Shunsuke Katsuta - Rockites, Magistrates and Parliamentarians: Governance and Disturbances in Pre-Famine Rural Munster

Early nineteenth-century Ireland witnessed widespread and prolonged rural unrest, as groups of labourers and smallholders formed secret societies demanding stabilisation of the occupancy of farms, reduction in rents, protection of wages and lessening or abolition of tithes. One of the most active of these groups the Rockites waged a vigorous and sustained campaign of arson, intimidation and houghing (maiming of animals) across the southern half of Ireland in the early 1820s, quickly attracting the attention of the authorities in both Ireland and Britain. Combining analyses of local and economic concerns with wider national political dimensions, this book offers an in-depth and alternative interpretation of the Rockites. Attaching particular importance to the political dimensions of the Rockites, Katsuta demonstrates how their political mindset was created by local circumstances. Styling themselves descendants of the United Irishmen, Rockites drew on the memories of the bitter political struggles in Cork during the 1790s, as well as current political events such as Daniel OConnells mass mobilisation to realise Catholic Emancipation. As well as situating the Rockites within the Irish context, the book also offers insights into how British politicians dealt with Ireland in the early years of the Union. The Rockite disturbances became a useful tool for Whigs and radicals in Westminster to blame the Tories for the misgovernment of Ireland. The Tory government was prompted to adopt a new course that proved less a remedy to problems in Ireland than a response to events within parliament, revealing how the Irish question in the early nineteenth-century UK was regarded first and foremost as a parliamentary issue.

Shunsuke Katsuta is Associate Professor in the Graduate School of Humanities and Sociology at the University of Tokyo.

We like to forget that agriculture is one of the core human activities. In historic societies most people lived in the countryside: a high, if falling proportion of the population were engaged in the production and processing of foodstuffs. The possession of land was a key form of wealth: it brought not only income from tenants but prestige, access to a rural lifestyle and often political power. Nor could government ever be disinterested in the countryside, whether to maintain urban food supply, as a source of taxation, or to maintain social peace. Increasingly it managed every aspect of the countryside. Agriculture itself and the social relations within the countryside were in constant flux as farmers reacted to new or changing opportunities, and landlords sought to maintain or increase their incomes. Moreover, urban attitudes to the landscape and its inhabitants were constantly shifting.

These questions of competition and change, production, power and perception are the primary themes of the series. It looks at change and competition in the countryside: social relations within it and between urban and rural societies. The series offers a forum for the publication of the best work on all of these issues, straddling the economic, social and cultural, concentrating on the rural history of Britain and Ireland, Europe and its colonial empires, and North America over the past millennium.

Series Advisory Board:

Paul Brassley, University of Exeter, UK

R. Douglas Hurt, Purdue University, USA

Leen Van Molle, KU Leuven, Belgium

Mats Morell, Stockholm University, Sweden

Phillipp Schofield, Aberystwyth University, UK

Nicola Verdon, Sheffield Hallam University, UK

Paul Warde, University of East Anglia, UK

www.routledge.com/history/series/RW

Shunsuke Katsuta

First published 2018
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN

and by Routledge
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017

Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business

2018 Shunsuke Katsuta

The right of Shunsuke Katsuta to be identified as author of this work has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe.

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Katsuta, Shunsuke, author.

Title: Rockites, magistrates and parliamentarians : governance and disturbances in pre-famine rural Munster / by Shunsuke Katsuta.

Description: New York : Routledge, 2018. | Series: Rural worlds : economic, social and cultural histories of agricultures and rural societies | Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2017028241 (print) | LCCN 2017030945 (ebook) | ISBN 9781315606774 (ebook) | ISBN 9781472478993 (hardback : alkaline paper)

Subjects: LCSH: Munster (Ireland)Rural conditions. | Munster (Ireland)Politics and government19th century. | Agriculture and stateIrelandMunsterHistory19th century. | IrelandRelationsGreat Britain. | Great BritainRelationsIreland. | Land reformIrelandMunsterHistory19th century. | FarmersPolitical activityIrelandMunsterHistory19th century. | Agricultural laborersPolitical activityIrelandMunsterHistory19th century. | Secret societiesIrelandMunsterHistory19th century. | Social conflictIrelandMunsterHistory19th century.

Classification: LCC HD1930.3.Z9 (ebook) | LCC HD1930.3.Z9 M864 2018 (print) | DDC 330.9419/081dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017028241

ISBN: 978-1-4724-7899-3 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-315-60677-4 (ebk)

Typeset in Sabon
by Apex CoVantage, LLC

I have been blessed with excellent teachers throughout my life. With regard to writing this book, I can name only three of them. To Louis Cullen, I cannot really find appropriate words to express my gratitude and admiration. The combination of great scholarship and high integrity in him has always been a wonder to me. David Dicksons expertise in Irish history, as well as his steady encouragement, has been my inexhaustible source of inspiration and energy. Fascinating works by Kazuhiko Kondo led me to the study of popular movements in the first place, and without his enduring care and support, my life would have been considerably different.

It is a great pleasure to thank my academic friends, junior and senior. First of all, I thank Richard Hoyle and Tony Jenkins for their great kindness in reading an entire draft and for their useful advice on writing. Joanna Innes read and gave valuable comments. I would also like to express gratitude to people who have been of direct help or encouragement for writing this book, viz. Takeshi Ito, Shusaku Kanazawa, Takashi Koseki, Rohan McWilliam, Tadgh OSullivan, Naoki Sakiyama, Shin-ichi Takagami and Akihiro Takei. I have to add that I sincerely thank the unknown referees for their very useful comments on my earlier drafts. I am solely responsible for all the remaining errors.