Reforming Food in Post-Famine Ireland

Reforming food in post-Famine Ireland is the first dedicated study of how and why Irish consumption and production customs dramatically transformed after the Famine and independence. It also investigates the simultaneous reshaping of Irish food production after the Famine. Adopting an interdisciplinary approach, this monograph draws from the diverse methodological disciplines of medical history, history of science, cultural studies, Irish studies, gender studies and food studies. Making use of an impressive range of sources, it maps the pivotal role of food in the shaping of Irish society onto a political and social backdrop of famine, Land Wars, political turbulence, the First World War and the struggle for independence. The book demonstrates the centrality of food to post-Famine Irish culture and reveals how the desire to improve Irish patterns of consumption and production was once believed to be crucial to enhancing the national condition. It also identifies food as a subject that continued to cause anxiety and apprehension long after the Famine. This important study significantly broadens our understanding of the importance of food to modern Irish history and the activities of an array of actors who sought to intervene in consumption and production in Ireland. It will be of interest to historians of medicine and science as well as historians of modern Irish social, economic, political and cultural history.