Economic Development in Ireland 1798 -1921 Prof Peter

Economic Development in Ireland 1798 -1921 Prof. Peter Gray Queen’s University Belfast

Economic Developments in Ireland 1798 -1921 Three aspects: Economic developments Perceptions of the Irish economy and the politics of the economy Economic policy

The national question(s) and the Irish economy: What was the ‘Irish economy’? A regional economy within UK? A series of regional economies within Ireland? A Irish national economy? A colonial economy? A global economy? Irish railway network, 1900

Six phases of economic development 1. An era of boom c. 1793 -1815 2. An era of malaise c. 1815 -45 3. An era of catastrophe 1845 -52 4. An era of rising expectations c. 1852 -77 5. An era of rural conflict c. 1878 -1903 6. The eclipse of economics? c. 1903 -1921

Three demographic regimes Population of Ireland (millions) 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0 1800 1813 1821 Ireland 1. 2. 3. 1831 Leinster 1841 1851 Munster 1861 Connacht A regime of population growth A regime of demographic collapse A regime of sustained decline 1871 1881 1891 Ulster c. 1793 -1845 c. 1845 -51 c. 1852 -1921

Relative population figures

1. The era of boom c. 1793 -1815 Domestic textile production in Ulster, late 18 th. C

Agricultural change 1793 -1815 wars boost Irish agriculture through high demand rising food prices Growing shift from pasture to tillage and increasing grain exports to GB Ireland as Britain’s ‘bread basket’ from 1790 s Growing landowning expenditure and indebtedness Increased labour-power and potatocultivation the basis of Irish tillage expansion

Cottier agriculture Subdivision of landholdings promotes rapid rural population growth from 1770 s: early marriage ‘Cottier’ peasants on 5 -10 acre holdings rented yearly ‘Conacre’ labourers rent 1 -5 acre potato land in return for labour Growing reliance on potato subsistence ‘Clachan’ settlement, Derrynane, Co. Kerry, 1845

Proto-industrialisation Linen industry expands rapidly from 1770 s Primarily a cottage industry in spinning and weaving, but boosts commercial centres such as Belfast, Derry, Newry and Dublin Also promotes rapid subdivision and population growth Epicentre of proto-industrialisation in Co. Armagh Development of early cotton manufacturing in Belfast, Dublin, Co. Cork 1780 s-1820 s First shipyards open in Belfast 1790 s Green Linen Hall Belfast (c 1834)

2. The era of malaise c. 1815 -1845 Cottier’s cabin, Co. Kerry, 1845

Agricultural crisis 1815 Corn Laws fail to protect Ireland from growing competition Currency deflation creates debt crisis Harsher landlord-tenant relations increase rural conflict Expanding grain exports to 1830 s make some richer… But leave ‘cottiers’ and labouring poor impoverished and vulnerable Emigration starts to rise (c. 1. 5 m 1815 -45) Potatoes being taken to market, Co. Kerry 1845

Contraction of the textile industry • Ireland subject to intensified British competition post-1815 • Irish cotton and woolens production collapses 1820 s • Mechanisation of linen spinning develops from mid-1820 s in Belfast • Retreat of linen production into ‘linen triangle’ of east Ulster from 1820 s • Small textile producers in NW, SW and midlands thrown back into dependence on agriculture • Collapse of industry in Dublin 1826

British economic policy in Ireland: Assimilation Union followed by measures of economic assimilation Abolition of Irish pound and exchequer 1816 Full free-trade between Ireland GB 1824 1826 Subletting Act seeks to create Englishstyle landless labouring class Preference for laissez-faire, especially under Tories Crisis response to regional famines, 1817, 1822, 1831

British economic policy in Ireland: Liberal intervention Increase infrastructural spending from c. 1815 Irish Board of Works 1831 - develops Shannon waterway, roads and harbours National Board of Education 1831 - offers non-denominational primary education Irish Poor Law 1838 - 130 union workhouses with basic relief of ‘destitute’ - some assistance to dispensaries, hospitals Irish Railway Commission Report 1838 Devon Commission Report 1845 But constraints of laissez-faire

3. The era of catastrophe: The Great Famine, 1845 -52 Soup Kitchen queue, 1847

The potato crisis Potato crop hit by fungal blight phytopthora infestans Partial failures 1845, 1848, 1849 Total failure 1846 Shortfall of 12 m tonnes of potatoes by 1846 -7: a real food crisis Continuing food exports 1846 cause uproar Failure of affordable imports to meet ‘food gap’ 1846 -7 Prices falling with growing imports 1847 -50, but ‘crisis of entitlements’ means continuing famine

