@marcmulholland.bsky.social
1798: The Second Defender Rising' (after the 1793 'Militia Riots')? A thread from my book.
November 14, 2025 at 11:45 AM
1798: The Second Defender Rising' (after the 1793 'Militia Riots')? A thread from my book.
A revolutionary bourgeoisie - the separatism of the United Irish men: what was all that about?
A thread from my book.
A thread from my book.
November 12, 2025 at 3:56 PM
A revolutionary bourgeoisie - the separatism of the United Irish men: what was all that about?
A thread from my book.
A thread from my book.
I think that's right. The usual consumer price index is far too flat. My suspicion is that a much better measure would be of 'labour commanded'. How much of other people's service would it employ. So, eg.:
November 12, 2025 at 9:18 AM
I think that's right. The usual consumer price index is far too flat. My suspicion is that a much better measure would be of 'labour commanded'. How much of other people's service would it employ. So, eg.:
It's a nice quote. I'm not quite at one with this kind of post-structuralist reading, however. It has the unhappy effect of reducing much of our valuable source material to nothing more than the 'colonial gaze'. Here's what I say:
November 11, 2025 at 12:00 PM
It's a nice quote. I'm not quite at one with this kind of post-structuralist reading, however. It has the unhappy effect of reducing much of our valuable source material to nothing more than the 'colonial gaze'. Here's what I say:
As everyone knows, Ireland was desperately poor, so when potato blight hit, its thoughtlessly philoprogenitive people were doomed.
But is that quite so ... ? From my book:
But is that quite so ... ? From my book:
November 11, 2025 at 9:31 AM
As everyone knows, Ireland was desperately poor, so when potato blight hit, its thoughtlessly philoprogenitive people were doomed.
But is that quite so ... ? From my book:
But is that quite so ... ? From my book:
Picture of my mother's mother at a military hospital, front centre, 1917.
November 9, 2025 at 12:09 PM
Picture of my mother's mother at a military hospital, front centre, 1917.
Thanks Vincent. I wouldn't much object to your fine formulation, but I settle a bit further on the scale re. the 'second' UI, not least due to MacNeven's testimony:
November 7, 2025 at 9:11 AM
Thanks Vincent. I wouldn't much object to your fine formulation, but I settle a bit further on the scale re. the 'second' UI, not least due to MacNeven's testimony:
Historians have generally argued that the United Irishmen 'took over' the Defenders. I reckon it's much more the other way round: the plebeian and peasant Defenders 'took over' the United Irish. We even have Thomas Addis Emmet trying to tell us this, by almost direct address.
November 6, 2025 at 10:48 AM
Historians have generally argued that the United Irishmen 'took over' the Defenders. I reckon it's much more the other way round: the plebeian and peasant Defenders 'took over' the United Irish. We even have Thomas Addis Emmet trying to tell us this, by almost direct address.
But there's something very unusual about this massacre. In my view, it was not a 'normal' faction-fight run to extremes, but "an opportunistic strike against peasant O’Connellites in the Liberator’s home county by its politically embittered Conservative gentry." From my book:
November 5, 2025 at 9:36 AM
But there's something very unusual about this massacre. In my view, it was not a 'normal' faction-fight run to extremes, but "an opportunistic strike against peasant O’Connellites in the Liberator’s home county by its politically embittered Conservative gentry." From my book:
From my book:
November 4, 2025 at 9:28 AM
From my book:
Irish stick-fighting in pre-Famine Ireland was not random mayhem, but a martial art. Not significantly more dangerous, I'd say, than pugilism (or horse-racing).
November 4, 2025 at 9:28 AM
Irish stick-fighting in pre-Famine Ireland was not random mayhem, but a martial art. Not significantly more dangerous, I'd say, than pugilism (or horse-racing).
