The idea that land should be—or even could be—treated like any other commodity has not always been a given. For much of British history, land was bought and sold in ways that emphasized its role in complex networks of social obligation and political power, and that resisted comparisons with more easily transacted and abstract markets. Fast-forward to today, when house-flipping is ubiquitous and references to the fluctuating property market fill the news. How did we get here? In Marketable Values, Desmond Fitz-Gibbon seeks to answer that question. He tells the story of how Britons imagined, organized, and debated the buying and selling of land from the mid-eighteenth to the early twentieth century. In a society organized around the prestige of property, the desire to commodify land required making it newly visible through such spectacles as public auctions, novel professions like auctioneering, and real estate journalism. As Fitz-Gibbon shows, these innovations sparked impassioned debates on where, when, and how to demarcate the limits of a market society. As a result of these collective efforts, the real estate business became legible to an increasingly attentive public and a lynchpin of modern economic life. Drawing on an eclectic range of sources—from personal archives and estate correspondence to building designs, auction handbills, and newspapers—Marketable Values explores the development of the British property market and the seminal role it played in shaping the relationship we have to property around the world today.
Anyone studying or teaching Irish history, or who likely to be involved in discussions on the subject, should first get the facts straight. It is my aim to provide, as far as possible, the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, about one particular period. This book is an addition to my other books Pre-Famine Ireland: Social Structure and Ireland 1800 to 1850. When writing these books I accumulated such a vast quantity of material, often from untouched sources and put it in these two volumes, one dealing with the history of the period and the other dealing with the social and economic aspects of the country at the time. But there was another story which emerged from the newspapers of the time and that was the struggle for Catholic Emancipation between the Catholic Relief Acts of 1793 and 1829. Invariably, in the post-Reformation period in Europe and in the European colonies laws were passed to enforce the religion of the state, and to extirpate if possible dissenting views. To a greater or lesser extent, the religious dissidents were excluded from all offices of state, all positions of importance in the armed forces, from all offices in towns and counties. In some places, though not in all, the very practice of the religion was prohibited. This was the case in England, though not in Ireland. The dissident religion could be attacked in a different way, namely by prohibiting endowments to be made for its institutions. So, for example, Catholic schools could not be endowed. Above all, laws concerning succession to real property or estate could be made to benefit those conforming to the states religion. Though this book is dealing with the repeal of laws against Catholics in a Protestant country, it should be remembered that there was nothing in Ireland comparable to the Inquisition in Spain or the revocation of the Edict of Nantes in France. The policies of the mother country were faithfully followed in their colonies, both in North and South America. In the course of the eighteenth century, the old intolerance began to decline, and many of the laws against religion were relaxed or abolished. In Ireland, by 1793, most of the laws concerning the practice of religion and the tenure of land had been removed. But they were still excluded from the major offices of state, from the Established Churches, from the higher ranks in the armed forces, from the higher positions in the law courts, from the executive positions in towns and counties, and above all from Parliament. When the Catholic Relief Act was passed in 1793, many thought that it would be only a few years until the remaining disabilities were removed. But the next Relief Act was not passed until 1829. This book describes the twists and turns of the story of the Grail, the object of an extended or difficult quest, with all its ups and downs, and twists and turns, its successes and its reverses. This story is not the simplified one of Irish Catholic nationalist mythology showing Daniel OConnell, aided only by the priests, overthrowing the so-called Protestant Ascendancy in Ireland. Indeed this book raises questions whether OConnells incessant interventions did more harm than good, and whether emancipation would have been granted more speedily if he had not tried to help. But it does throw an interesting light on the character of OConnell himself, who was, for good or evil, one of the outstanding characters in Ireland in the first half of the nineteenth century. Of the secondary characters who played their role in this struggle the first mention must go to Sir Edward Bellew. He was just an ordinary country gentleman, never a leader, but he played his part from the start to almost the end. He was noted for his good judgement and moderation, and was never driven away by the abuse heaped on him by the more unruly elements. The part played by Edward Hay who did his best to serve the fractious Catholic leaders should not be forgotte
It is a curious paradox that, while for many centuries there has been deep antagonism between the British and the Irish, the latter have fought the former's wars with exemplary courage and tenacity. This has never been better demonstrated than when, as a result of the Irish regiments' superb service in the South African War (Boer War) at the end of the 19th Century, Queen Victoria ordered the formation of the Irish Guards in 1900 as a mark of the Nation's gratitude. Even after the trauma of Partition, Irishmen continued to serve in Irish regiments in large numbers and the tradition continued today. Indeed during the Second World War a very significant number of the most influential generals were of Irish extraction.
