Comments on: CHRIS EIPPER, MARILYN SILVERMAN AND IRISH CLASS RELATIONS

By: Budapestkick

Budapestkick — Sun, 12 Jun 2011 12:20:44 +0000

That’s interesting stuff gerryboy, though I never suggested that either George or Davitt were Marxists. The Davitt thing makes sense though, I can certainly see the connection in terms of the programme he would have liked the land league to adopt. There was quite a good review in History Ireland of that book. I’ll post it if I can find the time.

By: Gerryboy

Gerryboy — Sun, 12 Jun 2011 01:29:19 +0000

The US agrarian writer Henry George also attracted the attention at the end of the 19th century of that voracious reader and agrarian activist, Michael Davitt, Budapestkick. Henry George wasn’t a marxist and neither was Davitt. Crotty was certainly on the side of the small farmer - as was the great man Davitt - and I understand that Crotty farmed some land in Co. Kilkenny for several years, so he had practical experience of farming in addition to his academic studies.

I got the name wrong and should have said that Raymond Crotty researched, and taught I think, at the University of Sussex which is about five miles outside Brighton. Here is a link to the Institute of Development Studies there: http://www.sussex.ac.uk/development/

By: Budapestkick

Budapestkick — Sat, 11 Jun 2011 20:59:37 +0000

His last book, which I haven’t been able to get my hands on, is apparently one of the most ambitious works ever undertaken in terms of writing a history of capitalism. Interestingly he appears to have been influenced by Henry George, who is certainly an original thinker if largely a forgotten one. The most admirable thing about Crotty though was his genuine concern for small and poor farmers in Ireland and internationally that motivated his work.

By: Gerryboy

Gerryboy — Sat, 11 Jun 2011 08:49:42 +0000

Raymond Crotty thought outside the box: he was an independent thinker. For that reason his writings, and his moral courage in almost bankrupting himself by going to law to get a court ruling that EEC changes had to be referred to the Irish electorate through referenda, should be an inspiration to future generations. He studied at the Institute for Development Studies at the University of Brighton and was conscious that the third world economic experience had parallels in Ireland. Interestingly he described Irish economic underdevelopment as ‘undevelopment’. Citizen Crotty’s life and thought well deserve critical study.

By: Budapestkick

Budapestkick — Fri, 10 Jun 2011 14:58:37 +0000

http://lxoa.wordpress.com/2011/06/10/a-glimpse-back-into-1930s-ireland/

Thought this complemented the stuff about the ‘Vanishing Gael’ and so on.

By: Conor McCabe

Conor McCabe — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 22:43:26 +0000

Thanks for the comment Eoin, good luck with the research. going by your own blog and Life after NAMA, it’s an interesting department you’re with.

By: Eoin O'Mahony

Eoin O'Mahony — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 10:37:08 +0000

Conor, I finally got to read this post having seen it during the week and been meaning to come back to it.

“certain categories of people never made it into Irish history – including the rural industrial proletariat of millers, brewers, tanners, maltsters, and self-employed artizans.” The phenomenological hollowing out of these narratives on Ireland’s social history is running through this sentence and Eipper’s contention that the influence of church, state and business is important, if a little undifferentiated in terms of scale. I know I’ll return to this post for my own studies next year so thank you again.

By: Bartholomew

Bartholomew — Sat, 12 Dec 2009 23:05:31 +0000

Crotty was an interesting guy, I think, original and very hard to classify. I still remember the very first thing I ever read by him, thirty years ago, and coming across this fabulous sentence: ‘In Ireland in 1841 there were 8 million people and 3 million cattle; in 1960 there were 3 million people and 8 million cattle’.

By: Conor McCabe

Conor McCabe — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 23:33:38 +0000

Bart, I’ve added a short note on Crotty to the post above. I think I’m going to have to write something on Crotty’s work to make amends. There’s my Christmas.

By: Conor McCabe

Conor McCabe — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 23:08:21 +0000

cheers WBS and Bart. I use Crotty all the time, but I’m always aware I have to be careful with him. His work can be quite insightful, but it can also be a bit nutty as well! Irish Agricultural Production is a necessary (if somewhat turgid) read, and I think he was the first to really place the industrial nature of Irish agricultural production to the fore, but I also think he misses out on a lot of the dynamics of Irish social life. He tends to be more than a bit deterministic - that is, his Marxism is more causal than dialectical. Having said all that, I am a fan. and I should have flagged him in the post above.