Desmond Keenan 
Post-Famine Ireland: Social Structure 
Ireland as It Really Was

This book describes the social and economic conditions in Ireland in the second half of the 19th century, that is after the Great Famine. Though the famine severely affected the under-developed parts of Ireland, it did not greatly affect the Irish economy as a whole . On the contrary, an ever-increasing output was now spread over a falling population. GDP per capita went on rising, and people had more money to spread.

The Government, the economy, agricultural and industrial, the churches, the educational system, medicine, the arts, the music, and the sports are described.

About the author

The author was born in Ireland, studied economics and sociology at The Queen’s University of Belfast, Northern Ireland. He completed a doctoral thesis on the Catholic Church in Ireland in the early nineteenth century. Afterwards, he continued his research in the British Library and British Newspaper Library, London (UK).