Niall Ó Ciosáin – författare

The decades after 1800 saw a fundamental redefinition of the role of the state in Ireland. Many of the most pervasive and enduring forms of official intervention and regulation date from this period, such as a permanent centralised police force, a system of elementary education, a network of small courts, and a national system of poor relief. Many of these were preceded by large-scale official investigations whose results were published as parliamentary reports, another novel aspect of state activity. The book analyses the construction and dissemination of an official image of Irish society in those reports. It takes as its principal example a state inquiry into poverty: the largest social survey of Ireland: lasting from 1833 to 1836, running to thousands of pages, and offering a unique insight into pre-famine society and official perceptions of it.This volume also illuminates two other contemporary aspects of the development of the state. The 1820s saw the beginning in Ireland of a comprehensive engagement with the parliamentary process by the population at large, with the appearance of the first mass electoral organisation in Europe, the Catholic Association. Finally, the Union of 1801 meant that Irish legislation was now discussed and enacted in Britain rather than in Ireland, and by a parliament and public newly informed by official reports on Ireland. This was therefore a crucial period in the construction of the public understanding of Ireland in both Britain and Ireland, a process in which the state and its publications played a fundamental role.

This book studies the cheap printed literature which was read in eighteenth and nineteenth century Ireland and the cultures of its audience. It takes an interdisciplinary approach to a little-known topic, pursuing comparisons with other regions such as Brittany and Scotland. By addressing questions such as language shift and the unique social configuration of Ireland in this period, it adds a new dimension to the growing body of studies of popular culture in Europe.

This book is a study of the print cultures of the four principal Celtic languages — Irish, Welsh, Gaelic and Breton — in the crucial period between 1700 and 1900.Over the past four centuries, the Celtic languages of northwest Europe have followed contrasting paths of maintenance and decline. This was despite their common lack of official recognition and use, and their common distance from the centres of political power. This volume analyses publishing, circulation and reading in the four languages, particularly at a popular level, showing the different levels of overall activity as well as the distinctions in the types of printed texts between regions. The approach is a broad one, considering all printed books down to very small cheap formats. It explores the interactions between the different regions and the continuation of print culture within diasporic communities.This volume will appeal to book historians, to scholars of the four languages and their literature, and to students of Celtic studies.

This book is a study of the print cultures of the four principal Celtic languages — Irish, Welsh, Gaelic and Breton — in the crucial period between 1700 and 1900.Over the past four centuries, the Celtic languages of northwest Europe have followed contrasting paths of maintenance and decline. This was despite their common lack of official recognition and use, and their common distance from the centres of political power. This volume analyses publishing, circulation and reading in the four languages, particularly at a popular level, showing the different levels of overall activity as well as the distinctions in the types of printed texts between regions. The approach is a broad one, considering all printed books down to very small cheap formats. It explores the interactions between the different regions and the continuation of print culture within diasporic communities.This volume will appeal to book historians, to scholars of the four languages and their literature, and to students of Celtic studies.