ABSTRACT
This chapter analyses Irish experiences of peasantisation and de-peasantisation. It also analyses Irish peasants as historically constituted entities, than discussing their definition as abstract types. The chapter discusses processes of peasantisation and de-peasantisation primarily as processes of the construction and the undermining of peasant projects, and looks at how these occurred in particular historical circumstances and in a specific socio-geographical location. It discusses the specifics of Irish agrarian history, its intention is to contribute to producing a more general analytic framework. The chapter argues that 'peasantisation', or the creation of an Irish peasantry, has to be seen as a relatively recent event within Irish history and indeed as one which is linked not to 'traditional' Ireland but to the beginnings of Irish 'modernity'. It develops a perspective on family farming, or simple commodity production, which locates cultural meaning, in the form of collective identity and a distinctive political project, at its centre.
