Irish Social History: Have we gained freedom at last when subjects that were previously included in the history of sword and state are now studied separately?
Has that "freedom" given us confidence to accept that our ancestors were no less "true Gaels" if they enjoyed the trappings of fashionable dress and commodities? If this is true then we must welcome the change, as for many in the late 19th and 20th centuries Irish history was a chronicle of anger about the centuries of oppression and an expression of pride in a national consciousness that "stretched back into the mists of time". That blind focus may have been why irreplaceable documents were not removed from the Four Courts in June 1922 although C.P. Curran and the Royal Society of Antiquaries pleaded their importance. According to Steven Ellis of UCG, that attitude gave rise to official attention being paid to commemorations such as 1798, 1803, 1916 and a dismal disinterest in other important dates.
Since the 1960s, the publications of an increasing number of scholars which concentrated particularly on economic, social and industrial history have provided fodder for revisionist debates. Toby Barnard, now a fellow and tutor in modern history at Hertford College, Oxford, has been one of those historians who has worked tirelessly over that period. Known in every archive, record office and library in which there is relevant material of Irish interest, Barnard has assiduously published his research in academic and general works.
The volumes under review are part of a trilogy, one that Barnard has described as his magnum opus. The period covered is the 1640s to 1770, a formative time when Irish Protestants of the upper and middling classes dominated in land ownership, political administration, business and entrepreneurial ventures. Barnard's focus is justified as people of that persuasion, including Presbyterian, Baptist, Quaker, Congregationalist, Puritan and Anglican, left a considerable amount of data in diaries, account books, estate maps, legal correspondence, and so on. He uses the richness and diversity of that material to consider the mental attitudes and social standards of the comfortably off. This applied also to the 25 per cent of Catholics who were sufficiently wealthy, literate and numerate to enjoy lifestyles similar to their Protestant neighbours. This is hardly surprising as many fashions and etiquette changes came from continental Europe where not a few originated in regions dominated by Catholic cultures. Although fewer contemporary sources document the lives of womenfolk and poor Protestants, Barnard sourced information on their lives too.
The first of this trilogy, A New Anatomy of Ireland: The Irish Protestants, 1649-1770, was published last year. The paperback edition is on sale now. In that Barnard draws on contemporary sources to consider the different lifestyle experiences of peers and gentlemen, soldiers, apprentices and servants.
His Irish Protestant Ascents and Descents, 1641-1770 is a collection of "investigations" that he has published in academic works since 1973. Described as "work in progress" this is a view of individuals who sometimes lived according to their means. Set in the context of the hard facts of history, and enriched with an understanding of contemporary nuances, Barnard covers major topics such as the transfer of land while he also examines contemporary attitudes to the Irish language, problems with debased coinage and such nuggets as relating weeding the garden to a religious duty or the promotion of vegetables and fruit to the virtues of industry, thrift and sobriety. While it will surprise the people of Drogheda that Cromwell's campaign was "not a period of barbarism", it may surprise others that one of his creed, Thomas Rutledge, was happy to be appointed as porter at the Primrose Grange School, Sligo, in 1759 because the remuneration was a stipend of £1, a new suit of clothes annually, food, accommodation and a brass pole to denote his office.
Barnard's most recent volume, Making the Grand Figure: Lives and Possession in Ireland, 1641-1770, is a pioneering work. In it he decries the "widespread assumption of rustic ignorance of correct design" through appraising early house building projects in Sligo, Roscommon, Tipperary, Cavan and Clare. His analysis is of interest as that approach was still followed by builders in Irish villages into the early 20th century.
But this volume is more about people's "lives and possessions" than about architectural statements. Here, house interiors, garden layouts, choice of furnishings, dress and leisure pursuits, communicated family values. For this Barnard combined data from social and economic history sources with evidence from what is variously described as antiques/ decorative art/material culture. His enthusiasm for the latter is obvious from his careful selection of appropriate illustrations, which range from a recently discovered 18th-century Irish tapestry to previously un-illustrated trade cards. Because of this approach Barnard discovered that jelly glasses and glass cruets were used at a very early date on the Irish dessert table, a "china cabinet" form was in use at a remarkably early date of 1740 and noted the use of Irish silver dish-rings as early as 1715.
Barnard gives insight into the homes of bankers, farmers and agents. There was comfort in one in Roscommon, 1714, which had walnut and lacquer furniture and an "Indian tea table with china", and in a Cork inn where in 1741 the walls were hung with framed prints, and delft and pewter dishes sat on patrons' tables. Food, including convenience foods, convivial drinking clubs, shops, travel, temporary marketing places and even pet dogs are discussed. Those interested in the true history of Ireland will be intrigued with the production by timber merchants of pre-fabricated components for furniture, 1710-20, the melting down for re-use and the re-fashioning of old silver, the production of picture frames with pear wood mouldings, and the role of artists in painting marketable pictures, making frames and in cleaning or touching up old pictures before auction.
This most recent publication is about those Irish people who between 1640 and 1770 had aspirations to civility. It should become a textbook for all who are interested in Ireland's material culture.
• Mairead Dunlevy has written on Irish dress, ceramics and postal history and is working on a history of Irish silk