Author: ICH_ADMIN

We are delighted to announce that Historical Studies XXIX based on the proceedings of the 33rd Irish Conference of Historians has been published.

For full details and to purchase, please follow this link: https://www.routledge.com/Borders-and-Boundaries-Historical-Perspectives/Finn-Hoare/p/book/9781032691862?srsltid=AfmBOoodfZz8HNuZnZ9Yxj6Y4ug4Q2q73noaLA-OKbkGKhd4lCE8_2De

Abstract:

This book examines the making and remaking of borders and boundaries primarily relating to Ireland.

Borders and Boundaries features selected papers from the 33rd Irish Conference of Historians held by the University of Galway in May 2021 on the theme of ‘Borders and Boundaries’. It covers the medieval to the contemporary, allowing a long view to be taken of the north-west border of Ireland, the borders of the early modern state, the impact of the partition of Ireland and social boundaries in the late twentieth century. It aims to stimulate debate and highlight how borders can be written out of history while remaining essential to comprehending the making and remaking of our worlds.

This volume will be of value for those interested in border studies, Irish history and modern history.

Table of Contents:

1               Introduction: The Making and Re-making of Borders

            Tomás Finn and Kieran Hoare

2          Limerick c. AD 1200: A frontier city in Europe’s Wild West                  

            Catherine Swift

3          Historical Boundaries and Historic Borders: The Case of Cairpre Dromma Clíabh                              

            Seán Ó Hoireabhárd

4          Urban Oligarchies and Border Society in later medieval Ireland                            

                Kieran Hoare

5              ‘Tudor England’s French Frontier: The Laws of Guînes (1529) and the Defence of the Calais Pale’

                  Neil Murphy

6          Conquest or recovery: enlarging the English Pale in early Tudor Ireland            

            Steven Ellis

7          The Final Tudor Frontier: the north-west of Ireland in the late sixteenth century    

             Christopher Maginn

8          Early Modern Border Management and New Historiographical Approaches

               Raingard Esser

9          Building Narratives: Ireland and the Borders of Architectural History    

                Leslie Herman

10           Protestant Demographic Dynamics in early Twentieth Century Ireland, 1901–26

                Barry Keane

11           The Day-to-Day Effects of Partition                                                                               

                Cormac Moore

12           Within an Imaginary Border: The ‘Protestant Free State’ in Independent Ireland

              Ian d’Alton

13        Fault Lines of Trade Union Disunity, 1922–1939

            Gerard Hanley

14        ‘A peripatetic university for catholic social activists’: John Hayes and the international origins of Muintir na Tire’s ‘Rural Weeks’

Barry Sheppard

15           Beyond the pale? Representations of the Teddy boy subculture  in Irish theatre, 1955–1965

Ciara Molloy

16        Politics and the praxis of power: the political establishment  and the talented young in post-world war II Ireland

Tomas Finn

17        ‘To Hell or to Connaught’: Margaret Thatcher, Northern Ireland and the Prospect of Repartition, 1979–1990

                Stephen Kelly

We are delighted to announce that a volume based on some of the papers given at the 33rd Irish Conference of Historians is now in print:

Abstract:

The debates on borders and their management are not a modern phenomenon, harnessed to the rise of the nation state. Borders had already been carefully discussed and negotiated in early modern times. The present volume will respond to recent trends in the historiography of early modern borders, boundaries, and their management from a European perspective. Three important strands have informed recent scholarship on early modern borders: firstly, the study of borders in the context of concepts of sovereignty, territoriality, and the law. Secondly, a praxeological approach to border management analysing the instruments and methods of bordering also in the context of changing spheres and practices of knowledge-production. Thirdly, the study of borders within the framework of migration and mobility studies. These approaches, which are sometimes addressed together in overlapping research, will be discussed in the articles brought together in this volume.

For more details and to purchase, please visit: https://wehrhahn-verlag.de/public/index.php?ID_Section=2&ID_Category=75&ID_Product=1655

HSTM Webinar Thursday 1 May 2025 @ 1pm.  

Registration: https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/Pj-4lUQISoaYQGYyhHSwCA#/registration

Bio: 

Helen Doyle is a 4th year PhD student with the History Department at Maynooth University, under the supervision of Dr. Dympna McLoughlin.  Her PhD study is examining the impact of the Criminal Lunatic (Ireland) Act 1838 on committal numbers to Irish district lunatic asylums. She is also investigating the link between this legislation and mental health stigma in Ireland today.  Helen works as a post-graduate teaching assistant with Maynooth University Academic Writing Support.  She is also Secretary of Carlow Historical & Archaeological Society. 

Irish District Lunatic Asylums, Institutions of Confinement or Care: The Case of Edward Flynn.  

In 1864 Edward Flynn was committed to Clonmel District Lunatic Asylum.  The treatment he received while in the asylum became the subject of a government inquiry, and a topic of parliamentary debate in the House of Commons. His story gives insights into the deterioration of the standard of care in district asylums, following the passing of the Criminal Lunatic Act in 1838.  This legislation criminalised, and stigmatised the mentally ill, creating a culture of fear, and a belief that those convicted as ‘dangerous lunatics’ should be locked away in asylums for the safety of the public.   

Prior to the introduction of this legislation, Ireland had been viewed as a world leader in the care of its lunatic pauper population.  The Lunacy (Ireland) Act passed in 1817 and amended in 1821 had resulted in a number of small asylums being built across the country.  These asylums embraced the new and pioneering ‘moral treatment’ model of care. However, the introduction of the Criminal Lunatic Act in June 1838, led to unprecedented numbers being committed to these asylums. It became impossible for staff to maintain the high standard of care that had singled out Irish district asylums in their earlier days.  This downward spiral continued until by the1950s, Ireland, with a population of less than three million, had over 21,000 people confined in district asylums.  The majority were, like Edward Flynn, committed as ‘dangerous lunatics’.