'Well researched and written, it provides an excellent addition to the already rich bibliography of tomes dealing with orality and literacy in an Irish context.' Journal of Folklore Research 'Henigan's book provides a readable and comprehensive analysis of the impact of literacy and of increasing literary consciousness on a predominantly oral poetic culture, tracing developments of form, genre, style, and transmission in the traditional poetry of Ireland, both Irish (Gaelic) and English.' Virginia Blankenhorn, University of Edinburgh

• Introduction 1 Th e Medieval Background 2 Songs of the Dispossessed: Eighteenth-Century Irish Song-Poetry 3 ‘Éirigh i do Sheasamh’: Oral and Literary Aspects of the Irish Lament Tradition 4 ‘For Want of Education’: Th e Songs of the Hedge Schoolmaster 5 The Eighteenth-Century Printed Ballad in Ireland 6 The Eighteenth-Century Irish Ballad and Modern Oral Tradition

'Well researched and written, it provides an excellent addition to the already rich bibliography of tomes dealing with orality and literacy in an Irish context.' Journal of Folklore Research 'Henigan's book provides a readable and comprehensive analysis of the impact of literacy and of increasing literary consciousness on a predominantly oral poetic culture, tracing developments of form, genre, style, and transmission in the traditional poetry of Ireland, both Irish (Gaelic) and English.' Virginia Blankenhorn, University of Edinburgh

• Introduction 1 Th e Medieval Background 2 Songs of the Dispossessed: Eighteenth-Century Irish Song-Poetry 3 ‘Éirigh i do Sheasamh’: Oral and Literary Aspects of the Irish Lament Tradition 4 ‘For Want of Education’: Th e Songs of the Hedge Schoolmaster 5 The Eighteenth-Century Printed Ballad in Ireland 6 The Eighteenth-Century Irish Ballad and Modern Oral Tradition