Ireland's Great Famine and Popular Politics

by Enda Delaney (Editor), Breandan Mac Suibhne (Editor)

Ireland’s Great Famine of 1845–52 was among the most devastating food crises in modern history. A country of some eight-and-a-half-million people lost one million to hunger and disease and another million to emigration. According to land activist Michael Davitt, the starving made little or no effort to assert "the animal’s right to existence," passively accepting their fate. But the poor did resist. In word and deed, they defied landlords, merchants and agents of the they rioted for food, opposed rent and rate collection, challenged the decisions of those controlling relief works, and scorned clergymen who attributed their suffering to the Almighty. The essays collected here examine the full range of resistance in the Great Famine, and illuminate how the crisis itself transformed popular politics. Contributors include distinguished scholars of modern Ireland and emerging historians and critics. This book is essential reading for students of modern Ireland, and the global history of collective action.

240 pages, Hardcover

First published May 15, 2013

About the author

Enda Delaney is a Professor at the University of Edinburgh, where he holds a Chair in Modern History.

Having previously held posts at a number of British and Irish universities, he joined the University of Edinburgh in 2006, and was promoted to Senior Lecturer (2008), Reader (2010) and then Professor of Modern History in 2015. He was the Director of Research for the School of History, Classics and Archaeology between 2017 and 2020. In January 2024 he became the Director of Research for the Edinburgh Futures Institute. He is the recipient of awards from the Arts and Humanities Research Council, the British Academy and Economic and Social Research Council to support his research.