Updated to 2007, including Canada’s war on terrorism. Is Canada really “a peaceable kingdom” with “an unmilitary people”? Nonsense, says Desmond Morton. This is a country that has been shaped, divided, and transformed by war — there is no greater influence in Canadian history, recent or remote. From the shrewd tactics of Canada’s First Nations to our troubled involvement in Somalia, from the Plains of Abraham to the deserts of Afghanistan, Morton examines our centuries-old relationship to war and its consequences. This updated edition also includes a new chapter on Canada’s place in the war on terrorism. A Military History of Canada is an engaging and informative chronicle of Canada at war, from one of the country’s finest historians.
Redmond on Dismissal Law, 3rd edition (previous edition titled: Dismissal Law in Ireland) explains the workings of dismissal law (wrongful and unfair) and details the introduction of the new Workplace Relations Commission. The Irish Government's Workplace Relations Reform Programme delivered a two-tier Workplace Relations structure by merging the activities of the National Employment Rights Authority, the Labour Relations Commission, the Equality Tribunal and the first instance functions of the Labour Court and the Employment Appeals Tribunal into a new Body of First Instance, the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC). The WRC provides a single portal of entry for all employment and equality related information requests, and employment and equality rights complaints and referrals. It also plays a key role in encouraging employers and employees to resolve issues at workplace level thereby reducing the number of cases going forward for inspection or adjudication. The book is useful to both practitioners and students in detailing how the law works and how the new system works. The book covers all relevant legislation, including the many amendments to the Unfair Dismissals Act 1977, and it provides expert guidance for employers and employees on their respective rights and legal obligations regarding termination of employment under the common law as well as unfair dismissals legislation. Includes coverage of the Industrial Relations (Amendment) Act 2012, the Industrial Relations (Amendment) Act 2015 and Workplace Relations Act 2015.
Most of us know bits and pieces of our history but would like to be more sure of how it all fits together. The trick is to find a history that is so absorbing you will want to read it from beginning to end. With this book, Desmond Morton, one of Canada’s most noted and highly respected historians, shows how the choices we can make at the dawn of the 21st century have been shaped by history. Morton is keenly aware of the links connecting our present, our past, and our future, and in one compact and engrossing volume he pulls off the remarkable feat of bringing it all together – from the First Nations before the arrival of the Europeans to the failure of the Charlottetown accord and Jean Chretien’s third term as prime minister. His acute observations on the Diefenbaker era, the effects of the post-war influx of immigrants, the flag debate, the baby boom, the Trudeau years and the constitutional crisis, the Quebec referendum, and the rise of the Canadian Alliance all provide an invaluable background to understanding the way Canada works today.
The 18th century tended to be neglected by Irish historians in the 20th century. Irish achievements in the 18th century were largely those of Protestants, so Catholics tended to disregard them. Catholic historians concentrated on the grievances of the Catholics and exaggerated them. The Penal Laws against Catholics were stressed regardless of the fact that most of them affected only a small number of rich Catholics, the Catholic landowners who had sufficient wealth to raise a regiment of infantry to fight for the Catholic Stuart pretenders. The practice of the Catholic religion was not made illegal. Catholic priests could live openly and have their own chapels and mass-houses. As was the law at the time, the ordinary workers, Catholic or Protestant, had no vote, and so were ignored by the political classes. Nor had they any ambitions in the direction of taking control of the state. If they had local grievances, and in many places they had, especially with regard to rents and tithes, they dealt with them locally, and often brutally, but they were not trying to overthrow the Government. If some of them looked for a French invasion it was in the hope that the French would bring guns and powder to assist them in their local disputes. It is a peculiarity, as yet unexplained, that most of the Catholic working classes, by the end of the century, had names that reflected their ancestry as minor local chiefs. The question remains where did the descendants of the former workers, the villeins and betaghs go? The answer seems to be that in times of war and famine the members of even the smallest chiefly family stood a better chance of surviving. This would explain the long-standing grievance of the Catholic peasants that they were unjustly deprived of their land. We will perhaps never know the answer to this question. Penal Laws against religious minorities were the norm in Europe. The religion of the state was decided by the king according to the adage cuius regio eius religio (each king decides the state religion for his own kingdom). At the end of the 17th century, the Catholic landowners fought hard for the Catholic James II. But in the 18th century they lost interest and preferred to come to terms with the actually reigning monarch, and became Protestants to retain their lands and influence. Unlike in Scotland, support for the Catholic Stuarts remained minimal. Nor was there any attempt to establish in independent kingdom or republic. When such an attempt was made at the very end of the century it was led by Protestant gentlemen in imitation of their American cousins. Ireland in the 18th century was not ruled by a foreign elite like the British raj in India. It was an aristocratic society, like all the other European societies at the time. Some of these were descendants of Gaelic chiefs; some were descendants of those who had received grants of confiscated land; some were descendants of the moneylenders who had lent money