One thing I've done in my books is to employ as a generic term for popular but covert peasant movements, from the Whiteboys of the 1760s to the Moonlighters of the 1880s. Here's why:
November 1, 2025 at 9:42 AM
One thing I've done in my books is to employ as a generic term for popular but covert peasant movements, from the Whiteboys of the 1760s to the Moonlighters of the 1880s. Here's why:
What kind of headline is that!? Who other than fanatical authoritarians and shills for the cartel would now accept it as reasonable and decent?
October 28, 2025 at 12:58 PM
What kind of headline is that!? Who other than fanatical authoritarians and shills for the cartel would now accept it as reasonable and decent?
Three things regarding the Irish Famine I worked out for my book, which I don't think have been noticed before.
1. Over the Famine years the landlord share of agricultural production, seized in rent, went up by one-quarter, from 28.5% to 36.14%.
1. Over the Famine years the landlord share of agricultural production, seized in rent, went up by one-quarter, from 28.5% to 36.14%.
October 28, 2025 at 9:50 AM
Three things regarding the Irish Famine I worked out for my book, which I don't think have been noticed before.
1. Over the Famine years the landlord share of agricultural production, seized in rent, went up by one-quarter, from 28.5% to 36.14%.
1. Over the Famine years the landlord share of agricultural production, seized in rent, went up by one-quarter, from 28.5% to 36.14%.
From the Book: The rise of the Defenders as a popular & peasant revolutionary organisation.
October 27, 2025 at 10:05 AM
From the Book: The rise of the Defenders as a popular & peasant revolutionary organisation.
From the book: the C18th Irish Volunteers:
October 26, 2025 at 10:14 AM
From the book: the C18th Irish Volunteers:
And here is what Richard Edgeworth had to say on the matter (in a memoir he penned in 1817):
October 23, 2025 at 10:26 AM
And here is what Richard Edgeworth had to say on the matter (in a memoir he penned in 1817):
Source here:
October 23, 2025 at 10:26 AM
Source here:
You'd need eagle-eyes to notice it, but I'm quite proud of this novel addition (I think) to the historiography of the 1783 Volunteer Convention. It was on the brink of an armed march on Parliament. Was this the actually the closest C18th Ireland came to successful revolution?
October 23, 2025 at 10:26 AM
You'd need eagle-eyes to notice it, but I'm quite proud of this novel addition (I think) to the historiography of the 1783 Volunteer Convention. It was on the brink of an armed march on Parliament. Was this the actually the closest C18th Ireland came to successful revolution?
... and these:
October 22, 2025 at 1:41 PM
... and these:
I'm no eighteenth-century specialist. So, for my 'Rising of the Moon' book, I was particularly pleased to uncover some Penal Laws era source evidence that, I think, has never been adverted to before. It turned up in an obscure C19th pamphlet:
October 22, 2025 at 1:41 PM
I'm no eighteenth-century specialist. So, for my 'Rising of the Moon' book, I was particularly pleased to uncover some Penal Laws era source evidence that, I think, has never been adverted to before. It turned up in an obscure C19th pamphlet:
A thread from the book.
1.
🧵 The Destruction of the Gaelic Social Order in Ireland — conquest, law, and land.
The Tudor and Stuart monarchies sought to replace Gaelic semi-communal landholding with English-style private property and a loyal Protestant yeomanry.
1.
🧵 The Destruction of the Gaelic Social Order in Ireland — conquest, law, and land.
The Tudor and Stuart monarchies sought to replace Gaelic semi-communal landholding with English-style private property and a loyal Protestant yeomanry.
October 15, 2025 at 10:55 AM
A thread from the book.
1.
🧵 The Destruction of the Gaelic Social Order in Ireland — conquest, law, and land.
The Tudor and Stuart monarchies sought to replace Gaelic semi-communal landholding with English-style private property and a loyal Protestant yeomanry.
1.
🧵 The Destruction of the Gaelic Social Order in Ireland — conquest, law, and land.
The Tudor and Stuart monarchies sought to replace Gaelic semi-communal landholding with English-style private property and a loyal Protestant yeomanry.
Flattened by hard copies of my book.
October 11, 2025 at 5:56 PM
Flattened by hard copies of my book.