ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book begins by showing why rural society became engulfed after 1815 in a crisis of appalling dimensions. It shows that commercial farming in County Cork, oriented towards dairying and dry cattle, was strengthened by this human disaster, while subsistence agriculture was largely destroyed. The book provides information on challenges to the long accepted pessimistic interpretation. It also shows that with the exception of the early 1860s, these years witnessed almost unparalleled prosperity for Cork farmers. The book seeks to demonstrate that while estate management in Cork was deficient in some respects, most notably in the character of land agency, rack rents were far from being characteristic between 1850 and 1880. It assesses the influence of the extra-legal National League courts and of greatly extended boycotting in restraining the violence that had marked the land war's initial phase.
