An Irish Working Class : Explorations in Political Economy and Hegemony, 1800-1950

In __An Irish Working Class__, Marilyn Silverman explores the dynamics of capitalism, colonialism, and state formation through an examination of the political economy and culture of those who contributed their labour. Contents 7 Maps, Tables, and Figures 9 Preface 11 Part I: Encountering Labour in Field, Archives, and Theory 17 1. Political Economy, Class, and Locality 17 2. Relations of Class and Thomas town’s ‘Lower Orders’ in 1800 33 Part II: Labouring Experience in the Nineteenth Century 53 3. Realizing the Working Class: Political Economy and Culture 53 4. Political Domains and Working Combinations after 1815 94 5. The Political Domain: Labour as Device, Resource, and Project 114 6. Custom and Respectability: The Petty Sessions 133 7. Privatizing the River: Politicizing Labouring Fishers 156 Part III: At the Turn of the Twentieth Century, 1885–1901 181 8. Political Sentiment and the Inland Fisheries 181 9. Social Organization and the Politics of Labour 207 Part IV: Metissage and Hegemony, 1901–50 231 10. The Organizational Impetus: Class and Nationalism before the War, 1906–14 231 11. From Class to Nation: National Chronology and Local Experience, 1914–23 257 12. From Nation to Class in the New State: Replicating Capital and Labour, 1920–6 276 13. Labouring Viewpoints and Lives: The Metissage of Experience and Identities, 1914–30 295 14. The Uneven Economy and the Moral Economy, 1926–50 315 15. The Quality of Charity, Values, and Entitlements, 1908–50 335 16. Redundancy and Status-Class: Purveying Values through Recreation and Education, 1929–50 353 17. ‘And the Church Preached Its View’ 373 18. ‘We Had a Live Union Then’ 394 19. ‘Much Wants More’: Framing the Politics of Labour 415 20. Inside the Frame: The Politics of Mediation 435 21. Organizing Labour in the 1940s: The Politics of Combination 456 22. Reproducing the Political Regime and Regimen, 1940–50 475 Part V: Conclusions: Political Economy and Culture, 1800–1950 496 23. Theory, Concept, and Text: A Holistic Approach to the Politics of Class 496 Notes 519 Bibliography 553 Index 565

In An Irish Working Class, Marilyn Silverman explores the dynamics of capitalism, colonialism, and state formation through an examination of the political economy and culture of those who contributed their labour. Stemming from the author's academic research on Ireland for over two decades, the book combines archival data, interviews, and participant observation to create a unique and intricate study of labourers' lives in Thomastown, County Kilkenny, between 1800 and 1950. Political anthropology, Gramscian approaches to hegemony, and the work of social historians on class experience all inform Silverman's perspective in this volume.

Silverman explores the complex and changing consciousness, politics, and social relations of a cross-section of workers. These workers were employed in the mills, tanneries, artisanal shops, and retail outlets, and on the landed estates, farms, and public works projects which typified this highly differentiated locality. In constructing the social history of workers in a particular place over time, An Irish Working Class makes an important contribution to Irish Studies, European historical ethnography, and the anthropology of working-class life.