Whipping the Herring provides a fascinating visual record of everyday life in the towns, villages and countryside of Ireland two centuries ago. Featuring four superb, insightful essays, there are numerous images of fairs and festivals, pubs and pilgrimages, marriages and wakes. There is a particular emphasis on the lives of ordinary people, struggling to make do – and often enjoying life – on very limited means. There are scenes, too, of relative prosperity, for Ireland had periods of economic growth in the nineteenth century. Seventy key works are featured, each of which is accompanied by an individual text on the work and its artist.