Famine Famine accompanied by devastating epidemic diseases and fevers Large numbers of deaths from late 1846 -spring 1849 Late and inadequate state response hampered by laissezfaire ideology Some, but never adequate, private charity Coincides with industrial downturn in GB 1847 -9 Charitable relief in Co. Clare, 1849

Famine policies Relatively generous aid 1845 -6 Withdrawal from interference in food markets from 1846 Relief through public works (18467); soup kitchens (summer 1847) Poor Law Extension Act 1847 Encumbered Estates Act 1849 places burden of Irish recovery on ‘free trade in land’ Some relief from famine debts 1853, in return for extension of income tax Punch on British aid, 1846

Mortality 1846 -51 1. 1 m ‘excess deaths’ 184651 (1/8 of population) 1 m emigrants 1846 -51 Crisis accompanied by widespread ‘clearances’ by landlords Population decline highest in western counties Legacy of trauma and political anger in Ireland its diaspora

4. The era of rising expectations c. 1852 -1877

Post-Famine recovery Agriculture shifts increasingly to cattle raising and export Ireland increasingly tied into global market trends Some rise in living standards, but subject to sharp recessions 1859 -63, 1877 -80 Expansion of commerce, shops, credit, literacy But continuing poverty and high emigration especially from rural west Five million emigrants 1851 -1914 Tensions between ‘improving’ landlords and tenant farmers, especially early 1850 s, later 1860 s, later 1870 s – forces Gladstone’s first land act, 1870

Belfast’s industrial revolution Harland Wolff, Belfast: one of world’s largest shipyards by 1900 Specialised development of linen industry Harland Wolff shipyard established 1861 Diversification into engineering, rope making Population of Belfast more than triples to 386, 000 1851 -1911 Draws in population from rural Ulster

5. The era of rural conflict c. 1878 -1903 Eviction scene, 1881

Land War (1879 -82) Attack on a ‘process server’, 1880 Agricultural crisis 1877 -80 The ‘Land War’ 1879 -82, led by Irish National Land League Features ‘boycotts’, rent strikes, initimidation, riots 1881 Land Act grants ‘ 3 Fs’ (fair rent; fixity of tenure; freedom of sale of tenant right) 1882 Arrears Act Land War curbs powers of landlords, but fails to deliver full demands of small farmers and labourers

Continuing land conflict 1885 -1903 Anti-landlord cartoon, 1882 Further agrarian depressions 1884 -9, late 1890 s ‘Plan of Campaign’ agitation 1886 -90 United Irish League agitation 1898 -1901 Conservatives accept principle of land purchase from 1885 Wyndham’s Land Act 1903 begins mass purchase of farms by occupying tenants with state loans – completed 1920 s

6. The eclipse of economics? c. 1903 -1921 New Creamery, Killeshandra, Co. Cavan, 1911

Constructive Unionism 1885 Ashbourne Land Act 1903 Wyndham Land Act 1891 Congested Districts Board seeks to promote development in west Sir Horace Plunkett promotes agricultural cooperation through Irish Agricultural Organisation Society (1894) 1899 Irish Department of Agriculture established Widespread establishment of creameries

Labour Growing concerns over urban slums – Iveagh Trust in Dublin Emergence of mass labour movement: 1907 Belfast dock strike; 1909 ITGWU formed; 1913 Dublin lockout strike James Larkin promotes Irish syndicalism Marxist James Connolly attempts to tie Irish Labour movement to Republicanism, Easter 1916 But Labour damaged by national/sectarian divisions James Connolly

Nationalist economics ‘Ranch War’ 1906 -9, but land radicalism increasingly marginal Sinn Féin demand for Irish economic autarky from c. 1905 – part of ‘Irish Ireland’ movement 1916 Proclamation contains vague socio-economic promises Dáil Éireann appeals to labour through 1919 ‘Democratic Programme’ ‘Labour must wait’ 1919 -21 Arthur Griffith, leader of Sinn Féin, 1905 -17

Unionist economics High water mark of Ulster heavy industry: RMS Titanic launched 1912 Belfast businessmen fund Ulster Unionism Argument that Ulster prosperity based on Union and empire First World War reinforces economic differences of ‘two Irelands’ But collapse of Belfast’s heavy industry after 1920 Titanic propellers, Belfast 1912

Conclusion: Irish economies by 1920 s Lasting trauma of Great Famine Considerable economic advances from 1850 Irish living standards above most of E and S Europe (but below GB and US) Land issue mostly resolved by mid-1920 s Continuing high structural emigration Significant poverty in rural west and urban areas IFS heavily dependent on agricultural exports to GB NI dependent on outdated heavy industry

Follow up Visit QUB’s interactive website: Irish History Live www. qub. ac. uk/sites/irishhistorylive/