
The Irish
A Photohistory 1840-1940
Thames & Hudson Ltd (Publisher)
Published on 28. October 2002
Book
Hardback
224 pages
978-0-500-51097-1 (ISBN)
Article exhausted; check for reprint
Description
The first Irish photographs date from 1840, a year after Louis Daguerre announced to the world his discovery of the photographic process. In the century that followed, Irish political life was dominated by the struggle for land rights, for Home Rule and finally for independence. Ireland was to know tragedy and triumph, bitter struggle and agonized compromise. Much of that experience, now so remote, is brought to life here in images. Yet these photographs, which cover the first century of Ireland in the era of photography, do more than tell the political story. They give a wider insight into a people, a landscape and a lost way of life. They capture the sheer hard labour of rural survival: cutting peat for fuel, gathering seaweed, fishing and tilling the soil - against the often harsh Irish landscape. They also show the grandeur, elegance and complacency of life in the Big House, home and symbol of the doomed Anglo-Irish elite.
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Illustrations
With 271 illustrations in quadratone
Dimensions
Height: 250 mm
Width: 240 mm
Weight
1430 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-500-51097-1 (9780500510971)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
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Book
03/2013
Thames & Hudson Ltd
€21.00
Article is exhausted; no reprint
Persons
Sean Sexton has been collecting historic photographs of Ireland for thirty years. His passion and experitise have made him a world leader in the field. Among his other books is The Plant Kingdoms of Charles Jones, also published by Thames & Hudson. Christine Kinealy is an Irish historian, whose first book This Great Calamity: The Irish Famine 1845-52, was published to great controversy and acclaim.
Content
Introduction The Act of Union * Glimpses of the Past: the First Irish Photographs * Framing the Irish Landscape 1. The Way It Was The Great Famine * Evictions * The Land War * Living off the Land * Rural Commerce * Religion and Recreation 2. The Big House The System of Landed Estates * The Ascendancy * The Big House * Life on the Estate * Debt, Decline and Dispossession 3. The Political Story The Irish in the British Empire and Army * Towards Home Rule * Militant Unionism * The 1916 Rising * The War of Independence * Partition * Civil War 4. Towards a Modern Ireland Southern Agriculture and Ulster Industry * The Expansion of Rail and Road * Emigration * Belfast Shipyards * Urban Living