to improvident Gaelic chiefs. Together these formed the ruling aristocracy who controlled Parliament and made the Irish laws, controlled the army, the judiciary and the executive. Access to this elite was open to any gentleman who was willing to take the oath of allegiance and conform to the state church, the Established Church but not the nonconformists. British kings did not occupy Ireland and impose foreign rule. Ireland had her own Government and elected Parliament. By a decree of King John in the 12th century, the Lordship of Ireland was annexed to the person of the king of England. When not present in Ireland in person, and he rarely was, his powers were exercised by a Lord Lieutenant to whom considerable executive power was given. He presided over the Irish Privy Council which drew up the legislation to be presented to the Irish Parliament. One restraint was imposed on the Irish Parliament. By Poynings’ Law it was not allowed to pass legislation that infringed on the rights of the king or his English Privy Council. The British Parliament had no interest in the internal affairs of Ireland. The Irish Council were free to devise their own legislation and they did so. The events in Irish republican fantasy are examined in detail. The was no major rebellion against alleged British rule. The vast majority of Catholics and Protestants rallied to the support of their lawful Government. The were local uprisings easily suppressed by the local militias and yeomanry. Atrocities were not all on one side. Ireland at last enjoyed a century of peace with no wasteful and destructive wars within its bounds. No longer were its crops burned, its buildings destroyed, its cattle driven off, its population reduced by fever and famine. Its trade was resumed and gradually wealth accumulated and was no longer dispersed on local wars. Gentlemen, as in England, could afford to build great country and town houses. The arts flourished as never before. Skilled masons could build great houses. Stone cutters could carve sculptures. The most delicate mouldings could be applied to ceilings. The theatre flourished. While some gentlemen led the life of wastrels, others devoted themselves to the promotion of agriculture and industry. Everywhere mines were dug to exploit minerals. Ireland had not the same richness of minerals as England, but every effort was made to find and exploit them. Roads were improved, canals dug, rivers deepened, and ports developed. Market towns spread all over Ireland which provided local farmers with outlets for their produce and increased the wealth of the landlords. This wealth was however very unevenly spread. The population was ever increasing and the poor remained miserably poor. In a bad year, hundreds of thousands of the very poor could perish through cold and famine. But the numbers of the very poor kept on growing. Only among the Presbyterians in Ulster was there emigration on any scale. Even before the American Revolution they found a great freedom and greater opportunities in the American colonies. Catholics, were born, lived and died in the same parish. Altogether it was a century of great achievement.
After I began my researches into Irish history I became more and more dissatisfied with the existing stereotyped model of the supposed centuries old conflict with the English. One day I went into a bookshop to purchase a greatly-hyped History of modern Ireland, and I found that the chapter headings had scarcely changed in a hundred years. A version of Irish history had been set in the nineteenth century, and accepted as true ever after. Next, I happened to purchase out of curiosity a copy of Adolf Hitlers Mein Kampf. I was rather astounded to find that the version of German history Hitler preached was uncannily like the version of Irish history I had been taught in school. Both were derived from the racial theories of the early nineteenth century, of the special Geist or genius of each race, and the Darwinian Rassenkampf or wars of the races, resulting in the survival of the fittest or strongest. Thirdly, when preparing my doctoral thesis I quoted a world-famous authority on some point or another, only for my supervisor to ask me where I got that idea from. (He was an authority on the point.) I resolved to check every fact, never to rely on a single source, and to accept no mans conclusions merely on his reputation. (O si sic omnes).
Fêted for their idiosyncratic and imaginative works, the surrealists marked a pivotal moment in the history of modern art in Britain. Many banded together to form the British Surrealist Group, while others carved their own, independent paths. Here, bestselling author and surrealist artist Desmond Morris - one of the last surviving members of this important art movement - draws on his personal memories and experiences to present the intriguing life stories and complex love lives of this wild and curious set of artists. From the unpredictability of Francis Bacon to the rebelliousness of Leonora Carrington, from the beguiling Eileen Agar to the brilliant Ceri Richards, Morris brings his subjects foibles and frailties to the fore. His vivid account is laced with his inimitable wit, and profusely illustrated by images of the artists and their artworks. Featuring thirty-four surrealists - some famous, some forgotten - Morriss intimate book takes us back in time to a generation that allowed its creative unconscious to drive their passions in both art and life. With 105 illustrations
A decorated WWII flying ace and Royal Air Force Group Captain recounts his experience in the air over Europe in this thrilling military memoir. New Zealand fighter pilot Desmond Scott joined the Royal Air Force in 1940. Over the course of his illustrious service, he was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross and Bar, and a Distinguished Service Order. For the heroic act of rescuing a pilot from a crashed Supermarine Spitfire, he was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire. In Typhoon Pilot, Scott recounts his time as a young commander of a New Zealand Air Force squadron, and later as the RAF's youngest Group Captain at the age of 25. His story includes conflict in the air over Normandy, Belgium, Holland and Germany, where the Hawker Typhoon fighter-bomber fought its last battle.
