More Hidden Irelands : Some Light on the Irish Eighteenth Century

Abstract

The Irish language is not often associated with an urban population, but in the early years of the XVIIIth century Dublin had a considerable number of Irish speakers living within or close to the city. After the Battle of the Boyne Dublin became the place where the Irish Parliament met frequently and this brought about the physical growth of the city. During this period which saw the institution of the Penal Laws restricting the rights of Catholics the major players in this growth were the Protestant upper and middle classes. It is not always realised that the same growth encouraged native, and therefore Catholic Irish to come to the city to provide services for the increasing population and to otherwise seek their fortune in the city. Most of these were speakers of Irish. This paper studies some of the extant evidence which bears witness to this fact and places before us a picture of a bilingual, bicultural urban community that both commemorated the Irish past and contributed later to the formation of Irish romanticism.