IN POST-MEDIEVAL IRELAND.
Diversification of the rural economy beyond agriculture.
Since earliest times, humanity has adapted and harnessed natural resources to produce what is needed for daily life, developing production and manufacturing processes of varying complexity to meet different circumstances. A number of these processes formed the basis of traditional cottage industries that emerged in post-medieval Ireland. Enterprises such as butter, woollens, linen, and lace-making, among others, diversified the economy beyond agriculture and are the subject of this book. Importantly, they also generated supplementary incomes that sustained numerous families. Men and boys carried out many of the more labor-intensive tasks, while women and girls were prominently engaged in the skill-based cottage industries.
This book presents a consolidated perspective of the characteristic features and processes employed in specific cottage industries, which are documented in an extensive range of historical, archaeological, and economic publications. Notably, the processes used in a number of these cottage industries foreshadowed the technological development of industrial manufacturing in later centuries.
Authors:
Liam Downey was Director of Teagasc from 1994 to 2001 and Adjunct Professor of Archaeology at UCD and of Biology at Maynooth University.
Muiris O’Sullivan is Emeritus Professor of Archaeology at UCD, where he lectured for many years.
Dara Downey is a Teaching Fellow in American Literature in the School of English, TCD. She was awarded an Irish Research Council Postdoctoral Fellowship in 2010.
Derry O’Donovan is a former Senior Business Adviser at AIB Bank, where he held senior agri-management positions in retail and corporate banking.