Anyone studying or teaching Irish history, or who likely to be involved in discussions on the subject, should first get the facts straight. It is my aim to provide, as far as possible, the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, about one particular period. This book is a companion to my other book Pre-Famine Ireland: Social Structure. I had accumulated such a vast quantity of material, often from untouched sources, that I was unable to include it in one volume of reasonable size. So it was necessary to order all material of a social and economic character in one volume, and historical narrative in another. But in places, in explaining legislation for example I felt it necessary to give brief accounts of social, political, or economic circumstances. The period 1800 to 1850 in Irish history has not been particularly frequently or well researched. Distortions too were caused by the political objectives of the various writers. Facts were selected, omitted, or twisted to suit political objectives. Catholic or nationalist writers wrote with their own religious and political objectives in mind, and Protestants or loyalists likewise. To this day the contending factions in Northern Ireland defend their stances by reference to the version of history favoured by their own side. It has often been observed that truth is the first casualty in any conflict, but it is also true that the loss or distortion of truth causes the conflict. Ireland was not an abnormal country in 1800. It could in many ways be compared with the young United States, and the disparities in their wealth and size of population were nothing like what they were later to become. British influence in Ireland had commenced some centuries before it had in the American colonies, and in each case the influence went far beyond political influence. It spread to language customs and institutions. The Irish Parliament received from Britain relative independence in 1782, and the American colonies absolute independence in 1783. Ireland, like the United States, had an upper ruling Protestant elite, and a lower class largely excluded from positions of power. The big difference was that this underclass of coloured people was a minority in the United States, while in Ireland the excluded Catholics formed a majority. By 1829 Irish Catholics had largely achieved political equality with Protestants, while the American Negroes received political equality, by the standards of the time, in 1866. The independence of the Irish Parliament was ended in 1800 because it was realized that the ruling Protestant elite in Ireland would never give political equality to Catholics for precisely the same reasons that southern American States would never give political equality to Negroes. In an era when political corruption was rife the whites would have to bribe the blacks to get anything. Everyone knows what happened to the American Negroes after 1866 when the actual conditions for democratic participation was left to be determined by the individual states. Ireland, like the United States, in the first half of the century was largely at peace. Though a great war raged around it, it was not invaded. Like the United States, its efforts were directed towards the arts of peace. Like the United States also its population grew rapidly. Though America had ultimately a safety valve in the great prairies to its west, and possessed abundant minerals, much of its development in the first half of the century was in the mountainous and forested states of the east. The population expanded up the mountains and into the forests, and, as in Ireland, gradually refluxed either into the great cities, or into the lands to the west. The difference was that in the United States this migration was within the country, while for the Irish the great cities and better lands were outside her borders. Like in Britain and the United States the use of machinery in the textile industry led to
The idea that land should be—or even could be—treated like any other commodity has not always been a given. For much of British history, land was bought and sold in ways that emphasized its role in complex networks of social obligation and political power, and that resisted comparisons with more easily transacted and abstract markets. Fast-forward to today, when house-flipping is ubiquitous and references to the fluctuating property market fill the news. How did we get here? In Marketable Values, Desmond Fitz-Gibbon seeks to answer that question. He tells the story of how Britons imagined, organized, and debated the buying and selling of land from the mid-eighteenth to the early twentieth century. In a society organized around the prestige of property, the desire to commodify land required making it newly visible through such spectacles as public auctions, novel professions like auctioneering, and real estate journalism. As Fitz-Gibbon shows, these innovations sparked impassioned debates on where, when, and how to demarcate the limits of a market society. As a result of these collective efforts, the real estate business became legible to an increasingly attentive public and a lynchpin of modern economic life. Drawing on an eclectic range of sources—from personal archives and estate correspondence to building designs, auction handbills, and newspapers—Marketable Values explores the development of the British property market and the seminal role it played in shaping the relationship we have to property around the world today.
If you have a roving eye, it's no use having the other one fixed on heaven." "A secret buried in a sober heart can come to life on drunken lips." For the Irish, or those who would like to be, this collection of Irish traditions, jokes, sayings, proverbs, wit and wisdom on subjects such as religion, curses, superstitions and blessings, provides a spicy Irish stew of entertainment.
This will help us customize your experience to showcase the most relevant content to your age group
Please select from below
Login
Not registered?
Sign up
Already registered?
Success – Your message will goes here
We'd love to hear from you!
Thank you for visiting our website. Would you like to provide feedback on how we could improve your experience?
This site does not use any third party cookies with one exception — it uses cookies from Google to deliver its services and to analyze traffic.Learn More.