The Vanishing Irish (ebook)

Argumento de The Vanishing Irish (ebook)

In the years between the Great Famine of the 1840s and the First World War, Ireland experienced a drastic drop in population: the percentage of adults who never married soared from 10 percent to 25 percent, while the overall population decreased by one third. What accounted for this? For many social analysts, the history of post-Famine Irish depopulation was a Malthusian morality tale where declining living standards led young people to postpone marriage out of concern for their ability to support a family. The problem here, argues Timothy Guinnane, is that living standards in post-Famine Ireland did not decline. Rather, other, more subtle economic changes influenced the decision to delay marriage or not marry at all. In this engaging inquiry into the “vanishing Irish,” Guinnane explores the options that presented themselves to Ireland’s younger generations, taking into account household structure, inheritance, religion, cultural influences on marriage and family life, and especially emigration.

Guinnane focuses on rural Ireland, where the population changes were most profound, and explores the way the demographic patterns reflect the rural Irish economy, Ireland’s place as a small part in a much larger English-speaking world, and the influence of earlier Irish history and culture. Particular effort is made to compare Irish demographic behavior to similar patterns elsewhere in Europe, revealing an Ireland anchored in European tradition and yet a distinctive society in its own right.

Originally published in 1997.

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Winner of the 1998 Donald Murphy Prize for Best First Book in Irish Studies, American Conference for Irish Studies
One of Choice's Outstanding Academic Titles for 19980List of Tables List of Figures List of Maps Preface Acknowledgments Ch. 1 Depopulation in Post-Famine Ireland 3 Ch. 2 The Rural Economy in the Nineteenth Century 34 Ch. 3 The State and the Churches 59 Ch. 4 The Demographic Setting 79 Ch. 5 Households and the Generations 133 Ch. 6 Coming of Age 166 Ch. 7 The Decline of Marriage 193 Ch. 8 Marital Fertility Decline 241 Ch. 9 Conclusion 272 Notes 287 References 305 Index 333