland’s shores.
352 pages, Hardcover
First published June 8, 2021
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
August 23, 2023
This is one I wanted to enjoy, but found the style got in the way a bit too much.
The premise was interesting. The walls to the Irish cities - Dublin, Cork, Limerick, Galway, Waterford, Kilkenny, Belfast, Derry, Drogheda and Sligo - came down in the years following William of Orange's victory at the Battle of the Boyne, a victory celebrated in tapestry form in the Irish Parliament in what is now Bank of Ireland College Green (a fact which sounds surprising today, but of course Protestant domination was one of the key themes of 18th century Ireland). That allowed the cities to expand in size and function, and start to become the ones recognisable today - through the Wide Streets Commissions laying out city centres for example. Immigration - as it may go again in the near future - meant a complete religious change in the cities, which had been almost exclusively Protestant to start with, but they became Catholic as growth brought people in from the countryside. And various other aspects are touched on - schooling, police, newspapers, the relative rise of Dublin above the others, and so on. Concerts, when held in the main cities, were usually fundraising affairs for local charities; the most popular form of music was effectively kitchen sessions in pubs - a world apart from, say, the great music venues of central Europe, so popular in the time of the great composers.
But the book does feel a little bit like history by statistics. On the book trade, for example - "From an annual total of 52 published titles appearing in Dublin in the 1680s, the figure had more than quadrupled by the 1720s with 226 titles a year, a level that was maintained until the final two decades of the century, when it again rose sharply." Or on pubs - "Petty suggested that in 1672 there were 1,180 alehouses in Dublin, and Rutty claimed that almost a century later there were no less than 2000 alehouses and 1,200 brandy shops in addition to some 300 taverns in the mid-century city [...] Estimates for Cork (500 alehouses and taverns in 1806) and Limerick (240 dram shops in 1790) are also substantially higher than the licensed premises listed in Pigot in 1924 (201 in Cork and 86 in Limerick)" But you don't get to read the books or see into the pubs.
The sentences too can be unwieldy. So for example, "The presence of liberal Protestants weakened the forces of polarisation, not least in Limerick and Waterford where the marathon career of Sir John Newport (MP for the city from 1803 to 1832) set the tone, but the political logjam over Emancipation was intensified by the novel religious tensions of the 1820s: on the one hand, the increasingly powerful evangelical wings of both major Protestant denominations, with a talk of a 'second reformation' and a new commitment to proselytism; on the other, an increasingly assertive Catholic hierarchy, which for the most part was supportive of O'Connell's mobilisation of the Catholic masses." - this is a sentence which needs to be read through a couple of times before you can finish it, and it's not the only one.
The book calls itself a study and in that regard it's written in a drier academic style - but because of that, it does feel like a book which might be better referenced in a future, clearer, history of the period.
The premise was interesting. The walls to the Irish cities - Dublin, Cork, Limerick, Galway, Waterford, Kilkenny, Belfast, Derry, Drogheda and Sligo - came down in the years following William of Orange's victory at the Battle of the Boyne, a victory celebrated in tapestry form in the Irish Parliament in what is now Bank of Ireland College Green (a fact which sounds surprising today, but of course Protestant domination was one of the key themes of 18th century Ireland). That allowed the cities to expand in size and function, and start to become the ones recognisable today - through the Wide Streets Commissions laying out city centres for example. Immigration - as it may go again in the near future - meant a complete religious change in the cities, which had been almost exclusively Protestant to start with, but they became Catholic as growth brought people in from the countryside. And various other aspects are touched on - schooling, police, newspapers, the relative rise of Dublin above the others, and so on. Concerts, when held in the main cities, were usually fundraising affairs for local charities; the most popular form of music was effectively kitchen sessions in pubs - a world apart from, say, the great music venues of central Europe, so popular in the time of the great composers.
But the book does feel a little bit like history by statistics. On the book trade, for example - "From an annual total of 52 published titles appearing in Dublin in the 1680s, the figure had more than quadrupled by the 1720s with 226 titles a year, a level that was maintained until the final two decades of the century, when it again rose sharply." Or on pubs - "Petty suggested that in 1672 there were 1,180 alehouses in Dublin, and Rutty claimed that almost a century later there were no less than 2000 alehouses and 1,200 brandy shops in addition to some 300 taverns in the mid-century city [...] Estimates for Cork (500 alehouses and taverns in 1806) and Limerick (240 dram shops in 1790) are also substantially higher than the licensed premises listed in Pigot in 1924 (201 in Cork and 86 in Limerick)" But you don't get to read the books or see into the pubs.
The sentences too can be unwieldy. So for example, "The presence of liberal Protestants weakened the forces of polarisation, not least in Limerick and Waterford where the marathon career of Sir John Newport (MP for the city from 1803 to 1832) set the tone, but the political logjam over Emancipation was intensified by the novel religious tensions of the 1820s: on the one hand, the increasingly powerful evangelical wings of both major Protestant denominations, with a talk of a 'second reformation' and a new commitment to proselytism; on the other, an increasingly assertive Catholic hierarchy, which for the most part was supportive of O'Connell's mobilisation of the Catholic masses." - this is a sentence which needs to be read through a couple of times before you can finish it, and it's not the only one.
The book calls itself a study and in that regard it's written in a drier academic style - but because of that, it does feel like a book which might be better referenced in a future, clearer, history of the period.
January 20, 2024
The First Irish Cities covers the post Cromwellian conquest to the 1820s. As a book which seems to be aimed at the market of historical purists I found it quite readable. However I imagine that without contextual knowledge of the period or of Irish cities in general this could be a tough ask cover to cover.
Cities from Cork to Belfast are covered in equal detail in the late 1600s but as we progress into the eighteenth century Dublin becomes the main focus. It is riveting to learn how and why the likes of ‘Sackville Street’, the Grand Canal and Merrion Square were built.
Odd pieces of history like the development of gas street lighting or how Guinness could export in such large quantities are a delight to read.
I was keen to learn about how the penal laws impacted urban societies and this is covered across the board. I did not expect the role of the Irish Parliament to be quite so significant in the development of the capital. In retrospect the Act of Union really struck a key nail in the coffin of Irish economic and social progress in the 1800s.
I recommend this book for fellow Irish history geeks. For anyone with a passing interest, perhaps approach this one further on down the road.
Cities from Cork to Belfast are covered in equal detail in the late 1600s but as we progress into the eighteenth century Dublin becomes the main focus. It is riveting to learn how and why the likes of ‘Sackville Street’, the Grand Canal and Merrion Square were built.
Odd pieces of history like the development of gas street lighting or how Guinness could export in such large quantities are a delight to read.
I was keen to learn about how the penal laws impacted urban societies and this is covered across the board. I did not expect the role of the Irish Parliament to be quite so significant in the development of the capital. In retrospect the Act of Union really struck a key nail in the coffin of Irish economic and social progress in the 1800s.
I recommend this book for fellow Irish history geeks. For anyone with a passing interest, perhaps approach this one further on down the road.
September 8, 2021
This is a work of serious scholarship which was in fact a bit too scholarly and serious for me – but I assume I wasn’t really the intended readership. It’s a work for historians of all stripes and as such is an ambitious, important and significant addition to the study of Ireland and Irish history. There was significant growth and expansion in towns in the 18th century in Ireland and the author has done an excellent job in chronicling the changes.
May 15, 2024
It's a good scholarly work but maybe a bit dry for the general reader. It's heavy on analysis and figures but much lighter on human interest and those living in the developing cities. Not a patch on his more masterly work centred on Dublin.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews