ABSTRACT
In 1983 Thomas Bartlett published an important article on popular protest in Ireland in Past and Present: An End to Moral Economy: The Irish Militia Disturbances of 1793. Here Garnhams conception of the moral economy appears to depend on the extent of civil disorder and the nature of the force used by government to control popular disturbances; an entirely defensible view providing we acknowledge that this was only one aspect of Thompsons model. For the most part Irelands urban houghers have been left out of the excellent work done on popular protest in recent decades. There was surely more legitimation in the urban houghers ritualised violence than convenience. All seemed to imply that the military were the instigators of street violence, and that even if soldiers were not already houghing themselves to secure an exit from service. The level of violence had also increased, and surely houghing was outside of that which Thompson might have seen as legitimate.
