ABSTRACT
The Irish industrial sector has not greatly preoccupied those writing the classic works on the British industrial revolution. Given the different developmental path of most of Ireland, compared to Great Britain there were many good reasons for leaving Ireland out.1 This book argues that Ireland’s industrial history can add to our understanding of the wider global influences of the British industrial revolution. Ireland’s close proximity to Britain and it’s increasing integration into the wider United Kingdom economy from the early nineteenth century, provides an early case study of the affects of British competition, notably in textiles. From a different perspective, Ireland became the leading centre of the linen industry globally, while the largest shipyard and brewery in the world by the end of the nineteenth century were in Ireland, not Britain. Such companies were major stake holders in the wider process of industrialisation within the United Kingdom. The industrial revolution impacted on Irish society in many other ways.
The communications revolution, for example in steam navigation, railways, postal services and newspaper production, altered trading relationships facilitating the greater movement of people, information and ideas. Its impact on the Irish economy created opportunities for increasing Irish agricultural commodity exports to meet the rising demand for food in Britain. In turn it altered patterns of consumption, accelerating the adoption of British fashions in clothing at the expense of local traditions. By 1885, the Irish footwear industry for example supplied no more than 25 per cent of the Irish market because of competition from cheap factory produced footwear made largely in Northampton, Stafford, Leeds and Leicester.2 An expansion of the volume of industrial commodity imports between 1801 and 1921 created strong competition for Irish manufacturers. While some Irish industries and traditional crafts contracted or vanished as a consequence of this rising tide of textiles, clothing, pottery and hardware from the British industrial districts, others proved more resilient, successfully adapting the new technologies pioneered in Britain and elsewhere. Through some important studies, we are now beginning to get a glimpse of some of the industrial communities that emerged in Ireland in this period,3 but we understand less about the economic history of the industries they worked in. This book provides a general history of the
more dynamic elements of the industrial economy of Ireland between 1801 and 1922. Irish nationalists have historically had a negative view of the impact of British
industry and industrial policy on Ireland during the Union. George O’Brien, Ireland’s leading economic historian in the inter-war years, neatly summarised official nationalist thinking at this somewhat fraught point in Anglo-Irish relations:
