The Popular Mind in Eighteenth-century Ireland

This work is a considerable contribution to studies in Irish history in the crucial centuries covered by the book. The work is equally interesting to those concerned with literary history and the contextualization of manuscript and related literature in Ireland in the period under review. The work represents a substantial amount of spadework for which historians will be grateful and which should energize those involved in 'Irish studies' in a more general sense. ~Michelle O Riordan, Dublin Inst Advanced Studies

Irish historiography is always, thankfully, a contested field. One of the more neglected corners of that field is the question of popular culture. There have been some books on particular aspects of this popular culture, usually in the form of essays garnered for publication around a particular theme, but rarely a monograph by one mind bringing a unified approach to bear on its subject. This is one of those rare books. This is an extremely valuable contribution to Irish historical scholarship. Its basic premise is to argue that much of Irish history is based on Government records and on official sources and ignores the ordinary people. It is difficult to ignore this contention. While much of history is written ‘from above’, this work seeks to take its history ‘from below’. It will raise a stir, despite its own quietly-stated contentions. ~Alan Titley Emeritus Prof of Modern Irish, UCC