This unique research-based book explores the development of the fertiliser industry in Ireland, an important sector of Irish industrial history that has so far been somewhat neglected in the literature. The exploration includes detailed analyses of changes in the raw materials used by the industry, the quantity and range of products made and imported, the process technology employed, the organisation and structure of the industry and the roles played by certain key individuals. The development of the industry is considered in a series of five time periods. The first of these looks at the antecedents of the industry prior to its birth in the middle of the nineteenth century. There follows an essential digression to show that scientific progress in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries was a prerequisite for the emergence of a fertiliser industry. The genesis and development of the industry is then considered in four time periods spanning 1840 to 1990. Throughout the book both demand and supply side factors that influenced the development of the industry are identified. It is shown that participation by firms in product and/or process development was an essential ingredient for their competitiveness and survival in the industry. Finally the future of the industry in Ireland is considered in the light of evidence of excessive use of fertilisers, as well as potential health and environmental problems arising from the pollution of surface and ground water supplies.

The eighteenth and nineteenth centuries was an era of continuity as well as change. Though properly portrayed as the era of 'Protestant Ascendancy' it embraces two phases - the eighteenth century when that ascendancy was at its peak; and the nineteenth century when the Protestant elite sustained a determined rear-guard defence in the face of the emergence of modern Catholic nationalism. Employing a chronology that is not bound by traditional datelines, this volume moves beyond the familiar political narrative to engage with the economy, society, population, emigration, religion, language, state formation, culture, art and architecture, and the Irish abroad. It provides new and original interpretations of a critical phase in the emergence of a modern Ireland that, while focused firmly on the island and its traditions, moves beyond the nationalist narrative of the twentieth century to provide a history of late early modern Ireland for the twenty-first century.

This book provides a cogent summary of the economic history of the Irish Free State/Republic of Ireland. It takes the Irish story from the 1920s right through to the present, providing an excellent case study of one of many European states which obtained independence during and after the First World War. The book covers the transition to protectionism and import substitution between the 1930s and the 1950s and the second major transition to trade liberalisation from the 1960s. In a wider European context, the Irish experience since EEC entry in 1973 was the most extreme European example of the achievement of industrialisation through foreign direct investment. The eager adoption of successive governments in recent decades of a neo-liberal economic model, more particularly de-regulation in banking and construction, has recently led the Republic of Ireland to the most extreme economic crash of any western society since the Great Depression.

Cattle have been the mainstay of Irish farming since the Neolithic began in Ireland almost 6000 years ago. Cattle, and especially cows, have been important in the life experiences of most Irish people, directly and/or through legends such as the Táin Bó Cuailnge (The Cattle-raid of Cooley). In this book, diverse aspects of cattle in Ireland, from the circumstances of their first introduction to recent and ongoing developments in the management of grasslands – still the main food-source for cattle in Ireland – are explored in thirteen essays written by experts. New information is presented, and several aspects relating to cattle husbandry and the interactions of cattle and people that have hitherto received little or no attention are discussed.

This volume deals with the diverse range of industries concerned with the supply and processing of food in the UK. It covers sources relating to food production and processing, including foodstuffs supplied from abroad, and also fish supply and processing.