Blood on the land: Violent crime in rural Ireland, 1835-1844

This dissertation investigates the relationship between economic dislocation and civic violence. Empirical data are presented in the form of a detailed case study of crime in Ireland in the period immediately before the great potato famine of 1845. Original sources include court records, reports of Parliamentary Commissions and accounts of contemporary travelers and residents. Secondary historical scholarship is also used.;The primary finding concerns the impact of the commercialization of agriculture on rates of civil disturbance as measured by violent crime. This study shows that the attempted consolidation of small farms into larger ones in the aftermath of the Napoleonic Wars led to agrarian violence only in those communities in which two crucial preconditions were met. It was first necessary that the cost of violence be low relative to that of other possible avenues of resistance. Second, it was necessary that the community facing enclosures be capable of sufficient group organization to mobilize its members for collective action in joint pursuit of the "public good" of retaining the smallholder system. These preconditions were found neither in the relatively Anglicized areas of eastern Ireland nor in the heavily traditional districts of the West, but rather in the transitional center, the area with the highest incidence of violent crime.;The primary importance of this work lies in its suggestion of an economic model of causation for violence in Ireland, a phenomenon more frequently analyzed in terms of political or sectarian influences.